The international landscape of quantum computing is marked by intense competition among leading countries and companies, with significant government investments and breakthroughs shaping the field's rapid evolution.

Leading Countries and Investments: The United States and China emerge as primary leaders in quantum computing development.

China has committed approximately $15.3 billion in government funding toward quantum research, positioning itself to challenge the US, with its 504-qubit chip unveiled in 2024 marking a major milestone.

The US leads with early and rapid development efforts and industrial maturity, supported by major firms like IBM, Google, and Microsoft.

Europe is also heavily investing, notably the UK with a National Quantum Strategy allocating £2.5 billion for the quantum sector and significant venture funding for startups.

Taiwan and Finland are active in fostering international collaboration and strengthening their quantum industry ecosystems.

Australia, though behind the US and China, has notable research hubs such as UNSW and companies like Quantum Brilliance focusing on unique silicon and diamond-based qubits.

Russia is developing quantum technologies across several physical platforms but with lower publicized investments compared to the US and China

[9b9f8be2-d6b8-4d95-9482-f8415bab065b, 176e3d61c-e991-43a2-8ebe-637114089506].

Leading Companies and Collaborations: IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, Intel, and Rigetti dominate industry efforts in the US.

IBM notably founded the IBM Quantum Network, an alliance involving corporate, academic, and startup members worldwide supporting quantum ecosystem growth.

Google demonstrated quantum supremacy in 2019 with its Sycamore processor (54 qubits), a significant breakthrough though some skepticism about practical utility remains.

Google and IBM continue pushing qubit counts beyond 1000 with IBM’s Osprey and Condor chips.

European players include Oxford Quantum Circuits (UK), led by strong venture support.

The international landscape of quantum computing is marked by intense competition among leading countries and companies, with significant government investments and breakthroughs shaping the field's rapid evolution.

Title:

Content: Quantum Computing Market was valued at nearly USD 234.06 billion by 2032

Prudour Private Limited

Updated · Mar 06, 2023

Quantum Computing Market Overview

Published Via 11Press: Quantum computing is a rapidly developing market that is revolutionizing how we approach computing and data processing. By employing principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations, quantum computers are capable of solving problems that classical computers may find impossible or impracticable to resolve.

The global quantum computing market size is forecast to reach USD 234.06 billion by 2032 from USD 10.13 billion in 2022, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.89% during the forecast period.

At present, the quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell. These firms are investing heavily in quantum computing research and development as well as creating quantum computing hardware and software systems.

The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on industries such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy. Some key applications of quantum computing include drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling, and climate modeling.

Though the quantum computing market is promising, it still faces several obstacles such as high costs of hardware, a shortage of skilled experts in this area, and technical difficulties when building large-scale quantum computers. With ongoing research and development efforts, however, these problems should be overcome within the coming years, leading to even greater growth and innovation in this space.

Key Takeaways

  • The global quantum computing market size was valued at USD 234.06 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 36.89% from 2022 to 2032.
  • Quantum computing is capable of solving problems that would be intractable or impossible for classical computers to solve.
  • The quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players, including IBM, Google, Microsoft and Honeywell.
  • The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on numerous industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics and energy.
  • Quantum computing has many important applications such as drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling and climate modeling.
  • The quantum computing market remains plagued by several obstacles, such as the high cost of quantum computing hardware, lack of qualified quantum computing experts and technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computing systems.
  • Research and development are expected to overcome these obstacles within the next couple of years, propelling even greater growth and innovation in the quantum computing market.

Request For Sample Report: https://market.us/report/quantum-computing-market/request-sample/

Regional Snapshot

  • North America: North America is currently the leading market for quantum computing, with the United States playing a major role. Major companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft are driving this growth through their presence and investment in research and development activities related to quantum computing. This region boasts numerous key players such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft which are driving demand within this region.
  • Europe: Europe is an increasingly important market for quantum computing, with countries such as the UK, Germany, and France investing heavily in research and development. Through partnerships between quantum computing companies and other technology firms as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries, this region’s market is experiencing rapid expansion.
  • Asia Pacific: The quantum computing market in Asia Pacific is expected to experience significant growth over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development by countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. Furthermore, there have been an increasing number of collaborations between companies using quantum computing with academic institutions as well as its increasing adoption across industries like healthcare and finance – all contributing factors for market expansion within this region.
  • The Rest of the World: Countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and the UAE are expected to experience significant growth in the quantum computing market over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development efforts as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries. These factors are fueling this region’s meteoric rise in this region.

