The UK government has launched a new national network to coordinate standards for quantum technologies.

With £10 million in government funding, the National Quantum Standards Network (QSN) will be managed by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

The aim is to align standardization priorities across sectors and strengthen the UK's presence in key global standards forums, making sure that UK priorities are reflected in the still-emerging global regulatory landscape.

Government, industry, and academia will work with UK companies to make sure their products are developed to internationally recognized standards, with input from the British Standards Institution and UKRI's National Quantum Computing Centre.

This will include the creation of training resources and guidance to build UK expertise in quantum standardization, along with specific help to support SMBs and startups engaging with standards.

The QSN will, said the government, oversee everything from the linewidths of the ultra-narrow lasers needed to control qubits inside a quantum computer to the size, weight, and energy-efficiency requirements that will ensure one quantum sensor's reading can be trusted against another's.

"Standards are the backbone of responsible, scalable innovation," said Dr Peter Thompson, at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). "By coordinating expertise across the UK quantum ecosystem, the network will accelerate technology adoption, boost UK competitiveness , and support the safe and ethical development of quantum technologies." 

The launch, set for the third quarter of this year, follows a pilot scheme that ran from 2023 to 2025, initiated by NPL, DSIT, BSI, and UKQuantum. This brought together leaders from across the UK quantum landscape to test new collaborative models and identify priority areas for future standards-focused collaboration.

"A collaborative approach to standardization is an essential element for the successful realisation and adoption of quantum technologies," said Tim Prior, UK QSN programme director at NPL.

"The QSN is a major component in maintaining the UK as a world leader in this area and turning the UK's ambition into coordinated action. We are building the foundations needed for quantum technologies to scale securely with real-world impact."

Earlier this year, the government announced a £2 billion investment in the technology, including £1.2 billion towards the procurement of large-scale quantum computers.

Quantum, it said, has the potential to add £212 billion to the UK economy by 2045 and create 100,000 jobs, boosting workforce productivity by 7% over the next 20 years.

"Quantum could bring benefits to our society as significant as what we are seeing with AI, with the potential to deliver new medicines, better public services, and protect our finances," said science minister Lord Vallance.

"The UK's quantum sector is already a global leader. With the National Quantum Standards Network we will accelerate its growth, meaning more British jobs and investment into our economy from all over the world."

Microsoft has hailed a significant breakthrough with its Majorana 2 quantum chip, which it claims is vastly more powerful than its predecessor – and AI helped make it possible.

Developed with the help of Microsoft Discovery’s agentic AI, the Majorana 2 topological quantum chip's cubits can maintain their quantum state 1,000 times longer than the first generation.

It has a mean qubit lifetime of 20 seconds, with some instances lasting as long as a minute.

“We need to make improvements each year that will get us closer to delivering a computer that we believe will have massive commercial and societal value,” said Chetan Nayak, Microsoft technical fellow.

“We’ve got to keep marching to that roadmap to accomplish that, but where are we relative to last year? We’re 1,000 times better.”

While the original Majorana superconductor was based on aluminum, Majorana 2 uses lead, which has delivered marked efficiency improvements. By using lead, this helps shield fragile qubits from cosmic disturbances that can make them unstable.

“That was actually a fairly large change, and it led to big, big improvements in device quality,” Nayak said.

AI played a key role in Majorana 2 improvements

Microsoft specifically highlighted the use of Microsoft Discovery, designed to help organizations embrace Frontier R&D, in the project.

This combines specialized AI agents for scientific research and development with a Discovery Engine that drives research and reasoning workflows, along with enterprise-level security, governance, and transparency.

The system was used to manage workflows, automate measurements, optimize fabrication, pinpoint previously unnoticed flaws, and propose new solutions.

Critical parts of the Majorana quantum devices are designed atom by atom, the company noted. To keep each atom in the right spot, another material, an impurity, can be added to the crystalline structure.

Zulfi Alam, corporate vice president for quantum at Microsoft, said the system enabled the team to spot probable targets and fine-tune development processes.

Meanwhile, it also helped handle nearly two decades’ worth of data, in many different formats.

“As you run AI agents on this data, they’re able to essentially resynthesize and make correlations that we as humans cannot see because no single individual has that much vision across that much data,” said Alam.

Supercharged development

Creating a topological state requires setting hundreds of parameters, a process that, when carried out by a human, takes weeks – but Microsoft said the use of agentic AI cut this by orders of magnitude.

Alongside this, AI’s pattern-recognition abilities helped with the difficult task of measuring what state the qubit is in and detecting whether there’s an even or odd number of billions of electrons on a semiconductor wire.

“Using agentic AI to automate the measurements was a game changer,” said Alam. “It goes through some math and starts saying, ‘Hey, where do I find the lowest point where everything sort of works?’ And it can do all these voltage adjustments in parallel, which a human cannot do. The way our minds work, we are more linear.”

Microsoft has now made Microsoft Discovery generally available, along with an app with core capabilities that individuals can download for free and run locally on their computers with a GitHub Copilot account.

“In the year since we launched, we’ve seen customers light up use cases across critical industries like life sciences, chemicals and materials, energy, manufacturing and consumer goods,” said Aseem Datar, corporate vice president, product innovation for Microsoft Discovery.

“With companies like Syensqo developing next-generation fluids for semiconductor manufacturing, the opportunities for impact are vast.”

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Nearly nine-in-10 UK business leaders reckon that quantum computing will disrupt their sector in the next four years, according to new research from EY.

A survey from the consultancy found banks and payments processors exploring the use of quantum to detect and prevent financial fraud and money laundering by 2030, while automotive manufacturers are testing it to help optimise electric vehicle battery development and traffic flow.

Across the board, businesses are taking the prospect seriously, with 35% saying they've made quantum computing a strategic priority for the next five years.

Among organizations operating in the financial services sector, the figure's as high as 67%, while it's far lower in real estate, hospitality, and construction firms, at just 17%.

“Our latest report shows that, while UK businesses are continuing to invest in and evaluate the impact of quantum computing, expectations of its maturity remain cautious," said Piers Clinton-Tarestad, technology risk partner at EY UK.

"This means that although long-term disruption from quantum computing is widely expected, including its impact on cybersecurity, the proportion of companies taking immediate steps to prepare remains relatively small."

Business leaders don't see quantum computing as an immediate issue, with 59% believing the technology is unlikely to develop sufficiently to play a significant role in core operations until from 2030 onwards.

This means that talent isn't an urgent problem either, with only 13% of UK leaders planning to recruit the talent they think they will need within the next two years.

This is despite 83% seeing loss of competitive advantage as the main risk when it comes to not adopting the technology.

‘Q-Day’ predictions are evolving

While the EY survey found quantum isn’t viewed as a near-term issue, predictions over ‘Q-Day’ - the point at which quantum computers can crack traditional encryption methods - have changed in recent months.

Most estimates on this timeline have typically placed this tipping point in the mid-2030s. However, Google recently revised its timeline to 2029 and issued a warning that most organisations aren’t prepared.

In a March blog post, the tech giant said the timeline revision came in direct response to progress in quantum hardware development and quantum error connection advances.

Quantum brings new risks for enterprises

Quantum could present businesses with an array of risks and challenges, according to the EY survey, particularly with regard to outdated IT infrastructure and compliance with future regulations.

Both of these issues were cited by around eight-in-ten business leaders, for example.

The top four barriers to quantum adoption are its complexity – picked by 80% – followed by market uncertainty at 66%, integration challenges at 60% and current talent shortages at 47%.

“For some business leaders we speak to, hesitation stems from not knowing where to begin exploration. One effective first step is to identify one or two practical ways in which quantum can be used, linked to existing pain points, before assessing which teams or processes would be most affected, and any gaps in skills, tools or data," said Clinton-Tarestad.

"In the same way that an orchestra needs a conductor, effective quantum implementation needs a senior sponsor within a business with cross-functional oversight to coordinate efforts, secure resources, and help ensure quantum readiness becomes part of broader digital transformation plans.”

Another reason organizations aren't moving faster to quantum computing is a lack of clear cut use-cases, according to recent research from QuEra Computing.

Analysis from the company found that while 44% of enterprises expect quantum budgets to increase in the year ahead, even more (46%) expect them to remain flat - and 10% are expecting budget cuts.

QuEra noted that the quantum market is shifting from “hype-driven investment” to a “proof-driven discipline”, with organizations seeking clear evidence of value before committing to investment.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The US Department of Commerce is handing out just over $2 billion to US quantum firms, with half going to IBM.

