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With help from John Hendel, Cristiano Lima, Leah Nylen and Katy Murphy

Editors Note: This edition of Morning Tech is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Technology subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pros comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, at politicopro.com.

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If Sanders wins in New Hampshire: If the polls hold true, the tech world may see a ton more heat from the Vermont senator, who has long been critical of tech giants market power and labor practices.

Trumps 2021 funding requests: President Donald Trumps 2021 budget proposal would give big funding boosts to artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as the Commerce Departments NTIA and the Justice Departments antitrust division, but not to the FTC or FCC.

Bipartisanship at risk?: House Judiciarys Republican leaders say recent comments from the Democratic chairman about Silicon Valley giants threatens the panels tech antitrust probe, a rare point of bipartisanship in a hotly divided Congress.

ITS TUESDAY, AND ALL EYES ARE ON THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY OF 2020: NEW HAMPSHIRE. WELCOME TO MORNING TECH! Im your host, Alexandra Levine.

Got a news tip? Write Alex at alevine@politico.com or @Ali_Lev. An event for our calendar? Send details to techcalendar@politicopro.com. Anything else? Full team info below. And dont forget: add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

WHAT NEW HAMPSHIRE MEANS FOR TECH A week after winning the most votes in Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is polling first in New Hampshire, with Pete Buttigieg a close-second. (Further behind, and mostly neck-and-neck, are Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar.) What could this mean for the tech world? Just about anything.

But if the Vermont senator prevails in tonights Democratic presidential primary, we can expect to hear more of his usual anti-Amazon commentary (Sanders has repeatedly criticized Amazons labor practices and complained that the online giant pays zero in taxes); more break up big tech talk (Sanders has said he would absolutely look to break up tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook); and more attacks on corporate power and influence (he has proposed taxing tech giants based on how big a gap exists between the salaries of their CEOs and their mid-level employees).

Several prime tech policy issues are also fair game: Sanders criminal justice reform plan includes a ban on law enforcements use of facial recognition technology, and he has spoken out about tech's legal liability shield, Section 230 debates that are playing out (often, with fireworks) at the federal level. (Further reading in POLITICO Magazine: Is it Bernies Party Now?)

Plus: Could New Hampshire be the next Iowa? State and local election officials running this primary without apps (voters will cast their ballots on paper, which in some cases will be counted by hand) say no. POLITICOs Eric Geller provides the birds-eye view.

Heres everything you need to know about the 2020 race in New Hampshire.

BUDGET DISPATCH: HUGE JUMP FOR DOJ ANTITRUST, NO BIG CHANGES FOR FCC AND FTC The White House on Monday rolled out its fiscal year 2021 funding requests, including a proposed 71 percent bump in congressional spending on the Justice Departments antitrust division an increase that, as Leah reports, is another indicator that the agency is serious about its pending investigations into tech giants like Google and Facebook. (It would also allow the agency to hire 87 additional staffers.)

In contrast, the FCC and FTC arent requesting any big changes in their funding or staffing. The FCC is seeking $343 million, up 1.2 percent from its 2020 funding level, while the FTC is asking for a little over $330 million, which is about $800,000 less than its current funding. The FCC noted its on track to move to its new Washington headquarters in June, while FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, objected to the request for her agency, saying in a statement that it does not accurately reflect the funding the FTC needs to protect consumers and promote competition.

Artificial intelligence and quantum computing would also receive big funding boosts under the budget proposal, Nancy reports. So would the Commerce Departments NTIA, to help prepare the agency for 5G and other technological changes, as John reported for Pros.

IS THE BIPARTISAN TECH ANTITRUST PROBE IN JEOPARDY? The House Judiciary Committees investigation into competition in the tech sector which garnered rare bipartisan momentum in a hotly divided Congress could now be in trouble. On Monday night, the committees Republican leaders criticized Democratic Chairman Jerry Nadlers recent remarks railing against the power of Silicon Valley giants, writing in a letter that Nadlers comments "have jeopardized" the panel's "ability to perform bipartisan work." Spokespeople for Nadler did not offer comment. A Cicilline spokesperson declined comment.

The dust-up marks the first major sign of fracturing between House Judiciary Republicans and Democrats over their bipartisan investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct in the tech industry a probe widely seen as one of Silicon Valleys biggest threats on Capitol Hill, Cristiano reports in a new dispatch. The dispute could threaten the push to advance bipartisan antitrust legislation in the House, something House Judiciary antitrust Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) has said the committee plans to do early this year.