Drivers

  • Quantum Computing Gaining Adoption in Various Industries: Quantum computing is seeing an uptick in popularity across a range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy – as companies seek to use their power to solve complex problems and gain an edge in competition.
  • Investments in Quantum Computing Research and Development: Governments, academic institutions, and private companies have made substantial investments in quantum computing research and development, spurring innovation and progress within the field.
  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: There has been an uptick in partnerships and collaborations between quantum computing companies and other technology firms, as well as academic institutions and research organizations. This trend is propelling the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems, as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Increasing Access to Cloud-Based Quantum Computing Services: The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services is making it simpler for companies and researchers to utilize this cutting-edge technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.

Restraints

  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: Unfortunately, there is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing specialists, making it challenging for companies to construct and sustain quantum computing systems.
  • Technical Challenges in Building and Maintaining Large-Scale Quantum Computing Systems: The development of large-scale quantum computing systems is still in its early stages, so there are numerous technical obstacles that must be overcome, such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability.
  • Limited Quantum Computing Applications: Although the list of potential applications for quantum computing is growing, the number of practical ones that have been developed and implemented remains limited. This can make it challenging for companies to justify investing in quantum computing technology.
  • Regulatory Challenges: Quantum computing technology may face regulatory restrictions, particularly around data privacy and security. This could create additional obstacles to the adoption and investment in the technology.

Opportunities

  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: The growing number of partnerships and collaborations among quantum computing companies, other technology firms, academic institutions, and research organizations is creating opportunities for the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Advancements in Quantum Computing Hardware and Software: With the rapid progress being made in the development of quantum computing hardware and software, new opportunities will present themselves for applying this technology across various industries and fields.
  • The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services: Cloud-based quantum computing services are making it simpler for companies and researchers to access and utilize quantum computing technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.
  • Growth of Quantum Computing as a Service: As more companies and researchers embrace the potential of quantum computing, cloud-based quantum computing services are creating exciting new business opportunities for those offering these solutions.
  • Potential for Breakthroughs in Areas such as Drug Discovery, Finance, and Energy: Quantum computing holds the potential to unravel complex issues in fields like drug discovery, finance, and energy – leading to major breakthroughs and advances. This presents companies with unique opportunities for those who can develop and implement quantum computing solutions in these sectors.

Challenges

  • Technical Challenges in Constructing and Running Large Quantum Computing Systems: As quantum computing systems continue to emerge, numerous technical obstacles must be overcome such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability. These issues make it challenging for companies to construct and run these massive quantum computers efficiently.
  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: There is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing professionals, making it difficult for companies to construct and maintain quantum computing systems. This shortage could potentially restrict the growth of this industry in the coming years.
  • Quantum computing Applications: While quantum computing has many potential uses, the number of practical applications that have been created and implemented remains limited. This could make investing in quantum computing technology and research on practical applications an attractive prospect.

Grow your profit margin with Market.us Get this Report

Recent Developments

  • Google Claims Quantum Supremacy: In 2019, Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy by performing a calculation on its quantum computer that even the most powerful supercomputers would take thousands of years to complete. This was seen as an important milestone in the advancement of quantum computing technology.
  • IBM Launches Quantum Computing Program for Students: In 2020, IBM unveiled a quantum computing program specifically tailored towards students that provides them with access to IBM’s resources and tools, as well as a platform for learning and collaboration.
  • Honeywell Achieves Quantum Computer Record Performance: On March 20, 2021, Honeywell revealed its creation of a quantum computer with an astonishing quantum volume of 512. This feat marked an amazing advancement in quantum computing technology and demonstrated how rapidly progress has been made since then.
  • Amazon Web Services Announces Quantum Computing Service: On June 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of its own quantum computing service called Amazon Bracket. This offering gives customers access to various vendors’ hardware as well as tools and resources for developing and testing quantum algorithms.

Key Market Segments

Type

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Services

Application

  • Defense
  • Healthcare & pharmaceuticals
  • Chemicals
  • Banking & Finance
  • Energy & power

Key Market Players

  • D-Wave Systems
  • Google
  • IBM
  • Intel
  • Microsoft
  • 1QB Information Technologies
  • Anyon Systems
  • Cambridge Quantum Computing
  • ID Quantique
  • IonQ
  • QbitLogic
  • QC Ware
  • Quantum Circuits
  • Qubitekk
  • QxBranch
  • Rigetti Computing

Nature Insights

  • Progress is being made in the development of quantum computing hardware: Despite the challenges facing large-scale quantum computing systems, progress is being made on quantum computing hardware. This includes creating quantum processors with increasingly more qubits and creating new materials suitable for use in quantum computers.
  • Quantum computing software is still in its early stages: While progress is being made with quantum computing hardware, software development for quantum computation remains at a standstill. This presents an immense challenge to the industry as developing efficient quantum algorithms is essential to realizing its full potential.
  • Collaboration is essential to the advancement of quantum computing: Collaboration between companies, academic institutions, and research organizations is essential for progress in this industry. This includes joint efforts to develop new hardware and software systems as well as collaborations that promote quantum computing across various industries.