The aim, said the department, is to strengthen the US's position, with the sector crucial to national security, technological resilience, and long-term strategic leadership.

"With today's CHIPS research and development investments in quantum computing, the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation," said secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick.

"These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities."

The Department of Commerce will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in each company.

Much of the funding will go to two quantum foundries. IBM gets the biggest slice, $1 billion, to establish a new quantum foundry subsidiary for quantum-grade superconducting wafers.

GlobalFoundries, meanwhile, will receive $375 million to establish a secure, domestic quantum foundry for leading architectures and multiple modalities – superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, topological, and silicon spin – used in large-scale quantum computers.

"IBM has pioneered quantum computing for decades. Our work in silicon wafer fabrication has been a key to IBM's success and will be critical to enable a broader quantum technology landscape that will reshape global innovation and economic competitiveness," said Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO of IBM.

Another seven quantum computing companies are also in for funding, aimed at solving currently unresolved engineering problems in multiple quantum modalities.

"The CHIPS R&D Office is taking a portfolio approach to strengthen and accelerate US leadership across multiple quantum modalities at once, while focusing each award on discrete technological problems of genuine consequence," said Bill Frauenhofer, executive director of semiconductor investment and innovation.

"We will be providing incentives to build domestic quantum capacity, solve the hardest engineering challenges, enable multi-year acceleration of technology roadmaps, and drive continued U.S. quantum leadership."

Atom Computing, Diraq, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Rigetti will receive funding of between $38 million and $100 million.

"The award would accelerate D-Wave's ability to scale quantum innovation domestically, expedite key fabrication processes, and deliver real-world quantum applications to our global customers today," said Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. "We see this as a transformative moment for not just D-Wave, but also for quantum computing and the United States."

Quantum computing is being seen as a crucial technology for national defense, advanced materials, biopharmaceutical discovery, financial modeling, and energy systems.

And this US move follows an even larger investment in quantum technologies by the British government, which recently announced £2 billion in funding for the sector.

Between them, quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing are expected to generate up to $97 billion in revenue worldwide by 2035, according to research from McKinsey. Quantum computing will represent the biggest slice, growing from $4 billion in revenue in 2024 to as much as $72 billion in 2035.

The Department of Commerce is also now looking for proposals for research, prototyping, and commercial solutions that advance microelectronics technology in the US; applications can be made under announcement 2025-NIST-CHIPS-CRDO-01 at www.grants.gov.

Organizations are reluctant to invest in quantum computing due to an apparent lack of clear cut use-cases, according to new research.

Analysis from QuEra Computing suggests that the market is shifting from “hype-driven investment” to a “proof-driven discipline”, with organizations now demanding clear evidence of value before committing to investment.

This market shift is showcased by current spending habits, the study noted. While nearly half (44%) of enterprises expect quantum budgets to increase in the year ahead, a larger number (46%) expect them to remain flat.

Elsewhere, 10% also anticipate budget decreases as hype falters.

"Buyers want proof, not glossy brochures," said Yuval Boger, chief commercial officer at QuEra Computing.

"Organizations are moving from early experimentation to disciplined investment decisions, where budgets are scrutinized, use cases must be justified, and procurement plays a central role."

A quantum "reality check"

A contributing factor to the budget tightening lies in optimism among leadership figures, the study noted, pointing to a growing divide between executives and technical staff.

Senior decision-makers, for example, are far less optimistic about the near-term prospects of quantum computing and are instead adopting a more cautious, cost-conscious approach.

QuEra described this trend as a “C-suite reality check” and noted that “enthusiasm alone is no longer sufficient to unlock funding”.

Simply put, businesses need to have a clear understanding of the potential value of quantum computing, as well as a clearer route to ROI.

The current state of affairs in quantum bears similarities to that in the generative AI market over the last three years, with C-suite leaders growing increasingly concerned about returns on investment.

"With nearly 100 quantum companies competing today, executives are asking two questions before they commit," Boger commented.

"Who has the funding to be here for the long haul, and who has clear scientific proof that their approach works and a credible path to larger machines that deliver real enterprise value?"

Quantum FOMO isn’t enough to convince execs

According to QuEra, earlier investment cycles in quantum were largely driven by a “fear of missing out”, with many organizations getting caught up in the hype cycle.

This trend has dissipated over the last year, however. Just 9% of respondents cited successful pilot results as their primary driver of increased spending in this domain.

Indeed, the main drivers of investment now vary wildly, the study noted. Early-stage organizations still cite competitive pressure and FOMO as leading motivators.

Their more advanced counterparts, meanwhile, typically point to the “classical wall” - the point where conventional computing cannot handle certain workloads - as a leading driver of investment.

Public sector investment also plays a key role in decision-making when it comes to quantum computing, according to QuEra.

Government-related investment schemes were cited as a key driver of budget increases by 28% of respondents, more than any other factor, the company noted.

"Quantum computing is still pre-commercial, and public funding is underwriting the risk that private capital is not yet willing to take on alone,” the company said.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Iran, Russia, China and other nation states represent the most serious cybersecurity threats to the UK today, according to Richard Horne, the CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

Speaking at the CyberUK conference in Glasgow, Horne said that technological change and geopolitical tensions make for 'tumultuous uncertainty', with the agency already handling an average of four nationally significant incidents a week.

"Criminal activity such as ransomware remains the most prevalent threat to the vast majority of organizations, but the majority of the nationally significant incidents that my teams are handling now originate directly or indirectly from nation states," he said.

Horne warned that China’s intelligence and military agencies in particular now display an 'eye-watering' level of sophistication in their cyber operations, while Iran is almost certainly using cyber activity to support the repression of British individuals.

Russia, meanwhile, is using the tactics and techniques that it's honed in conflict against states it considers hostile, making cyber security the new 'home front'.

"We know that, were we to be in, or near, a conflict situation, the UK would likely face hacktivist attacks at scale. With similar effects and sophistication to the ransomware attacks we see today but no option to pay a ransom to help recover," he said.

These threats are combining with others to create a 'perfect storm', with frontier AI capabilities now rapidly enabling discovery and exploitation of existing vulnerabilities at scale.

Attackers are exposing gaps in the fundamentals of cybersecurity, such as code shipped by tech producers with significant vulnerabilities, organizations' failure to patch with the completeness or urgency they should, and a failure to replace legacy systems.

NCSC sounds alarm on quantum threats

Meanwhile, quantum is a looming threat, Horne told attendees. The warning comes amid rising concerns about ‘Q-Day’, the point at which quantum computers can crack traditional encryption methods.

Google, for example, recently revised its timeline for this tipping point to within just three years. Predictions on this front vary wildly, however, ranging from within a few years to decades.

"We don’t know when a quantum computer will be able to break the widely used cryptography that we rely on in everything we do. But we do know it is in our gift to be ready for that point," he said.

He advised organizations to refer to NCSC guidance setting out what they need to do over the coming years to ensure successful migration to post-quantum cryptography.

More broadly, as the technology landscape develops the definition of cybersecurity expands with it. Efforts to shore up protections across a wider array of areas are being made globally, such as in operational technology (OT), typically used to control energy systems and production lines – both key targets for state-backed threat groups and hacktivists.

Ric Derbyshire, principal security researcher at Orange Cyberdefense, echoed Horne's concerns about politically-motivated hacktivist groups.

"Escalatory hacktivism is a phenomenon we are seeing in which groups align with state-backed narratives and contribute to their host state’s hybrid warfare efforts. This trend is set to become more pervasive and more impactful," he said.

"This is about societal resilience as much as cyber resilience. It will require stronger global collaboration, closer public-private coordination, and sustained legislative action, such as the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, with a focus on protecting critical services and maintaining continuity in the face of disruption.”

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The post-quantum computing rollout is picking up pace and becoming the default for security companies – but just 27% are set to deploy necessary security precautions in time.

That's according to a study by Juniper Research, which reveals that the number of businesses making use of post-quantum computing (PCQ) algorithms globally will climb from just 35,000 this year to more than 100 million by 2035.

While that's a massive leap, it's just 27% of global businesses, leaving most unprotected from quantum computers cracking data that's now protected by encryption.

While quantum computing remains largely in the experimental phase, companies need to be aware of "Q-day" – the point at which quantum computers can be used to crack existing encryption standards.

That day has long been predicted to happen in the mid-2030s, but Google last month updated its quantum timeline, now predicting that computers capable of breaking existing encryption could arrive within just three years.