T-MOBILE-SPRINT WIN T-Mobile and Sprint can merge, a federal judge is expected to rule today, rejecting a challenge by California, New York and other state attorneys general, Leah reports. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero is expected to release his hotly anticipated decision on the $26.2 billion telecom megadeal later this morning.

FCCS FUTURE-OF-WORK FOCUS Amazon, AT&T, Walmart, LinkedIn and Postmates are among the tech companies expected at a future-of-work event today that Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks is hosting at the agencys headquarters.

The public roundtable will address the same kinds of issues that several Democratic presidential candidates have raised, such as concerns about AIs effect on labor economies. Issues of #5G, #InternetInequality, automation & education are colliding in ways that will impact all Americans, Starks wrote on Twitter. Eager to host this important policy discussion!

CCPA UPDATE: GET ME REWRITE! California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday published a business-friendly tweak to his proposed Privacy Act regulations, a change that his office said had been inadvertently omitted from a revised draft unveiled on Friday.

Only businesses that collect, sell or share the information of at least 10 million Californians per year thats about 1 in 4 residents would have to report annual statistics about CCPA requests and how quickly they responded to privacy-minded consumers, under the change. That threshold was originally 4 million.

The update will come as a relief to companies that no longer need to pull back the curtain on their Privacy Act responsiveness. Its also good news for procrastinators, as the new deadline for submitting comments on the AGs rules was pushed back a day to Feb. 25.

TECH QUOTE DU JOUR Senate Judiciary antitrust Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) offered colorful praise on Monday for Sen. Josh Hawleys (R-Mo.) proposal to have the Justice Department absorb the FTC, a plan aimed in part at addressing concerns over the FTCs enforcement of antitrust standards in the technology sector.

Having two federal agencies in charge of enforcing antitrust law makes as much sense as having two popes, Lee told MT in an emailed statement. This is an issue weve had hearings on in the Judiciary Committee and I think Sen. Hawley has identified a productive and constitutionally sound way forward. (Hawleys proposal swiftly drew pushback from one industry group, NetChoice, which said it would make political abuse more likely.")

The state of play: Some Republicans in the GOP-led Senate now want to reduce the number of regulators overseeing competition in the digital marketplace. A small contingent of House Democrats wants to create a new federal enforcer to police online privacy. But a vast majority of the discussions happening on Capitol Hill around those issues have so far focused on ways to empower the FTC, not downgrade it.

Mike Hopkins, chairman of Sony Pictures Television, is joining Amazon as a senior vice president overseeing Amazons Prime video platform and movie and television studios.

AB 5 blow: Uber and Postmates on Monday lost the first round in their challenge to Californias new worker classification law, POLITICO reports.

Uber IPO fallout: As tax season begins, some of Uber's earliest employees are realizing they had little idea how their stock grants worked and are now grappling with the fallout on their tax bills after last May's disappointing IPO, Protocol reports.

JEDI latest: Amazon wants Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to testify in its lawsuit against the Pentagon over the award of the multibillion-dollar JEDI cloud computing contract to Microsoft, POLITICO reports.

ICYMI: Federal prosecutors announced charges Monday against four Chinese intelligence officers for hacking the credit-reporting giant Equifax in one of the largest data breaches in history, POLITICO reports.

Facebook ad tracker: New Hampshire saw more than $1 million in Facebook spending in the month leading up to todays presidential primary, Zach Montellaro reports for Pros.

Can privacy be a piece of cake?: A privacy app called Jumbo presents a startling contrast to the maze of privacy controls presented by companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google, Protocol reports heres how it works, and how it plans turn a buck.

Virus watch: Following Amazons lead, Sony and NTT are pulling out of this months Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as a precaution during the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.

In profile: Zapata Computing, a startup that creates software for quantum computers by avoiding as much as possible actually using a quantum machine, Protocol reports.

Out today: Alexis Wichowski, New York Citys deputy chief technology director and a professor at Columbias School of International and Public Affairs, is out today with The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World, a book published by HarperCollins.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Bob King (bking@politico.com, @bkingdc), Mike Farrell (mfarrell@politico.com, @mikebfarrell), Nancy Scola (nscola@politico.com, @nancyscola), Steven Overly (soverly@politico.com, @stevenoverly), John Hendel (jhendel@politico.com, @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima (clima@politico.com, @viaCristiano), Alexandra S. Levine (alevine@politico.com, @Ali_Lev), and Leah Nylen (lnylen@politico.com, @leah_nylen).

TTYL.