Report Scope

Report Attribute Details
The market size value in 2022 USD 10.13 Bn
Revenue forecast by 2032 USD 234.6 Bn
Growth Rate CAGR Of 36.89%
Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and the Rest of the World
Historical Years 2017-2022
Base Year 2022
Estimated Year 2023
Short-Term Projection Year 2028
Long-Term Projected Year 2032

Contact us

Contact Person: Mr. Lawrence John

Market.us (Powered By Prudour Pvt. Ltd.)

Tel: +1 718 618 4351

Send Email: [email protected]

FAQ.

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing is a type of processing data using quantum mechanics. It relies on principles such as superposition, entanglement, and interference which enable quantum computers to perform calculations that would be impossible with classical computers.

What are some potential applications of quantum computing?

Quantum computing holds great promise for revolutionizing industries such as drug discovery, finance, energy, and logistics. Potential uses include creating new drugs and materials, optimizing supply chains and logistics networks, and even improving weather forecasting models with greater precision.

What are some of the challenges facing the quantum computing market?

The quantum computing market faces numerous obstacles, such as technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computers, high costs associated with quantum computing hardware, a scarcity of highly qualified quantum experts, and an absence of practical applications developed and deployed.

Who are some of the major players in the quantum computing market?

Major companies operating within this space include IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, Intel, and Rigetti Computing. These firms are actively developing and commercializing quantum computing hardware and software systems.

What is the outlook for the quantum computing market?

Overall, analysts anticipate a bright future for quantum computing, with continued investment and innovation anticipated in the coming years. Though still in its early stages of development, its potential advantages are immense - leading to rapid industry growth over the coming years.

Prudour Private Limited

The team behind market.us, marketresearch.biz, market.biz and more. Our purpose is to keep our customers ahead of the game with regard to the markets. They may fluctuate up or down, but we will help you to stay ahead of the curve in these market fluctuations. Our consistent growth and ability to deliver in-depth analyses and market insight has engaged genuine market players. They have faith in us to offer the data and information they require to make balanced and decisive marketing decisions.

Leading Countries and Investments: The United States and China emerge as primary leaders in quantum computing development.

Title:

Content: People 's Daily Online > > Economy and Technology
"Origin Goku" stable operation shows what
May 12, 2024 08: 54 | Source: Economic Daily
Small number
Original title: "The source of Goku" stable operation shows what
As of May 7, China's third-generation autonomous superconducting quantum computer "Origin Wukong" has attracted more than 8 million visits worldwide.
Previously, it was successfully connected to three supercomputing centers such as the Yangtze River Delta hub Wuhu cluster computing power public service platform, marking the formal completion of China's "four calculations in one" system of general computing, intelligent computing, supercomputing and measurement.
What does the stable operation of "Origin Goku" show?
"Genyuan Wukong" is China's third-generation autonomous superconducting quantum computer, equipped with 72-bit autonomous superconducting quantum chips.
The computer is named "Wukong", which means that it is as powerful as the traditional Chinese mythological figure Sun Wukong and can change 72 times.
"Benyuan Wukong" was independently developed by the Benyuan Quantum team and launched on January 6 this year. Since the launch of the line, the average daily global visit is about 66,700 times, and the average daily completion of nearly 1,500 computing tasks.
Quantum computing is a cutting-edge emerging technology that has great potential in artificial intelligence, biomedicine, financial analysis and other fields.
If the general purpose traditional computer is compared to a bicycle, the quantum computer is like an airplane.
To break down 300 large numbers, it takes 150,000 years to make use of a trillionth of a conventional computer, and 1 second to make use of a trillionth of a quantum computer.
The biggest advantage of quantum computers is their powerful computing power, but compared with traditional computers, the technology is immature, the manufacturing cost is high, and the reliability is not strong.
China's quantum computing technology is in the transition stage from laboratory research and development to industrial application.
"Genyuan Wukong" equipped with hardware, chips, operating systems and application software are autonomous and controllable, and the localization rate is more than 80%, which marks the basic formation of China's superconducting quantum computer industry chain.
In the four months since its launch, "Benyuan Wukong" has successfully completed more than 178,000 computing tasks for users in 120 countries, and countries with quantum computers such as the United States, Japan and Canada have shown great concern for "Benyuan Wukong", among which the frequency of visits by US users is much higher than that of other countries.
In the field of quantum computing, developed countries led by the United States have started early, developed rapidly and have a high degree of industrial maturity, and have gradually established a "quantum computing ecological chain."
For example, in 2017, IBM led the establishment of the Quantum Computing Industry Alliance (IBM Quantum Network), which has more than 250 members from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Australia and other countries, involving Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and academic institutions.
However, although China started late in the quantum field, it has made rapid progress.
A recent paper on global quantum information technology patents shows that from 2003 to 2022, China's quantum information technology patent applications accounted for 37% of the global total, surpassing the proportion of the United States slightly more than 28%.
"Origin Wukong" is the first large-scale and long-term opening of China's quantum computing power to the world, indicating that China has officially entered the "usable" era of quantum computing power.
Looking forward to the future, let the "Wukong" further play the power of the "source", it will take many efforts.
We should focus on making up for the shortcomings and strength of the weak, so that the key instruments and equipment of quantum computing can be fully replaced in China. We should support the building of the quantum chip industry chain and build a quantum computing power network. To change the situation of shortage of talents in the quantum field.
Computing power is the new quality of productivity in the digital economy era, who has mastered the advanced computing power, who has mastered the "winning chance" of development.
On the international science and technology track of quantum computers, the layout and development of independent industrial chains is an inevitable choice for us to face the forefront of world science and technology, the main battlefield of the economy, and the major needs of the country.
(Editor: Yang Xi, Chen Jian)
Public Number ： People 's Network Finance
Share it so more people can see it.
Back to top