Because of that, companies need to switch to quantum-secure algorithms now to avoid data exposure when so-called Q-day occurs.

While the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has already developed a list of algorithms that are quantum safe, the industry needs to ensure it switches in good time — but one survey found 90% of companies didn't yet have systems in place to defend against quantum security threats.

Juniper agreed with that assessment, saying in its report that PQC remains a market still "in the early stages of maturity", though early adopters and the security industry are leading the way.

"Early adopters of PQC are deliberately choosing quantum-secure services, but as standards align, security vendors will increasingly offer quantum-secure solutions by default," said VP of Research Nick Maynard.

"Security vendors must move rapidly to establish PQC credentials, or they will be bypassed by faster moving specialists, as the implications of quantum become increasingly high profile."

Time for urgency

One challenge to the shift is the differing predictions of when Q-day will hit, the report noted.

"As predictions for ‘Q-Day’ are so variable and inconsistent from analysts, it is difficult to instill a sense of urgency and importance for the replacement of classical encryption methods with quantum-resistant options," Juniper said.

That's a problem because of "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks, researchers warned.

This is a tactic in which attackers gather encrypted data now, with an eye on waiting for the arrival of more sophisticated quantum computers capable of cracking it.

Juniper noted that five years is the widely held recommendation for the length of time between Q-day and when a company should shift to post-quantum cryptography – if Google is correct, it's already too late for those who have yet to get started on the switch.

Quantum by default

Juniper noted that it's difficult to know exactly how quantum computers will work with regards to PQC, so it's vital to stay agile and be ready with backup algorithms amid the race to become quantum safe.

“Focusing on crypto-agility — meaning enabling organisations to quickly change their cryptography to meet new developments — is a key policy for keeping cryptography strategies flexible," said Maynard. "This will enable organisations to invest in PQC now, without tying themselves down to a specific cryptographic deployment."

The analyst firm also pointed to hybrid PQC as a "bridge" between current encryption and quantum safe techniques, without as much disruption as implementing full PQC. Cloud-based services are another option for scalability while maintaining agility, Juniper added.

Juniper said organizations should create a priority list to help shift different elements of their business and infrastructure to PQC, while security vendors must encourage businesses to shift to an agile approach.

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

IBM and Lloyds Banking Group have carried out an experiment to see whether quantum computing can be used to identify money mules – and the project highlighted huge long-term potential.

The computation required in financial services, from fraud detection to optimization and simulation tasks, is getting more complex all the time. While AI and classical machine learning play a vital part, Lloyds reckons they will eventually reach a limit.

Early research from its Emerging Technology & Innovation (ET&I) team suggests several areas where quantum computing could outperform classical methods, including graph-based anomaly detection - an important element in detecting fraudulent or criminal behavior.

"Economic crime prevention, particularly the detection of mule accounts, requires analysing highly complex networks of financial transactions," explained Jamie Harbour, enterprise architect, emerging technology and innovation and Adam Milner, lead quantum ambassador at Lloyds.

"These can be represented as graphs of customers, accounts, and payments, where suspicious activity often hides in subtle network structures."

Traditional computers struggle with certain types of graph problems as the number of possible solutions grows exponentially with the size of the problem - something that quantum computing could handle more efficiently.

"Our experiment did not aim to explore how to replace machine learning models currently used in fraud and crime prevention," said Harbour and Milner.

"Instead, it explored whether quantum enhanced techniques could one day generate more sophisticated graph-based features to support future models; features that might be too complex or expensive to compute classically."

Quantum shows long-term promise

The nine‑month project focused on graph‑based analysis of mule activity, using anonymized real transaction data on IBM’s cloud quantum computers, and examined several different quantum algorithmic approaches.

The aim wasn't to deliver production-ready solutions, but to work out which quantum techniques might have genuine long-term promise.

Several quantum algorithms did, according to Lloyds, especially when used to complement AI and ML by generating new types of features or enabling deeper network analysis.

Alongside the experiment, the ET&I team also developed a broader roadmap identifying several potential quantum use cases across the Lloyds Group.

Some, such as optimization tasks, could be a realistic proposition relatively soon, thanks to the maturity of the relevant algorithms and hardware.

"One of the most valuable outcomes of the experiment has been capability building," said Harbour and Milner.

"The experiment created practical learning opportunities for our colleagues, through hands on code reviews, detailed walkthroughs of algorithmic decisions, and the establishment of our Quantum Ambassador Programme, a group responsible for deepening expertise, exploring emerging use cases, and helping to grow a thriving internal quantum community, on code reviews, detailed walkthroughs of algorithmic decisions, and the establishment of our Quantum Ambassador Programme."

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Google has warned that “Q-Day”, the point where a quantum computer is powerful enough to crack current encryption techniques, could come as soon as 2029.

The new timeline comes in light of progress in quantum computing hardware development, quantum error correction, and quantum factoring resource estimates.

Quantum computers pose a particular threat to encryption and digital signatures, according to the company, and attackers are already stealing encrypted data they believe they'll be able to decrypt some time in the future.

Digital signatures, meanwhile, will also be under threat, requiring a transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) before the development of Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs).

"As a pioneer in both quantum and PQC, it’s our responsibility to lead by example and share an ambitious timeline," warned Heather Adkins, VP, security engineering, and Sophie Schmieg, senior staff cryptography engineer

"By doing this, we hope to provide the clarity and urgency needed to accelerate digital transitions not only for Google, but also across the industry."

Most firms aren't prepared for Q-Day

Estimates of when Q-Day is likely to arrive have varied widely, but most experts have suggested dates in the mid-2030s.

In 2025, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) urged organizations to carry out PQC migration activities by 2031, and to have completed migration to PQC of all systems, services, and products by 2035.

NCSC CTO Ollie Whitehouse said at the time this transition will be a “complex change programme that makes fixing the Millennium Bug look easy”.

Research from Bain & Company in January this year found that 90% of organizations don’t yet have systems in place to defend against quantum security threats.

This was despite the fact that 71% expected quantum-enabled attacks within five years, with a third predicting them within three.

Notably, only one-in-ten said they had a roadmap in place to address the risks, with most waiting to see what happens and hoping a third party solves the problem first.

Google moving fast on PQC

Alongside its Q-Day warning, Google has announced that it's integrating PQC digital signature protection using ML-DSA into Android 17.

The tech giant said the proactive move aligns with recommendations outlined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In a blog post confirming the move, Eric Lynch, Android product manager, and Dom Elliot, group product manager at Google Play, said the update aims to "establish a new, quantum-resistant chain of trust".

"This chain of trust secures the platform continuously—from the moment the OS powers on, to the execution of applications distributed globally. Android is swapping today’s digital locks for advanced encryption to help enhance the security of every app you download — no matter how powerful future supercomputers get.”

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The UK has pledged investment of up to £2 billion to position the UK as a global leader in quantum computing, but some industry stakeholders have questioned whether it can achieve such ambitious goals.

Under plans revealed by chancellor Rachel Reeves this week, the government hopes to make the UK the first country in the world to build and deploy quantum computers at scale, which it believes can be done by the early 2030s.

The potential benefits here are significant providing the UK can strike an early lead in this domain, with figures showing this could add up to £200 billion to the economy by 2045.

Government estimates show that quantum could also boost workforce productivity by 7% in the next two decades, creating more than 100,000 jobs in the process.

As part of the nationwide drive, quantum technology will help deliver personalized medical treatments and potential cures for diseases, according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), while safeguarding national security and delivering high-paid jobs. 

"Quantum technology holds transformative potential across everything from healthcare and renewable energy to national security and defence," said Charlotte Deane, senior responsible owner for quantum at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). 

"Today’s announcement signals a shift in pace towards turning research into commercial deployment that delivers meaningful benefits for people across the country."

Increased support for quantum computing

A procurement program, ”ProQure:Scaling UK Quantum Computing”, will launch next week, with companies invited to table partnership proposals to create prototypes for evaluation.

The most promising companies will then be invited to deliver larger scale machines for use by scientists, researchers, the public sector, and businesses as part of the national computing infrastructure.    

Meanwhile, the TechFirst program will launch new partnerships with companies in the sector, offering up to 100 fully funded internships.

Financial support will include more than £500 million for companies scale and develop new uses for the technology in areas like pharmaceuticals, financial services, and energy; over £400 million to support breakthroughs in sensing and navigation; £125 million for Quantum networking, and £205 million for quantum sensing and navigation.