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For the tech world, New Hampshire is anyone's race - Politico

Moscow-Tokyo Nissan and the Quantum Machine LearningProject of the Russian Quantum Center (RQC) have announced the launch of ajoint scientific and technological project in the field of quantum computingfor chemical compound modeling solutions. In the context of partnership,Project is going to create new methods of quantum systems modeling and to testthem with the use of existing quantum processors. This project is one of thefirst commercial projects in the field of quantum computing in Russia. Theamount and terms of the contract are not disclosed by the parties.

Modeling ofcomplex systems such as materials, batteries, and medicines is extremelydifficult for existing computers. The next generation of computing devices,which are quantum computers, will be able to solve such problems moreefficiently. As a result, the business will be able to find practical solutionssuch as modeling of new materials, production of devices of a new class fromsuch materials, and selection of optimal characteristics or reactions insidethese materials, which are necessary for increasing the subsequent efficiency.One of the real challenges for the industry and business is the modeling ofchemical compounds used in the batteries manufacturing process.

As part ofthe project, we are developing quantum chemistry methods using machine learningand quantum optimization. We plan to integrate the developed methods into thematerial design system, which is used today in Nissan. This will allow Nissanto unlock the huge potential of quantum computing for its tasks, and in thefuture, to achieve technological leadership, said Alexey Fedorov, Head of the Group Quantum Information Technologies RQC,Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics.

Quantumtechnologies are promising for solving many industrial challenges. Thematerials that can be created with quantum chemistry will significantlyincrease the power and capacity of batteries. As a result, we will get theopportunity to create highly efficient and environmentally-friendly transport,as well as new solutions. The future is behind these technologies and, togetherwith our partner, Russian Quantum Center, we are striving to become a pioneerin this industry, said ShigeoIbuka, Head of Nissan R&D center in Russia, Ph.D. in Physics.

In the long term,the use of quantum technologies will significantly reduce the time for thedevelopment of new materials, as well as predict their compliance with therequirements of industry and business. The RQC team will conduct research usingboth existing quantum computers and their own-developed quantum-inspiredalgorithms.

AboutRussian Quantum Center (RQC)

The RussianQuantum Center (RQC) is a non-governmental organization specializing infundamental research in the field of quantum physics and the development ofdevices and technologies based on quantum effects. The Center was founded inDecember 2010 and became one of the first residents of the Skolkovo InnovationCenter. RQC is one of the authors of the roadmap for the development of quantumtechnologies in Russia until 2024.

At the moment,RQC has more than 150 employees, 14 laboratories, and 7 spin-offs aimed at thecommercialization of the developments. In 2017, RQC developed the worlds firstquantum blockchain. RQC technologies are being actively introduced intogovernment and business structures around the world.

RQCsQuantum Machine Learning Project

RQCs Quantum Machine Learning Project is engaged in research and business-oriented projects in the field of quantum computing. The work is carried out in several directions: development of the strategy of quantum computing application and development of the QBoard quantum computing cloud platform, SimCIM simulator based on quantum-inspired algorithms, and other solutions. Some software products are already available for commercial use.

Manager at Research Snipers, RS-NEWS, Digital marketing enthusiast and industry professional in Digital Marketing, Social Media, Business News, and Technology News, with vast experience in the media industry, I have a keen interest in business technology, News breaking.

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Russian Quantum Center and Nissan have launched a project in the field of quantum chemistry - Research Snipers

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech was replete with geeky terms. One of them was quantum technology. "Quantum technology is opening up new frontiers in computing, communications, cyber security with wide-spread applications. It is expected that lots of commercial applications would emerge from theoretical constructs which are developing in this area," Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, said. "It is proposed to provide an outlay of Rs 8,000 crore over a period five years for the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications," she announced.

One could argue India is far behind in quantum computing and the money allocated is hardly enough for a catch-up. Arvind Krishna, the new CEO of IBM, wrote a guest column for Business Today in 2018, where he highlighted that "for many business leaders, quantum computing seems like a technology that is still years away from practical use. The truth is, the technology exists and a practical quantum future is closer than we think. The field has more than 50 years of scientific advancements already behind it".

Krishna, who in 2018, was the Director of IBM Research, made several interesting points in the column. Here's what he said:

Quantum's potential: "At their most basic, quantum computers process information in a completely different way than classical computers. Instead of classical bits, binary zeros and ones that work one after another, the principles of quantum mechanics give quantum bits (or qubits) exponential compute power. Qubits can represent zeros and ones simultaneously, and they use this "superposition" capability to work together to solve problems," he wrote. "Because they're able to exist in more than one state at a time, qubits supercharge the output quantum computers can generate - enabling us to run experiments more efficiently. This could lead to everything from quantum chemistry that drives drug discovery breakthroughs, to quantum algorithms that optimize global manufacturing supply chains," he believed.