China has committed approximately $15.3 billion in government funding toward quantum research, positioning itself to challenge the US, with its 504-qubit chip unveiled in 2024 marking a major milestone.

Title:

Content: Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

Explainer

Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

In the quantum realm, the laws of physics are different. Now its mind-bending tech could soon transform our lives. How does it work?

It was 2009, and a group of scientists had crowded around a tiny monitor in a Sydney physics laboratory. The team, led by electrical engineer Andrea Morello, held their collective breath and peered at a single flat line on the screen. Then, in the blink of an eye, the line changed: it was a series of blips, like a heartbeat. They’d hit paydirt. “When you see that symbol, you’re in the game,” recalls physicist Charles Tahan.

Welcome to the quantum world, a subatomic realm – yes, smaller than an atom – where the laws of physics are, well, different. The experiment made Morello and his team the first in the world to show that a quantum computer could be made using not diamonds, not the superconductor niobium, but everyday silicon. “To show you could do that, 100 different things had to go right,” says Tahan.

Quantum computing is one of the key technologies defining this century. Its proponents say it will do for computers what the car did to the horse and buggy. It will upend encryption and molecular biology. In theory, it could even possibly find cures for cancer. Australia is among the world leaders in a quantum computing gold rush, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying his government is “serious about building a strong quantum ecosystem” and investing nearly a billion dollars.

Yet despite eye-watering outlays worldwide, quantum computing is still in its infancy, part of a mind-bending world that physicists are only beginning to fully grasp. What is it? And how will it make a difference to our lives?

How does a quantum computer work (and why did Alice in Wonderland have the jump on it?)

It’s often remarked that it looks like a beautiful chandelier, or a wedding cake. And IBM’s quantum computer, one of the world’s largest, is certainly an intriguing object, an intricate dome of golden wires and graceful tubes suspended from a ceiling.

Advertisement

The part we can see, though, is really just the control and support system for a microchip (currently a version called Condor) buried deep inside. The glittering exoskeleton is there to keep its tiny heart as cold as possible – a hundred times colder than the coldest depths of space – and to feed information in and out, the process that makes it a “computer” and not just a science experiment.

The chip itself is smaller than a postage stamp, with several layers of circuitry and metal sandwiched in a tiny square, cooled to improve conductivity and to eliminate “noise”, the bugbear of many such devices. But even what we see here is not where the action happens. For that, we have to go deeper still, down into the chip and well beyond what’s visible through even the most powerful microscope, beyond the layers of individual atoms, into the atoms themselves.

‘The truth is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.’

In the subatomic realm of electrons, protons and photons, things happen very differently. Indeed, these tiny particles have no use for Newton’s laws of physics, nor even many of Einstein’s. “The truth,” says Tahan, “is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.”

Why these particles behave as they do in the quantum realm is a difficult concept to get your head around. Even Einstein resisted aspects of it, famously arguing that “God does not play dice with the Universe”. It was a misstep. “Because he didn’t believe in the completeness of quantum mechanics,” says Morello, “he lost a lot of productive years because he didn’t understand how it is possible that this thing is true.”

Many leading physicists investigated the concept from the early 1900s, including some familiar from popular culture today, notably Einstein and Neils Bohr (portrayed in Oppenheimer), Werner Heisenberg (whose name Walter White stole for his drug-chemist alter ego in Breaking Bad) and Viennese physicist Erwin Schrödinger, of the famous cat experiment (explained below).

Advertisement

Lewis Carroll, meanwhile, may have had the jump on quantum physics with his ideas in the Alice books, as James Renner observed in The Wall Street Journal in 2015. “We speak of going down the wormhole into a mysterious world that defies Newtonian physics, where once Alice went down the rabbit hole into a mysterious world that had much the same effect. Now we speak of quantum particles being in two places at once or even Schrödinger’s cat being alive and dead at the same time, long after the Cheshire Cat’s grin was magically displaced from its body.”