Can Britain strike a global quantum lead?

The announcement has been welcomed by many. Russ Shaw CBE, founder of Tech London Advocates and Global Tech Advocates, said the UK has a “real opportunity to strengthen its position as a global hub” for frontier technologies.

“Just as importantly, the focus on translating world-class research into commercial success is a necessary shift,” he said. “Bridging the gap between breakthrough discovery and real-world deployment will be key to unlocking the UK’s full innovation potential."

Some industry stakeholders have voiced doubts over the country’s ability to meet such ambitious targets. Key lingering concerns, such as infrastructure capabilities, security implications, and even commercial viability mean there’s a lot of work to be done.

John Cheal, consulting partner for public sector and healthcare at Kyndryl, said the country faces a significant “readiness gap” with quantum investment in the private sector.

“Barriers around practicality are creating confidence issues, but with the UK government ramping up to commit to rolling out quantum computers at scale, leaders need to think here and now about their quantum strategy, or risk being caught unprepared as many were when widespread LLM availability impacted the tech sector in 2022,” he said.

Research conducted by Kyndryl found that 20% of organizations worry that current quantum investments may not deliver short-term ROI.

Similarly, while nearly two-thirds (62%) reported investing in quantum technologies, only 4% of leaders see quantum as the most impactful near-term technology.

Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at Check Point Software, warned that security-related considerations associated with quantum computing are growing.

Many organizations aren’t prepared for a new wave of potential threats, Wilson noted, aligning closely with a recent study from Bain & Company which found the vast majority are unprepared.

In a survey of technology leaders at 180 companies, 90% revealed they have no systems in place to defend against quantum security threats – despite many expecting them to arrive within the next five years.

“The encryption protecting your customer data, financial transactions and intellectual property was built for a different era,” Wilson said. “Quantum computing has the potential to completely unpick it, and the transition to something safer will take years.”

"Most businesses haven’t identified where they rely on quantum-vulnerable encryption, let alone started replacing it,” she added. “This isn’t a quick upgrade. Moving to quantum-safe security will take years, and many have yet to begin."

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The vast majority of companies aren't ready for the security threats posed by quantum computing, according to new research.

Analysis from Bain & Company, which surveyed technology leaders at 180 companies, found 90% didn't yet have systems in place to defend against quantum security threats – despite widely expecting them to arrive within the next five years.

When quantum computers do arrive, they're expected to be able to crack existing encryption techniques used to protect everything from email to financial transactions.

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been working for a decade on new algorithms that can withstand such attacks – but now companies need to roll them out, with NIST advising enterprises need to be ready by 2035.

That message has been heard, according to Bain. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of those surveyed expect quantum-enabled attacks within five years, with a third predicting them within three years.

Similarly, two thirds believe quantum computing will exacerbate cybersecurity challenges.

Yet despite that just one-in-ten believe their existing safeguards will be enough. The same number of enterprises have a roadmap in place to address the risks, with most waiting to see what happens and hoping a third party solves the problem first.

No time to wait with quantum security

Companies shouldn't wait, Bain warned, pointing to rapid progress made by IBM, Google, and other industry leaders on this front.

"At a certain threshold, quantum computing will be able to easily and quickly break asymmetric cryptography protocols such as Rivest-Shamir-Adelman (RSA), Diffie-Hellman (DH), and elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) and reduce the time required, weakening symmetric cryptography such as advanced encryption standard (AES) and hashing functions," the company noted in a blog post.

In a separate report, analysts from Juniper Research echoed concerns that too many businesses still underestimate the danger of quantum-enabled attacks and aren't doing enough to get ready.

This is a burgeoning market, the consultancy found, with analysts predicting the post-quantum cryptography market will grow from $1.2 billion this year to $13 billion by 2035.

That growth suggests progress in preparing for what the analyst firm has dubbed "Q-Day" – which they define as when quantum computers can compromise existing encryption.

Juniper Research noted that governments are clearly considering milestones, as are "forward-thinking organizations". However, awareness of the danger remains a serious hurdle.

“Many businesses still underestimate the risk of quantum-enabled attacks; making clearer, more accessible education critical to securing internal buy-in,” said Louis Atkin, Research Analyst at Juniper Research.

That echoes previous research by KeyFactor, which found as many as half of companies are not yet prepared to deal with cryptography made obsolete by the arrival of quantum computing.

The risks of quantum decryption

Bain said quantum computing will render today's cryptographic standards obsolete.

The highest impact will be on secure keys and tokens, digital certificates, authentication protocols, data encrypted at rest, and even network security and identity access management (IAM) tools. Essentially, anything currently relying on encryption.

Beyond that, quantum computing could supercharge malware and make it easier to identify and weaponize "zero day" flaws, Bain warned.

Another risk highlighted by security experts is "steal now, crack later" techniques, whereby threat actors harvest data now to decrypt later.

"Beyond these new types of attacks powered by quantum computers on current controls, terabytes of sensitive data already harvested by nation states and criminal groups over the last several years – spanning defense designs, chip architectures, energy technologies, and state secrets – will also become accessible and exploitable," Bain noted.

What can be done?

To prepare, companies should roll out post-quantum cryptography using algorithms that are strong enough to withstand quantum-powered attacks, Bain noted. Companies that fail to do so risk "exposing decades of encrypted data and compromising real-time systems”.

However, the consultancy noted that most existing algorithms designed for that post-quantum world have already been compromised – without quantum computers, but using traditional exploit flaws.

Notably, not all suppliers or vendors will be on top of the problem, so security teams will need to develop their own workarounds to keep the corporate stack safe.

"Organizations that are heavy with legacy infrastructure may be particularly vulnerable—and more attractive targets for attackers," Bain added.

Companies need a board-led – and funded – roadmap to consider post-quantum risks across their business decision making, ensuring quantum resilience across their own suppliers, existing technology, and even their products.

But so far, the Bain survey revealed only 12% of companies are considering quantum readiness as a key factor in procurement and risk assessments.

Juniper's Atkin noted that the rise of standards and regulations around post-quantum security has helped, notably from NIST, and investment in algorithms for encryption once Q-Day has passed is steadily increasing.

However, Juniper warned that for these technologies to be effectively adopted, organizations will need to collaborate to ensure interoperability across infrastructure – and borders.

"Many countries have accepted NIST’s standardized algorithms as the de facto quantum-safe option, even in nations with limited understanding of the quantum landscape," Atkin said. "It is vital this continues and that different sectors consider how their systems interoperate when implementing quantum-safe solutions."

FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA

IBM predicts it will reach “quantum advantage” in the next 12 months, meaning the time at which quantum algorithms can begin to complement traditional computing for widespread benefits.

The technology giant has been working on quantum computing for decades, but in recent years has signaled that quantum computers that can deliver tangible benefits to businesses are just around the corner.

Further, the firm predicts return on investment (ROI) in quantum across select industries within the next three to five years.

For example, HSBC has partnered with IBM to develop a new machine learning (ML) model for trades, with the intention of improving its margin via better predictions of buying and selling prices.

IBM took a year’s worth of HSBC’s data and applied a quantum algorithm for ‘feature selection’, a process that highlights the most relevant aspects of a dataset to improve model performance.

In tests, IBM and HSBC tracked a 34% increase in successful trades.

At a briefing on the breakthroughs, Adam Hammond, business leader at IBM Quantum EMEA, told assembled media that the model is not yet in production and still needs more training.

Nevertheless, it acts as a tangible example of how quantum algorithms could improve business performance. Outside of banking, Hammond said IBM is hoping to apply quantum computing to a wide range of sectors.

His team is working with Moderna on mRNA vaccines, the Wellcome Sanger Institute on genomics, Boeing on surface chemistry, and Bosch on superconducting hardware, as well as organizations in the farming, life sciences, and electric vehicles sectors.

A seismic shift in compute complexity

At the center of IBM’s latest quantum roadmap is Nighthawk, its new quantum processor which can process up to 120 qubits linked together for a 30% overall increase in complexity.

“One of the key factors in getting to quantum advantage and to useful quantum is being able to fit the size of your problem into the capabilities of the machine that's running it,” Hammond explained.

IBM measures quantum performance in ‘operations per circuit’ (OPC), with today’s chips capable of 5,000 OPC. The Nighthawk chip will use these 5,000 operations more efficiently, Hammond explained, providing a boost in the complexity of tasks that Nighthawk can complete.

