Big Tech has officially entered its quantum era — here's what it means for the industry

Yahoo

19-04-2025

International companies and organizations see 2025 as a tipping point for quantum technology.
Major advancements are afoot as the industry navigates the "International Year of Quantum."
Here's some of the biggest quantum news so far this year— and things to keep an eye on.
The era of quantum is officially upon us, and if you're not immersed in the world of emerging tech, you may have missed the memo.
The burgeoning field leverages quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers. It promises breakthroughs that could revolutionize fields from medicine to data privacy and is attracting major investments from world governments, tech giants, and equity firms seeking to capitalize on that potential.
While the announcements of advanced quantum chips from the biggest of Big Tech players may have briefly broken through the news of the escalating trade war, alarming aviation accidents, and increasing political unrest, there's so much more to know about what's gone down in the industry so far in 2025, which the United Nations has dubbed the "International Year of Quantum."
Here's some of the biggest quantum news so far this year — and things to keep an eye on.
Skepticism is fading about whether the quantum industry can achieve all that it promises, and major discussions have now turned to the timeline to get there.
According to research by Boston Consulting Group, the quantum industry attracted $1.2 billion from venture capitalists in 2023 despite a 50% drop in overall tech investments that year. BCG projects that quantum computing will create between $450 billion and $850 billion of economic value globally and sustain a $90-$170 billion market for hardware and software providers by 2040.
The Big Tech players are all investing heavily in quantum advancement, hoping to catch up with IBM — a longtime frontrunner in the field, with several different prototype chips and its circuit-based commercial quantum computer, IBM Quantum System One, which was unveiled in January 2019.
Amazon announced its Ocelot chip in February. The company says it represents a breakthrough in error correction and scalability, two key issues that have long slowed advancement in the field. Its announcement came just a week after Microsoft debuted its Majorana chip and only a few months after Google's Willow chip hit the scene in December.
Nvidia is also aiming to get in on the action. This year, the company announced at GTC that it is developing a new quantum research lab in Boston.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Defense's research and development agency, has expanded its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative this year in an attempt to achieve utility-scale operation by 2033.
DARPA in early April announced it had chosen 18 companies to test and advance various technologies for creating qubits — the building block for quantum computers — including superconducting qubits, trapped ion qubits, and other novel approaches.
Microsoft and PsiQuantum have already advanced to the third and final phase of DARPA's quantum initiative. IBM, IonQ, and Rigetti Computing are among the newest companies joining the QBI.
IBM plans to debut the world's first quantum-centric supercomputer this year.
This new system will use the modular IBM Quantum System Two architecture, which is designed to be scalable and upgradeable. It is expected to feature over 4,000 qubits and aims to break existing records in the field, eventually surpassing the size of the largest quantum computer by more than threefold.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Time in March that "something remarkable" is on the horizon for quantum technology and that the company has positioned itself to create the next generation of foundational technology through advancements in quantum.
While we're on the cusp of a quantum revolution, cybersecurity professionals have previously warned Business Insider that the tech comes with its own risks.
It's not just basic data privacy or the chance of personal financial details becoming public. From national security secrets to the blockchain and beyond, all encrypted data will be readily accessible and, more worryingly, manipulatable by anyone with a fully fault-tolerant and quantum-capable system.
Karl Holmqvist has served as a quantum security advisor to major government bodies, including the Department of Defense and NATO. He is the CEO of Lastwall, which provides cybersecurity solutions designed to protect users from quantum computing threats.
"When you start peeling back the layers, it's like anything that's internet-connected will likely have problems," Holmqvist previously told BI. "A lot of the time, we trust that the links between systems are secure and the data that's gone between them is secure, and there's no way to get into those that they're encrypted. If you take away that default assumption, it allows so many new entry points into systems that it becomes quite concerning."
LinkedIn shows that the salary bands for jobs in quantum computing range from $150,000 on the low end to well past $500,000 a year, depending on the role and company. Hiring managers are paying attention.
Yaad Oren, a managing director at SAP Labs, one of the world's biggest software companies, previously told Business Insider that recruiters in the field look for curiosity more than anything else.
"Of course, we need expertise — and quantum is a very deep science and practice that requires a lot of knowledge — but if you follow the industry, you see there are also many disruptions going with quantum," Oren said. "We're definitely looking for change agents and curiosity is needed because, I mean, the industry is not sure at all that the current quantum technology we have now will be the winning architecture."
He added: "It's like building a building from the ground floor."
Read the original article on Business Insider