The quantum realm has only truly begun to reveal itself to us relatively recently. In 1964, the Irish-born physicist John Bell published one of the most important theorems, which, according to Professor Andrew Whitaker in Physics World, “opened up the possibility of experimental philosophy, the study of what are normally thought of as philosophical issues in experiments. Not only do these experiments probe the deepest and most profound aspects of quantum theory, they also provide information on the fundamental nature of the universe.”

At the time, Bell’s theorem could not be tested in a lab. That would come in the late 1960s and early 1970s when experimentalists such as John Clauser began to show that the weirdness Bell had described on paper actually occurred in the real world. Which, at the time, was considered quite rude. One eminent physicist “was highly offended by my impertinent effort and told me that it was tantamount to professing a disbelief in quantum physics,” Clauser later recalled.

He and other apostates continued their work because he found some of the predictions “sufficiently bizarre that I could not accept them without seeing experimental proof”. Working with leftover lab equipment – “physics department scrap” – he went on to provide experimental evidence that refuted even Einstein’s theories. “I was very sad to see that my own experiment had proven Einstein wrong,” he said. Clauser would go on to win the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics alongside Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger for their groundbreaking experiments with so-called “entangled” particles.

Quantum physicists still despair at the difficulties of explaining their weird world to outsiders. “Many writers fall back on boilerplate that makes physicists howl in agony,” wrote computer scientist Scott Aaronson in The New York Times in 2019. Unfortunately, says Gerard Milburn, a quantum physicist from the University of Queensland, “The quantum world lies beyond the reach of natural language.”

Advertisement

But we’ll give it a go. Chiefly, particles in the quantum realm aren’t tied down to being in one place or state in the way bigger things are in the outside world, such as cats, which tend to be in one place at once. They obey different rules entirely. The first way to understand this oddness harks back to high-school science and how light can behave as both a particle and a wave. Photons – bursts of light – can act like ball bearings, with position and momentum. Yet light also behaves like a wave washing over a beach in a way that a ball bearing can’t. That’s a quantum physics party trick.

What is Schrödinger’s cat?

The most famous primer for quantum mechanics is the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, a mind experiment devised by Schrödinger in 1935. A hypothetical cat goes into a box with a vial of poison gas, which has a 50-50 chance of killing it. You close the box and can’t see inside. So, without opening the box, you can’t know whether the poison has killed the cat or not. Therefore, posited Schrödinger, puss is neither dead nor alive but both – until you open the box.

In quantum mechanics, this state is called “superposition”. It’s impossible to describe properly without a background in higher-level mathematics, which we lack, but it generally means not knowing whether, say, an electron is over here, or over there, or – cat-like – in both places at the same time. Another way of looking at it is to visualise a coin spinning on its side. Until it stops and lands on one side or another, it’s not heads or tails but both.

At least, kind of.

Advertisement

“Every explanation we give in lay terms is in some way wrong,” says Stephen Bartlett, a theoretical quantum physicist and director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. “People often say a quantum superposition is in the value zero and the value one at the same time. That’s sort of right, and sort of not right.” Says Morello: “This is where language is failing us, right? If you’re trying to say that in plain English, it sounds really weird. But if you actually think about, you know, the mathematics of it, and the actual physical embodiment of that, it actually makes perfect sense.” Suffice to say, a real cat cannot find itself in “superposition”: this is a state that can exist only in the subatomic world.

How is this useful (and what’s a qubit)?

In a conventional computer, information is encoded as voltages that pass around the system thanks to millions of tiny transistors – essentially, gates or switches that turn on and off. A quantum computer is similar except that instead of using transistors as switches it uses subatomic particles, such as electrons or photons, that can have many more states than simply on or off, according to their position, momentum, spin direction and polarisation. Once harnessed – and there are many ways of doing that – these particles-as-switches are called “qubits”, a play on the word “bit”, the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store.

Loading

Information can be encoded on qubits in various ways: for his computers, Morello uses silicon and strong magnetic fields like those found in MRI machines. “The stuff that I build in my lab is actually a small silicon chip the size of a fingernail,” he says, “but the whole infrastructure around it is quite fancy. It’s a very powerful refrigerator that cools down the chip to [just] above absolute zero.

Critically, qubits can relate to other qubits in a state called “entanglement”. This enables quantum computers to perform multiple calculations simultaneously – which is their superpower. Schrödinger described entanglement as “the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought”. Sceptical Einstein called entanglement “spooky action at a distance”. Gerard Milburn says entanglement is great for building a computer “because if you want to have all these switches, having them strongly correlated is exactly what you want. And if you can control those correlations, you can do computation.”