On a technical level, IBM has unlocked this capability by moving from a chip layout in which each qubit was entangled with two or three others to one where each qubit is reliably entangled with four qubits.

Hammond noted that this new configuration could lead to breakthroughs in chemistry in particular, as its lattice-like structure mirrors the makeup of the chemical world.

By 2028, IBM believes it will be able to reach 15,000 OPC, tackling problems three times larger than today’s. The next year, in 2029, it is targeting full quantum fault tolerance, at which point its quantum systems will be able to produce reliable results.

The company said it will achieve this with its new large-scale Starling quantum computer, powered by its Loon chip, which will represent a seismic leap forward for the quantum sector.

It’s aiming for this system to run at 100 million OPC, the computational equivalent of one quindecillion of the world’s most powerful supercomputers – a one followed by 48 zeroes.

When ITPro asked Hammond to explain what this would mean for the 2030s, he explained that it was incredibly difficult to predict the future.

“Three years ago, the largest machine we had was 27 qubits – you can simulate a 27 qubit machine on your laptop,” he said.

“It's only when you get above 100 qubits that actually you can't even simulate that on the largest supercomputer in the world. In fact, actually, if you network them all together, you wouldn't be able to simulate it.

“So the hardware has made a really dramatic increase in capability in the last three years. Three years ago, I wasn't talking about real use cases with clients. We were talking about doing experimentation. Now we're really actively exploring real use cases in preparation for machines being large enough to run those in production.”

Despite this, Hammond was resolute that classical computers and AI algorithms will continue to play a huge role in the future of computing. This is because quantum computers are best suited to complex, linear equations – and worse at tasks that today’s computers excel at.

“So in the same way a GPU solves matrix algebra, what a quantum computer does is it solves complex sets of linear equations – and it so happens that that's something that classical computers really aren't very good at doing,” he said.

“So optimization tasks actually simulating nature at a sort of a molecular level, is a complex set of linear equations, linear algebra, if you're doing computational fluid dynamics. So I think what will happen is that some of those tasks that we currently use super computers to do today may well get offloaded to quantum processes.

“But that's all quantum machines do. You're never going to have Excel running on a quantum processor – you might have a particular bit of maths in your Excel spreadsheet that a quantum processor can help you with, but they're never going to replace it.”

Going forward, IBM is also looking at how these complex quantum algorithms can be integrated in existing enterprise architectures.

Hammond said in the case of HSBC, it would need to consider how its machine learning model for trading could be made to follow its checks for security, privacy, performance, and resilience.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Understanding quantum-safe AI and how to create resilient defenses
• Preparing for the quantum revolution
• Post-quantum cryptography is now top of mind for security leaders

Commercially-viable, scalable quantum computing could be just a few years away according to Sundar Pichai, CEO at Alphabet,

Speaking with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff during a fireside chat at Dreamforce 2025, Pichai stated he was “bullish” about the potential of quantum computing in the next ten years, suggesting it could be realized even sooner.

In a long conversation on the future of both quantum and AI, Pichai highlighted the achievements of Google DeepMind as well as the Nobel Prize awarded to its CEO Demis Hassabis and director John M. Jumper.

“We believe in that kind of deep, fundamental R&D with a view of translating real problems,” Pichai said.

“That same quantum computing team, no different from our TPU team, plans to have commercially-available, real, at scale quantum computers in a few years. And I think they will get there.”

In 2024, Google announced its proprietary quantum chip Willow had demonstrated usable error reduction for quantum computing, a major step for achieving scalable quantum computing.

Just this week, Google announced that Willow had run a test algorithm 13,000 times faster than the best corresponding classical algorithm, run on a top supercomputer.

Benioff pointed out that quantum computing could undermine all cryptography, hinting at a need for post-quantum cryptography in the wake of any significant quantum advancements.

“I think in three five years’ time, we will have that moment where from a cryptographic standpoint we have to adapt to quantum, for sure,” Pichai stated, adding that people will need to work together on establishing safeguards.

Google isn’t the only company chasing a quantum leap with its own chip design. In February, Microsoft hailed its Majorana 1 quantum processing unit (QPU) as the first such chip of its kind to support a million qubits at once.

But it’s not all consensus. At the start of the year, Jensen Huang, CEO at Nvidia, poured cold water on quantum optimism with a prediction that “truly useful” quantum computing could be 20 years away, prompting stock plunges at companies such as D-Wave and Rigetti Computing.

Huang later walked back his comments and Nvidia has since committed to further quantum research – though continues with its no-chip quantum chip strategy.

ChatGPT reflections

Elsewhere in the conversation, Pichai reflected on the days immediately after the launch of ChatGPT and how Google responded to claims that it had a major competitor in AI and search for the first time in years.

He pointed out that Google began using transformers in 2017, following the publication of its paper Attention Is All You Need, and had made strides with internal chatbots such as BERT then Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) – the latter of which drew headlines after an engineer went public with claims that it was sentient.

When ChatGPT launched, Pichai said, Google had been sitting on its chatbot model over quality concerns but could easily have beaten OpenAI to it.

“I would argue pretty much all of us working on it, we knew in a different world we would have launched our chatbot maybe a few months down the line,” he said.

“We hadn’t quite gotten it to a level where you could put it out and people would be ok with Google putting out that product.”

He also dismissed claims that he had been alarmed or panicked by the launch, with contemporary reports suggesting that Google initiated a state of ‘code red’ and scrambled developers internally to compete with OpenAI.

“For me when ChatGPT launched, contrary to what people outside felt, I was excited because I knew the window had shifted,” he said.

“We had been building this technology for so long, we were so AI-native, everything in the company, every decision we had made. I had decided to take a full-stack approach in AI, we were investing all the way from infrastructure, we built our own chips, to world-class research teams in Google Research, Google Brain, Google DeepMind.”

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Google CEO says more than 25% of the company's code is now AI-generated
• Nearly half of enterprises aren't prepared for quantum cybersecurity threats
• Sundar Pichai says DeepSeek has done ‘good work’ showcasing AI model efficiency

While generative AI has undeniably made its mark, quantum computing looms as the next disruptive technological revolution. Still in its early stages, its staggering potential to break current encryption standards is already igniting urgent conversations across the tech world.

At its core, a quantum computer uses the principles behind quantum mechanics to solve extremely complex problems. That’s why it’s poised to be problematic when it comes to encryption, because encryption is designed to be complex and unbreakable (for modern computing standards); yet, quantum computers will have significant computational capabilities.

The main concern of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) is around its capabilities, as it’s theorized that the machine would break traditional public key cryptography (PKC) algorithms. While CRQCs are currently unavailable, the development trajectory of quantum computing suggests these could emerge by 2037 if not sooner.

Even so, any CRQC would have to be extremely stable with a countless number of error-corrected qubits. This is not an easy problem to solve. So, while we could see CRQCs emerge in the near future, it’s realistic that they would be highly specialized and rare for some time after that. That said, there is still a risk worth prepping for here.

The importance of NIST’s encryption algorithms

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has standardized three encryption algorithms that offer protection against quantum-enabled threats. These are intended to replace traditional encryption models and address specific cryptographic needs by utilizing methods such as secure key exchanges or digital signature verification.

The ML-KEM algorithm enables two parties to securely exchange a shared secret key over a public channel in a way that remains resistant to quantum attacks. This could benefit users of apps like WhatsApp, whose unique selling point is its end-to-end encryption (E2EE).

ML-DSA provides a secure method to generate and verify digital signatures. This would be fantastic for e-commerce, financial, or healthcare institutions that currently use digital signatures to streamline administrative processes and protect sensitive communications and data.

SLH-DSA is a stateless, hash-based signature scheme. It uses hash functions (which turn data into a unique mixture of letters and numbers called a hash value) to help verify two things: if data has been tampered with or altered, and to authenticate the identity of the signatory.

Major platforms like Microsoft have been adopting these in Quantum Safe Programs. They have been incorporating these algorithms into their open-source cryptographic libraries like SymCrypt, which is used in Windows 10 & 11, Windows Server, and Azure.

Housekeeping before Q-Day

These are some of the solutions in preparation for Q-Day, the day when quantum computers become as prevalent as AI in the office. But before addressing quantum-level solutions, it's crucial to prioritize the fundamentals of cybersecurity.

Even with advanced cybersecurity technologies, human error accounts for 95% of breaches, and many of these start with phishing attacks. This makes AI-powered phishing simulations crucial for training employees, as these models learn from and build on a user’s mistakes to improve their awareness and response to real threats.

