Austrian deep tech company RHP Technology stands out as a spinoff from the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), the country's largest research institution. As research and development capabilities become increasingly crucial for advanced industrial growth, major countries are encouraging laboratory-based startups to attract top researchers.
According to the scientific community on the 18th, RHP Technology employs about 50 people, primarily research personnel. All four co-founders, including CEO Erich Neubauer, came from AIT. "When we started the company, we received spinoff program support and research funding from the Austrian government," Neubauer explained.
In the United States, where the deep tech industry is most advanced, a culture of research institution entrepreneurship took root early. A prime example is SRI International, a nonprofit research organization. Founded in 1946 as a Stanford University research institute, it became independent from Stanford in 1970 and continues to operate as a nonprofit. SRI is famous as the birthplace of Apple's voice-recognition AI "Siri" and the surgical robot "da Vinci." The venture company Siri spun off from SRI International in 2007, and Apple acquired it in 2010.
Notably, SRI International begins research with spinoffs of promising technology companies in mind from the outset. The organization maintains a principle of allowing invested companies to grow independently in the market rather than incorporating them as subsidiaries.
This approach has the advantage of rapidly accelerating commercialization of new technologies. SRI International is also pursuing the establishment of a technology commercialization investment hub in Korea. The goal is to help commercialize advanced intellectual property through partnerships with Korean companies. The organization plans to open hubs sequentially in major innovation economies including Korea, Japan, and Singapore.
Japan has long operated research institutions equivalent to national research and development corporations, such as RIKEN and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), to encourage long-term research on future core technologies. These institutions serve as focal points for public-private cooperation in national quantum R&D projects. Fujitsu is developing a superconducting quantum computer with 10,000-qubit capacity, targeting completion by 2030, with RIKEN and AIST participating in joint research. Through the "RIKEN RQC-Fujitsu Collaboration Center" jointly established with RIKEN in 2021, Fujitsu developed a 64-qubit quantum computer in 2023 and a world-leading 256-qubit system in 2025.
An official from a Korean government-funded research institute said, "Nonprofit research institutions and government-funded institutes have environments conducive to devising original technologies without prioritizing profitability, but there is significant concern that developed technologies may become obsolete without being transferred outside the laboratory." The official added, "We need to reference role models for technology transfer like SRI International."