Advertisement

It’s these characteristics that have scientists and engineers excited. Not because quantum computers will necessarily take over from the conventional miracles we so rely on today but because they can do some particular things that transistor-based machines either struggle with or fail at completely. Today’s supercomputer might try to simulate molecular behaviour with “brute force”, says IBM’s quantum department. “But as it moves past the simplest, most straightforward molecules available, the supercomputer stalls. Quantum algorithms take a new approach to these sorts of complex problems, creating multidimensional computational spaces.”

‘Calculations that are completely impossible … would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer.’

This might include modelling how a drug might affect a virus, how new materials in aeroplanes might react to stress, or the exact process necessary to create a perfect chemical reaction.

“Calculations that are completely impossible – not just on present-day conventional computers but any conceivable future conventional computer – would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer,” says Andrew Doherty, professor of physics at Sydney University. “These are things where the application of that computer would be transformative to people’s lives without every home, you know, having a laptop quantum computer.”

Whether quantum computing will also revolutionise artificial intelligence is less certain. AI works by drawing from a huge amount of data, which is not something that naturally fits on a quantum computer, says Morello. “The problem with quantum computers in general and, in particular, with applications to AI is that loading data into them and reading data out of them is slow and cumbersome and prone to errors. It’s a bottleneck.”

Why is it so hard to build quantum machines?

Creating the qubits is hard, whatever material you start with. Interfacing with them via tiny wires like the golden lattice in IBM’s machines is hard. Getting accurate information from them is hard: “noise”, in the form of vibration or spurious electromagnetic signals, makes them behave badly and give poor results – “decoherence”, in physics speak.

Much of Andrew Doherty’s team’s work these days is in figuring out how to reduce this noise to acceptable levels and compensating for the errors that noise produces. “Compared to our conventional computers, quantum technology [computers] are very noisy devices,” he says. “They go wrong one time in 1000 as opposed to one time in an astronomically huge number of uses of [normal computers].”

Teams around the world are working on multiple approaches both to building the machines and compensating for their eccentricities, from labs in Australia to the tech giants Google, Microsoft and IBM – its Quantum Lab relies on superconducting qubits made from aluminium and niobiumand the Chinese government.

Some versions, such as IBM’s and Morello’s, chill the atoms to keep them as stable as possible. In contrast, the Australian company Quantum Brilliance is working with synthetic diamonds because they work at room temperature. “Unlike other materials,” says co-founder Marcus Doherty (no relation to Andrew), “diamond’s incredible hardness means that even at room temperature, there isn’t enough thermal energy in the environment to create vibrations that destroy the quantum properties of qubits.”

‘People are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack.’

Another key moment in the quantum timeline came in 1994 when US mathematician Peter Shor showed that a quantum computer could crack encryption standards safeguarding everything from national intelligence systems to bank accounts. “He devised an algorithm, in theory, that he would need to run on a quantum computer,” says Bartlett. “And if you could build a quantum computer of sufficient size, then yeah, all information security falls apart.” Cybersecurity experts call that scenario Q-Day. “At the moment, people are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack,” says Bartlett.

Loading

In 2001, IBM made a seven-qubit device controlled through radio frequency pulses to demonstrate Shor’s Theorem. IBM’s prototype wasn’t given a huge task, managing to calculate that three times five was … wait for it ... 15. Yet this was considered a great success, even if it had shades of the famous supercomputer Deep Thought from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which ponders the question of “life, the universe and everything” for thousands of years before giving the answer: 42.(Adams also dreamed up the Infinite Improbability Drive for a spaceship called the Heart of Gold, which used quantum theory to allow it to cross through every point in the universe simultaneously, allowing interstellar travel without all that “tedious mucking about in hyperspace”.)

Then, in 2019, Google claimed its 54-qubit Sycamore processor had performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years – a breakthrough some breathlessly likened to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903. Others were more sceptical, saying it would be many more years before quantum computers would have enough qubits – and be stable enough – to do anything actually useful. IBM said it could simulate Google’s experiment in two-and-a-half days on a “normal” computer, albeit if it had access to the Oak Ridge Summit supercomputer, a beast occupying an area the size of two basketball courts. IBM’s shimmering Eagle, meanwhile, had just 127 qubits; its successors, Osprey and now Condor, have pushed the bar to over 1000 and it plans for 1386 qubits in its Kookaburra in 2025.

Yet most of these devices are still basically proofs of concept, says Morello, the first step to manufacturing and miniaturising, as we saw with today’s transistor-based computers, which started out as rooms full of valves and cables. In the post-World War II era, says Andrew Doherty, “computers took up office floors of buildings in Manhattan and people put paper cards into them to program them. Out came numbers that even my childhood pocket calculator could have calculated right.” Many hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into developing computer technology, in packaging it for convenience and getting the components to work reliably, he says. “That whole engineering thing has got to grow up around these quantum technologies.”