Coupled with ongoing cyber-awareness training, the implementation of Zero Trust principles and least privilege access, which verify all connections and grant access only when necessary, creates a proactive security culture in the office that helps set the stage for a quantum-ready organization.

How to prep for Q-Day

Only after a business’s security posture has been elevated should an organization identify where vulnerable cryptographic algorithms are currently in use across its systems. Then, with this understanding, they can look for services and providers offering quantum-safe encryption solutions. These technologies will form the backbone of secure communication in the upcoming post-quantum era.

All in all, organizations that take the lead in adopting quantum-safe encryption, while equipping their people with the knowledge to become the best human firewall, will not only stand the best chance against CRQCs but also become the new standard in our upcoming quantum age.

IBM and AMD are working together to develop “quantum-centric supercomputing” by combining quantum computing with high-performance computing (HPC).

The two firms said they are looking to develop scalable, open source platforms that could 'redefine the future of computing'.

They said they're exploring how to integrate AMD CPUs, GPUs, and FPGAs with IBM quantum computers to efficiently accelerate a new class of emerging algorithms, which neither technology can achieve alone.

The work could also help progress IBM’s vision to deliver fault-tolerant quantum computers by the end of this decade, it said.

“Quantum computing will simulate the natural world and represent information in an entirely new way,” said Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO of IBM.

“By exploring how quantum computers from IBM and the advanced high-performance compute technologies of AMD can work together, we will build a powerful hybrid model that pushes past the limits of traditional computing.”

What is quantum-centric supercomputing?

The quantum-centric supercomputing architecture envisaged by the two firms sees quantum computers working in tandem with powerful high-performance computing and AI infrastructure, typically supported by CPUs, GPUs and other compute engines.

This means that different components of a problem could be tackled by the paradigm best suited to solve them - for example, with quantum computers simulating the behavior of atoms and molecules, while classical supercomputers powered by AI handle the massive data analysis.

Together, these technologies could tackle real-world problems at unprecedented speed and scale, said the firms.

The duo are planning an initial demonstration later this year to show how IBM quantum computers can work in tandem with AMD technologies to deploy hybrid quantum-classical workflows.

They said they also plan to look into how open source ecosystems such as Qiskit could boost the development and adoption of new algorithms that leverage quantum-centric supercomputing.

IBM has previous in this domain

IBM has already been working on the integration of quantum and classical computing, recently partnering with RIKEN to deploy and directly connect IBM’s modular quantum computer, IBM Quantum System Two, with Fugaku, one of the world’s fastest classical supercomputers.

It's also been working with organizations including Cleveland Clinic, the Basque government and Lockheed Martin to demonstrate how combining quantum and classical resources can handle complex problems more effectively than classical computers on their own.

AMD, meanwhile, powers the two fastest supercomputers in the world - The El Capitan system at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California and the Frontier system at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee - according to the TOP500 list.

“High-performance computing is the foundation for solving the world’s most important challenges,” said Dr Lisa Su, chair and CEO of AMD.

“As we partner with IBM to explore the convergence of high-performance computing and quantum technologies, we see tremendous opportunities to accelerate discovery and innovation.”

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Why does Nvidia have a no-chip quantum strategy?
• The UK government wants quantum technology out of the lab and in the hands of enterprises
• Post-quantum cryptography is now top of mind for cybersecurity leaders

Only half of organizations across North America and Europe are geared up for looming quantum cybersecurity threats, with some even thinking dangers are being exaggerated.

A new survey from Keyfactor revealed that nearly half (48%) aren't ready for the challenges posed by quantum computing, which will render public-key cryptography obsolete. Mid-sized organizations appeared particularly vulnerable, with 56% saying they weren't prepared.

While 42% of cybersecurity leaders said they were actively addressing quantum risk, 33% plan to respond when the risks are more immediate, 24% are waiting to see what actions other companies take, and 2% have no plans to address risks at all.

It's all about perception, however. Companies that view post-quantum cryptography (PQC) as a significant undertaking were more than twice as likely to be taking steps now, with 49% doing so, compared with just 24% of those that consider the risks to be minor or overstated.

“Cryptography is the critical infrastructure of our digital world — it’s what keeps data, systems, and trust intact. But that infrastructure is under threat. Cryptographically relevant quantum computers are coming, and when they do, today’s encryption will break,” said Jordan Rackie, CEO of Keyfactor.

“Our research shows that while awareness is growing, action is lagging,” Rickie added. “Organizations that treat PQC as a strategic priority today will be the ones who lead tomorrow — in security, resilience, and digital trust.”

Quantum cybersecurity threats are on the radar for some

Notably, at nearly half (46%) of companies, cybersecurity teams are leading the charge on championing PQC preparedness, followed by the C-suite at 33%, and board members at 22%.

The main driver for action is, unsurprisingly, cybersecurity, cited by 54%. However, half cited enhanced customer trust, 49% reduced cyber insurance premiums, and 48% a competitive edge.

The challenges, meanwhile, are being exacerbated by a lack of skilled personnel, limited time, and competing priorities, both cited by four-in-ten, with unclear industry standards just behind at 39%.

“Post-quantum cryptography is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild the foundation of digital trust,” said Chris Hickman, CSO at Keyfactor.

“It will require a full-scale transformation in how we protect every encrypted interaction, file, and transaction – past, present, and future. This transition is about showing leadership, driving innovation, and building a security posture that can stand the test of time.”

Earlier this year, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) published a timeline it said organizations should follow to prepare themselves for quantum threats.

Aimed mainly at large organizations, it warned they should have identified which cryptographic services need upgrades and created a migration plan by 2028.

Similarly, the cybersecurity agency urged enterprises to carry out high-priority upgrades by 2031, refining their plans as PQC evolves. Meanwhile, by 2035 they should have migrated completely to PQC for all systems, services, and products.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• RSAC in focus: Quantum computing and security
• The quantum computing sector needs to cut the hype and focus on responsible development
• Preparing for the quantum computing revolution

SAS has emphasized the importance of its ongoing investment in quantum AI companies as it looks to master the technology for enterprises ahead of its competitors.

The analytics veteran used its annual conference SAS Innovate 2025 to push quantum AI as a major technological breakthrough in the tech sector. To date, SAS has used ‘quantum AI’ to refer primarily to the optimization method ‘quantum annealing’, used to find the most efficient solution to certain mathematical problems.

Throughout the event, executives from the firm repeatedly stated that quantum AI is a practical, not theoretical, technology. In the opening keynote Bryan Harris, CTO at SAS, spoke to Krista Comstock, director of product and innovation at P&G, which has already unlocked some benefits of SAS’ quantum AI offering.

Comstock told attendees how P&G used SAS’ quantum AI offering to dramatically reduce the computation time on an optimization problem in its manufacturing environment.

To explain the problem, Harris asked the audience to imagine trying to use a five-burner stove, with five pots and pans on top, to cook ten meals while reusing a set number of the pots without cleaning them and without exposing diners to ingredients to which they are allergic.

Solving this problem isn’t just academic, he noted. P&G faces a very similar challenge with its mixing tanks, through which hundreds of ingredients are mixed together and some of which have to remain entirely separate to ensure the finished products aren’t cross-contaminated.

Comstock clarified the total number of potential ingredients mixes P&G faces is 10¹¹⁴, greater than the number of atoms in the universe.

Using traditional solver algorithms in SAS Viya, P&G was able to solve the problem in six hours, compared to just two minutes with quantum. But as is often the case with quantum computing, results on any kind of scale became unreliable.

The pair therefore settled on a hybrid approach, in which the bulk of the problem was solved using quantum AI and the solver algorithm was used to get final results in an optimal place. P&G was able to achieve its results in 12 minutes using this approach, which Comstock revealed marked a 30x reduction.

Enterprises are interested in quantum AI

To coincide with SAS Innovate 2025, SAS published the results of a survey it ran, taking in the responses of 500 business leaders worldwide. Among respondents, over 60% stated they were investing in, or investigating the potential value of, quantum AI for their organization.

At the same time, more than a third (38%) of respondents registered concern over the costs of quantum AI, which still requires highly specialized hardware in the form of quantum processing units (QPUs) and access to sophisticated algorithms.

Gavin Day, COO at SAS, told ITPro that while quantum AI is no longer a theoretical technology, significant R&D is still needed to fully realize its potential and make it cost-competitive for customers.