How are businesses using quantum tech: "Businesses are already using quantum computing to examine previously unsolvable problems in their industries. Automotive manufacturers are designing new materials for batteries and electronics. Financial institutions are trying to optimise risk analysis. While there is still much to be done in terms of stabilising and developing quantum systems, each breakthrough gets us closer to applications with commercial, intellectual, and societal benefits," Krishna wrote.

Skills development: The world needs more people and organisations that understand and have quantum computing skills in hardware, physics, chemistry, and computer science to write algorithms and programmes, he held. "Quantum computing must also be ubiquitous in the classroom. From computer science courses to chemistry and business classes, today's students need to understand the technology, and hopefully pursue career paths rooted in quantum computing," he said.

"Organisations, too, can get educated about the opportunities of quantum computing. The IBM Q Network has commercial relationships with a number of universities around the world to integrate quantum education into classrooms and develop academic-industry partnerships," he added. IBM Q Network is a community of Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, start-ups and national research labs working with IBM to advance quantum computing.

"Now is the time to begin exploring what we all can do with near-term quantum computers, how to make the most of these systems, and how to prepare for the more advanced systems we will build. As with artificial intelligence - a once emerging technology that is now being widely adopted across businesses - there is work to be done now to ensure early adopters will reap the benefits of quantum computing," Krishna concluded.

Also read: IBM CEO Ginni Rometty to step down; Arvind Krishna to succeed

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IBM's new CEO Arvind Krishna explains why practical future of quantum computing is closer than we think - Business Today

NEW DELHI :The budget proposal to earmark 8,000 crore for quantum computing over the next five years can boost critical areas of the Indian economy, including space research and defence capabilities. However, the impact will only be felt over the long term, industry officials said.

The quantum of money proposed for the sector is almost on a par with the amount invested by the US to develop the technology.

However, the success of the initiative will depend on careful planning and implementation. Moreover, considering that there are no private companies in India working on quantum computing, the initiative, by and large, will have to be led by state-run institutions.

The fact that Indias allocation for quantum research is close to what some of the larger economies like the US are planning to spend, reflects a serious effort on the governments part," said Vishal Malhotra, tax partner, Ernst and Young (EY).

Quantum computers will open up enormous opportunities for India, particularly in the field of defence, space research, weather forecasting, and healthcare by crunching large amounts of data and solving problems infinitely faster than existing supercomputers. Googles 54-bit quantum computer took merely 200 seconds for an experimental computation that a supercomputer would have taken 10,000 years to solve.

The announcement is significant as the scale of investments necessary to make headway in quantum computing is not possible without the support of the government or large corporations. It should boost attempts of domestic technology providers, who have been keen to enter this field, but did not have the necessary scale or resources," said Nishant Singh, head of technology and telecom data, GlobalData, a data analytics firm.

The recent advancements in the field of quantum computing, including IBMs unveiling of the worlds first quantum computing system for scientific and commercial use, Googles quantum supremacy, and Microsoft taking quantum computing to the cloud, have made the world realise the possibilities it can offer.

Governments the world over are starting to grasp the potential of the technology. China already has a national strategy on quantum computing, having spent $400 million on a national quantum lab and filing twice as many patents as the US on quantum technology.

The US government had also announced a National Quantum Initiative in 2019 with an outlay of $1.2 billion ( 8,500 crore).

The recent announcement by the finance minister is a significant development for the scientific and industrial community of India, said Anil Prabhakar, professor, department of electrical engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

The quantum science and technology initiative in India has been broadly defined around computing, communications, and measurements. Of these, quantum computing is expected to provide the ability to solve hitherto intractable problems in resource optimisation, machine learning, and data security, and also help us design new materials with futuristic applications," Prabhakar said.

However, we are 5-10 years away from seeing quantum computing being used to solve real-world problems., according to experts.

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Budget 2020: Govt bets on AI, data analytics and quantum computing - Livemint

Quantum Computing Inc () CEO Robert Liscouski tells Proactive the technology company has released its Mukai quantum application development platform, featuring a software stack ready to solve extremely complex optimization problems.

Liscouski says applications like Mukai are necessary to drive business value, as it ultimately gives access to end-users using quantum computing.

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Quantum Computing releases its new software application called Mukai - Proactive Investors USA & Canada