Already, Marcus Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance has installed a quantum computer at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and is about to export computers, at this stage for customers to experiment with quantum computing and work out how to make it useful. In the future, finding commercial applications for a quantum computer will require tailoring it, at least initially, says UNSW’s Maja Cassidy, a former quantum researcher for Microsoft. “People have to go in and understand a company’s problem, how they’re using classical computing and … work out what section might be enhanced by the quantum computer.”

Who is leading the quantum race?

China is the only other nation giving the United States a run for its money. Its leader, Xi Jinping, put accelerating quantum technology in his 2021 five-year plan. McKinsey & Company estimates China has spent at least $15.3 billion in public funds on quantum research. That partly came to fruition in April with the Chinese Academy of Science’s unveiling of a 504-qubit chip, still half the size of IBM’s biggest.

For its part, Australia got a head start with quantum research in the 1990s. Today, two major spinoffs from UNSW research are pursuing silicon-based quantum computing: Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), led by Professor Michelle Simmons, and Diraq, led by Professor Andrew Dzurak. SQC’s approach involves embedding phosphorus atoms within a wafer of silicon. Dzurak’s approach involves trapping electrons on silicon transistors. Both have the advantage of silicon chips already being ubiquitous. “Today, in our phones and our laptops, the silicon chips that are in those have upwards of a billion transistors on them,” says Dzurak. “The benefit of the technology that we’ve developed is that we are also able to get millions, and ultimately billions, of quantum bits onto a single silicon chip.”

‘Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.’

Other leading players in Australia include Q-CTRL, which is working on controlling and enhancing quantum hardware; quantum security company QuintessenceLabs; and Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance, which used its synthetic diamonds in the world-first integration of a two-qubit quantum device into a supercomputer at room temperature in 2022.

Meanwhile, out of the University of Queensland came early gains in “photonic” quantum computing, which harnesses particles of light – photons – as qubits. In April, the federal and Queensland governments jointly set aside $940 million in share purchases, grants and loans for PsiQuantum, a Silicon Valley company whose founders include Australian professors Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph. Unlike ions or electrons, photons are not charged, Bartlett says, so are not sent haywire by electromagnetic forces – but they are hard to manipulate and measure.

Loading

Another approach involves “trapped ion” quantum computing, pursued by US company IonQ: physicists take an atom, flick off an electron so it is positively charged, then suspend the resulting ion within an electromagnetic field and manipulate the ion with lasers. But Bartlett says this approach will be hard to scale, given the technology to suspend millions of ion qubits doesn’t yet exist.

In April, the federal government also announced $18 million for the University of Sydney to establish Quantum Australia, a research consortium between several universities headed by Bartlett. “It used to be a small research community,” he says. “You absolutely needed to speak the common language of everyone else, which were the rules of physics. Now we are really seeing quite a bit of specialisation.”

Even if quantum computers develop practical uses, they will likely live in vast, super-cooled server farms where land and power are cheap. We’ll communicate with them through our everyday devices, much as we download and upload data from cloud servers, Netflix, TikTok, DropBox, whatever, today. The real challenge for quantum computing, says Morello, is that the alternative is “really, really good”. “Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.”

Get fascinating insights and explanations on the world’s most perplexing topics. Sign up for our weekly Explainer newsletter.

Let us explain

If you'd like some expert background on an issue or a news event, drop us a line at explainers@smh.com.au or explainers@theage.com.au. Read more explainers here.

Most Viewed in National

Loading

How much have countries and blocs invested in quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

The US leads with early and rapid development efforts and industrial maturity, supported by major firms like IBM, Google, and Microsoft.

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Europe is also heavily investing, notably the UK with a National Quantum Strategy allocating £2.5 billion for the quantum sector and significant venture funding for startups.

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Taiwan and Finland are active in fostering international collaboration and strengthening their quantum industry ecosystems.

Title:

Content: Lin Mintong, vice chairman of the National Science Council, led a team of cross-industry research and research units of the Quantum National Team. On the 7th, he met with a Finnish heavyweight quantum technology industry and research expert delegation led by Business Finland, focusing on quantum computers, ultra-low temperature cooling systems, and industrial quantum software.
According to the NSC, the Finnish delegation to Taiwan included professors from three universities (Aalto, Oulo, Jyväskylä), Bluefors director, IQM co-founder, Vexlum Chief Information Security Officer, CEO of QuantrolOx and SemiQon, chief and scientist of quantum computer applications at the VTT Technology Research Center in Finland.
The NSC said that Lin Min-chung led a delegation to Finland in June last year, where he met with officials of the relevant Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs and senior officials of the IQM company, and launched the opportunity for cooperation in quantum technology between the two countries.
At the end of last year, Finnish experts from industry, academia and research in quantum technology came to Taiwan to participate in the "Quantum Taiwan 2023" (Quantum Taiwan 2023), and together with experts and scholars from Taiwan and other countries to discuss the latest developments and applications of quantum technology in the world.
At that time, senior IQM representatives who came to Taiwan also called on Wu Zhengzhong, chairman of the National Science Council, hoping to deepen cooperation with Taiwan.
The National Science Council said that the Finnish delegation came to Taiwan mainly hoping to have in-depth exchanges with Taiwan's industry, government, and research circles, and to further cooperate closely with Taiwan's industry, academia and research circles in the future to develop advanced quantum technology industries.
According to the National Science Council, in view of the huge impact that quantum technology is likely to have on society in the future, countries around the world are investing heavily in research and development of quantum technology. Finland is currently playing an important role in global quantum technology.
Lin Min-chung said that China's Quantum National Team is composed of experts and scholars from cross-disciplinary research institutes and a number of companies, and is mainly focused on general quantum computer technology, optical quantum technology and quantum technology software technology, and is developing research and development across projects.
Lin Min-chung said, and in order to accelerate the development of Taiwan's key quantum computer technology, early development and introduction of Taiwan's unique quantum technology software and hardware core technology, so that the industry can have a place in the future, we need to use Taiwan's own technology and technological advantages to leverage international R & D energy.
At the invitation of Finland, the National Science Council will lead the Quantum National Team team to Finland at the end of June to participate in this year ’ s large-scale international quantum technology exhibition, Inside Quantum Technology Nordics.
# HUGE # COMMUNICATION # GENERAL # FINLAND # QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY

Australia, though behind the US and China, has notable research hubs such as UNSW and companies like Quantum Brilliance focusing on unique silicon and diamond-based qubits.

What are important areas in quantum research?

new types of qubits
implementations of quantum processors

Russia is developing quantum technologies across several physical platforms but with lower publicized investments compared to the US and China

Title:

Content: Investments in quantum computing startups reached $2.35 billion in 2022
Quantum technologies have great potential for both science and business, and attract large investments in different countries of the world, including Russia.
This is stated in the analytical report "Quantum Computing: Prospects for Business", which was prepared jointly with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "VNIIA named after N.L. Dukhov" and the Institute of Artificial Intelligence AIRI.
“Increasing attention in the world is paid to supporting start-ups in the field of quantum technologies.
In 2022, venture investors around the world invested $2.35 billion in them.
Also last year, almost 1,600 patents were issued and published in all subfields of quantum computing: from physical implementations of quantum equipment and error correction to AI [artificial intelligence] and machine learning.
Video of the day
Leading countries, realizing the breakthrough potential of this direction, include quantum technologies in national programs and allocate increasing budgets for research.
The leader is China with $15.3 billion in government funding.
Development programs have the leading technological corporations of the world.
So, which has made a quantum processor for 433 qubits [qubit or quantum bit - the main unit of information in quantum processors and quantum computing], plans this year to increase the number of qubits to 1121, and intends to show a device for a thousand qubits after 2025.
The intention to develop a full stack of technologies for quantum computing announced and has already released to the market quantum chips on spin qubits.
In Russia, work on quantum computing is underway on four key physical platforms: superconducting qubits, photonic circuits, neutral atoms, and trapped ions.
The Russian Federation has also formed a pool of organizations, including companies, scientific institutions and universities that conduct research and development, study the applicability of quantum computing to practical tasks.
“Quantum computing can give the world an impetus to the development of new industries based on the processing of big data.
In addition, they can improve the performance and efficiency of artificial intelligence algorithms, the accuracy of models and simulations of complex systems (such as molecules of new drugs, chemical reactions or physical processes), as well as provide a new level of calculations in finance and logistics, new solutions to climate problems and cryptographic algorithms that will provide a higher level of security.
The authors of the report come to the conclusion that although no one in the world has been able to demonstrate practical quantum superiority, nevertheless, companies should plan today what will happen after its achievement.
Quantum computing is able to integrate seamlessly into data processing workflows, using adaptation tools for popular programming languages and interfaces.

[9b9f8be2-d6b8-4d95-9482-f8415bab065b, 176e3d61c-e991-43a2-8ebe-637114089506].

Leading Companies and Collaborations: IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, Intel, and Rigetti dominate industry efforts in the US.

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

IBM notably founded the IBM Quantum Network, an alliance involving corporate, academic, and startup members worldwide supporting quantum ecosystem growth.

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

Google demonstrated quantum supremacy in 2019 with its Sycamore processor (54 qubits), a significant breakthrough though some skepticism about practical utility remains.

What are important areas in quantum research?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What have been the landmark achievements in quantum computing?

Google's Sycamore quantum supremacy experiment

Google and IBM continue pushing qubit counts beyond 1000 with IBM’s Osprey and Condor chips.

What are important areas in quantum research?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What seminal quantum computers/ processors have been developed?

European players include Oxford Quantum Circuits (UK), led by strong venture support.

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?