He added that SAS will need to invest ahead of market demand so that when more customers begin to ask for quantum solutions it’s ready to provide them.

“I think something technology providers have to be able to do is make sure we can scale up the technology for enterprise quantum-like projects, but the barrier to entry needs to be lower so mid-sized businesses and then smaller businesses can adopt it,” Day said.

This was reflected in a media briefing by Amy Stout, principal product manager, Quantum Computing at SAS.

“At SAS, our goal with quantum AI is making the use of quantum simple, fast, and intuitive for our customers,” Stout said, with a commitment to reducing the cost of adopting quantum via targeted research, developing more quantum tools for SAS customers, and working directly with select customers on quantum AI pilot projects.

As quantum AI becomes more of a known quantity, the market will respond by crowding in behind specific approaches that show the most promise.

“In my opinion, there's going to be a lot of consolidation on the quantum hardware providers and so we're going to pay attention to that,” said Day, in acknowledgment of the new families of chips necessary to unlock proper quantum computing.

He predicted some early, significant moves from the hyperscalers, pointing to Microsoft’s recent work on quantum chips as well as recent announcements by Google and AWS. This, he said, will drive down costs and increase demand.

For the moment, SAS is doubling down on its hybrid approach to quantum AI, striking a balance between faster time to solve and the accuracy and reliability of traditional algorithms.

Looking ahead, Day stated that quantum AI would eventually be as core to SAS’ overall offering as agentic AI is today but stressed that it will only be useful for specific kinds of enterprise problems.

To explain, he drew a comparison between quantum AI and the adoption of GPUs.

“All of us are familiar with when GPUs came out, one of the things that all the hardware vendors and a lot of software vendors did was throw all of our problems and calculations at GPUs,” he said.

“There are some instructions and problems that GPUs are excellent at solving, there are others that actually are slower and worse.”

In the same way, Day argued traditional math, analytics, machine learning, and AI techniques will see continued use, as leaders figure out which tools are best suited for which challenges.

Similarly, SAS has committed itself to continued exploration and experimentation with quantum AI approaches. At present, SAS is working with three leaders in quantum computing: D-Wave Quantum Inc, IBM, and QuEra Computing.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• The UK government wants quantum technology out of the lab and in the hands of enterprises
• Jensen Huang changes his tune on quantum computing
• Get started on post-quantum encryption, organizations warned

The UK government has unveiled plans to invest £121 million in quantum computing projects in an effort to drive real-world applications and adoption rates.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) said quantum technologies could lead to everything from improved healthcare systems to systems tackling crime, fraud, and money laundering.

"Backing our world-class quantum researchers and businesses is an important part of our Plan for Change," said secretary of state for science and technology Peter Kyle.

"The UK is home to the second largest community of quantum businesses in the world, and this investment means they can go further paving the way for new quantum tools and products that make our lives easier, fuel growth, and help us tackle the great challenges of our era."

The funding forms part of the UK’s National Quantum Technologies Programme, which aims to back early-stage research and bring it to commercialization.

It includes £46.1 million via Innovate UK to accelerate the deployment of quantum technology across a range of sectors, including computing, networking, position, navigation and timing (PNT), and sensing.

£21.1 million will be allocated to build on the work of the National Quantum Computing Centre, including its testbed program with Innovate UK, and another £10.9 million for the National Physical Laboratory’s (NPL) quantum measurement program to encourage more businesses to make full use of the technology.

Elsewhere, £24.6 million in funding from EPSRC will support the launch of five research hubs announced last year. This includes £3 million in support for training and skills programs intended to bolster the country’s quantum computing talent pools.

Quantum Technology Career Acceleration Fellowships will play a key role in this drive, with £15.1 million allocated to 11 fellowships aimed at developing more real-world applications.

The government said these projects will explore potential use-cases spanning a range of areas, from drug discovery to disease diagnostics.

Government eyes quantum computing fraud crackdown

The UK’s quantum computing sector is booming, according to government figures, with the country already home to the second largest community of quantum companies globally.

The use-cases for the technology are tantalizing across a range of fields, research shows, and the government is keen to harness the technology to tackle fraud in particular - an issue which currently costs the economy £2.6 billion a year.

Quantum specialists at HSBC bank, for example, are already working with government-backed partners like the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) to find ways quantum can be used to identify the indicators of anti-money laundering.

Driving national quantum goals

Today's news includes some already-announced funding, including support for five research hubs and the Quantum Missions Pilot competition.

The hubs will be based in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Oxford, and London, and will work on applications including faster medical scanners, secure communication networks, next-generation navigation systems, and secure and future-proof communication networks.

"Quantum - manipulating the universe at its smallest scale - has the potential to save millions for our economy, create thousands of jobs and improve businesses across the country – stopping fraudsters in their tracks, protecting our bank accounts and more," said Kyle.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Preparing for the quantum revolution
• Satya Nadella hails Microsoft’s 'Majorana' quantum chip breakthrough
• Get started on post-quantum encryption, organizations warned

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has stepped back from his prediction that practical quantum computing applications are decades away following comments that sent stocks spiraling in January.

At Nvidia GTC’s "Quantum Day" event, Huang took a conciliatory tone to the quantum industry, comparing quantum to the GPUs made by Nvidia, noting the latter took plenty of time to make an impact.

"This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong," Huang said, according to CNBC, while opening an event that had a dozen representatives from across the quantum industry.

"This whole session is going to be like a therapy session for me,” Huang added.

Huang further backtracked on his comments in January when he said real-world quantum applications were much further off than many industry stakeholders believed.

At the time, the Nvidia chief executive suggested the technology would only be good at solving specific, theoretical problems.

"Of course, quantum computing has the potential and all of our hopes that it will deliver extraordinary impact," Huang reportedly said. "But the technology is insanely complicated."

Referencing the subsequent stock sell off, Huang admitted he didn't know so many quantum firms were already publicly traded.

"How could a quantum computer be public," he said.

Huang also asked the panel if ‘quantum computers’ was the wrong terminology, suggesting they should be referred to as scientific machines instead.

But D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz disputed that, saying his company's computers are already being applied for actual computing, beyond mere measurement.

"There are computational problems that are of the rage of classical computers," Bratz said, according to Investors Business Daily.

Quantum collaboration

Earlier this week, Nvidia announced it was building a research center to develop and provide technologies to help push forward quantum computing.

The Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Research Center (NVAQC) will bring together quantum hardware with existing AI supercomputing, what Nvidia is calling accelerated quantum supercomputing.

"The NVAQC will help solve quantum computing’s most challenging problems, ranging from qubit noise to transforming experimental quantum processors into practical devices,” the company said in a statement.

The NVAQC will be based in Boston in the US and expected to begin work next year. The center will work with industry and academia, offering access to Nvidia's GB200 NVL72 rack-scale systems, which the company claimed was the "most powerful hardware ever deployed for quantum computing applications".

"Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world’s most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development," Huang said in a statement.

"Working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center is where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers."

Jensen Huang's quantum error

Such an announcement strikes a different tone to what Huang was saying earlier this year. In January, Huang tanked quantum stocks by saying he didn't buy predictions that the technology would have a real commercial impact any time soon, adding that real-world applications were likely decades away.

“So if you kind of said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that’d probably be on the early side. If you said 30 is probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it,” he said at the time.

Quantum Computing Inc shares slipped by 45%, Rigetti Computing by 46% and IonQ by 42% — the total cost of Huang's comments was $4bn in market capitalisation.

That sparked pushback from industry giants including Google, which a few weeks later said it believed commercial quantum computing could arrive within the next five years.

Shortly after that, Microsoft unveiled a quantum chip breakthrough called Majorana 1, saying it could hasten progress towards practical applications.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Nvidia thinks it’s time to start measuring data center efficiency by other metrics
• Jensen Huang has taken Nvidia to the top – but he says the 'suffering' wasn't really worth it
• Satya Nadella hails Microsoft’s 'Majorana' quantum chip breakthrough

The UK's national cybersecurity agency is urging companies to begin preparing themselves for quantum threats by 2035.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has laid out a recommended timeline for transition to quantum-resistant encryption methods, and is strongly encouraging the adoption of post-quantum cryptography (PQC) in the next ten years.

"Quantum computing is set to revolutionize technology, but it also poses significant risks to current encryption methods," said NCSC chief technical officer Ollie Whitehouse.

"Our new guidance on post-quantum cryptography provides a clear roadmap for organizations to safeguard their data against these future threats, helping to ensure that today's confidential information remains secure in years to come."

The public key cryptography (PKC) used today depends on the difficulty of carrying out complex calculations - calculations that quantum computers will be able to solve with ease. PQC, by contrast, is based on mathematical problems that quantum computers can't easily solve.

The advice - aimed mainly at large organizations, critical national infrastructure operators, and companies with bespoke IT - has three major milestones.

By 2028, organizations should have identified which cryptographic services need upgrades and created a migration plan.

Between 2028 and 2031, they should carry out the more high-priority upgrades, and refine their plans as PQC evolves; and by 2035 they should have migrated completely to PQC for all systems, services, and products.

Quantum leap not too far for small businesses

The move shouldn't be too daunting for smaller businesses, the NCSC noted, as service and technology providers will deliver PQC as part of their normal upgrades.

However, it will be a bigger deal for some larger organizations, requiring planning and significant investment.

"Taking inventory of cryptographic assets is going to be a critical step. Businesses cannot manage what they don’t know they have," advised Jason Soroko, senior fellow at Sectigo.

"Part of this inventory needs to also be the most important secrets that they are transmitting over an encrypted session using RSA or ECC cryptographic algorithms. That ensures that they know how to prioritize a mitigation strategy."

The NCSC said it plans to launch a pilot scheme to put organizations in touch with consultancy companies offering support with their discovery, assessment, and planning activities.

The agency is also keen to see organizations share their own experiences, and examples of good practice, perhaps through their relevant industry bodies or in regulator forums.

Post-quantum hardware and software firm PQShield was involved in the development of the global standards for PQC, and its co-founder and CEO Ali El Kaafarani said that higher layers of the supply chain like Semiconductors and OEMs have already started carrying out their own transition roadmaps.

"By 2028, I very much expect the majority of semis and OEMs to have their main product lines post-quantum enabled, which will have the door wide open to the rest of the supply chain, be it telecom, financial, energy, or healthcare, to continue executing their transition roadmaps with actual post-quantum enabled devices or protocols," he said.

“This transition to new cryptographic standards will be the most significant technological shift we have faced this century. IT leaders in every business need to have the PQC transition on their agenda and allocate the time and resources necessary to deliver it, or they risk falling behind the timeline."

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Preparing for the quantum revolution
• We’re a step closer toward a working quantum system and neuromorphic computing – either would revolutionize tech forever
• The quantum computing sector needs to cut the hype and focus on responsible development

Microsoft has unveiled a new chip it says could deliver quantum computers with real-world applications in ‘years, not decades'.

Majorana 1 is the world’s first Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) to be powered by a Topological Core, designed to scale to a million qubits on a single chip.

The announcement is based on the development of the world’s first topoconductor - a new class of materials that enables topological superconductivity, a new state of matter that previously existed only in theory.

To do this, the company has designed and built gate-defined devices that combine indium arsenide - a semiconductor - and superconductor aluminum.

When cooled to near absolute zero and tuned with magnetic fields, these devices form topological superconducting nanowires, with Majorana Zero Modes (MZMs) at the wires’ ends.

"After a nearly 20 year pursuit, we’ve created an entirely new state of matter, unlocked by a new class of materials, topoconductors, that enable a fundamental leap in computing. It powers Majorana 1, the first quantum processing unit built on a topological core," said Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella.

"The qubits created with topoconductors are faster, more reliable, and smaller. They are 1/100th of a millimeter, meaning we now have a clear path to a million-qubit processor."

With the core building blocks now demonstrated — quantum information encoded in MZMs, protected by topology, and processed through measurements — Microsoft said it's ready to move from physics breakthrough to practical implementation.

The next step will be a scalable architecture built around a single-qubit device called a tetron, building up to larger arrays of tetrons delivering multiple error-corrected qubits.

The company said it's also on track to build a fault-tolerant prototype of a scalable quantum computer over the next few years as part of the final phase of DARPA's Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program.

"Together, these milestones mark a pivotal moment in quantum computing as we advance from scientific exploration to technological innovation," said Chetan Nayak, technical fellow and corporate vice president of quantum hardware.

Microsoft’s quantum timeline is a game changer

Microsoft is avoiding any specific timeline beyond its 'years, not decades' claim, and there will no doubt be setbacks along the way. But after years of hype, the prospect of quantum computers with tangible real-world applications is beginning to come to fruition.

Late last year, for example, Google unveiled a new chip, dubbed ‘Willow’, which it said could solve equations that would typically take ten septillion years in a matter of minutes.

The firm suggested that commercial applications could appear by the end of this decade.

However, some leading industry figures are more skeptical. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, for example, recently suggested it would probably take 20 years before useful quantum computers emerged.

Huang’s comments sparked a tumble in shares at a number of leading quantum computing companies.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• Why quantum computing might be much closer to becoming a reality than we think
• Preparing for the quantum revolution
• Why experts are warning businesses to prepare for quantum now

Quantum startup QuEra Computing has raised $230 million in funding in one of the industry’s biggest investment rounds to date.

The funding round saw QuEra secure pledges from a host of major backers, including Google through its Google Quantum AI business unit, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Valor Equity Partners, and more.

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, QuEra Computing specializes in the development and production of quantum computers using “neutral” atom-based qubits. Using lasers to “trap” individual atoms in place, the company claims it can improve efficiency and reduce errors, therefore streamlining the process.

“We use lasers, acting as optical tweezers, to trap individual atoms in place. The lasers suppress atomic movement, effectively cooling the atoms down to nearly absolute zero temperature,” according to QuEra promotional materials.

“At these temperatures, the individual discrete energy levels of the atoms can be resolved and manipulated, some of them leading to huge coherence times exceeding one second.”

QuEra has been operating since 2018, and the firm has worked closely with researchers at Harvard University and MIT to build and operate the world’s largest publicly accessible quantum computer, which is available for use via public cloud or in an on-prem capacity.

Following the investment, QuEra said it plans to accelerate the development of “fault-tolerant quantum computer technology”.

Quantum computers are prone to generating faults within processing because qubits can be disrupted by minor environmental changes such as shifting temperatures or radio signals, creating challenges for users.

“Fault tolerance” refers to the ability for quantum systems to correct errors during processing where possible and to still operate correctly despite persistent errors.

QuEra intends to expand headcount in the wake of the funding round alongside expanding test capacity to scale up and meet demand for high-performance quantum computing - with a particular focus on meeting demand from global research organizations and Fortune 500 companies.

Andy Ory, interim chief executive at QuEra, said the funding represents a “significant milestone” for the company in its bid to provide scalable, accessible quantum computing capabilities.

“Since our last funding round in 2023, we have achieved impressive scientific, technical, and commercial milestones, which have dramatically increased the value of our business,” he said.

“This new investment will fuel our next phase of growth, enabling us to deliver large-scale quantum solutions that address critical business challenges for our customers.”

Quantum computing funding is growing

Big tech interest in quantum computing has been growing steadily in recent years, especially since the rise of generative AI.

Figures from Crunchbase released in November 2024 showed quantum startups had raised $1.5 billion in VC funding in the first three quarters of the year. This marked a significant increase on the $785 million raised in the year prior.

Among these was a $300 million fundraise for Colorado-based Quantinuum, as well as a $75 million Series C raise for British quantum firm Riverlane, which also specializes in quantum error correction.

QuEra’s own research also points toward growing enterprise budgetary considerations in the quantum computing space. Analysis from the firm showed global budgets for quantum applications could rise by around 25% in 2025.

Google’s seal of approval for QuEra in this funding round is a major talking point given its own ambitions in the quantum computing space.

In December, Google revealed it had made a major breakthrough with its ‘Willow’ quantum chip. Using this chip, the tech giant said it had completed calculations that would take current supercomputers 10 septillion years.

At the time, Google said Willow would pave the way to a “useful, large-scale quantum computer”.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• INSERT CONTENT

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang might not be sold on the immediate potential of quantum computing, but industry giant Google appears to disagree.

The tech giant could be aiming to release commercial quantum computing applications within the next five years, according to reports from Reuters this week.

“We’re optimistic that within five years we’ll see real-world applications that are possible only on quantum computers,” Hartmut Neven, founder and lead of Google Quantum AI told the publication.

Neven’s optimistic outlook follows skeptical comments on the real-world applications of quantum computing by Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang last month.

Interest in the potential of quantum technology has been building rapidly in recent years. In July 2024, analysis from Boston Consulting Group projected quantum computing will create anywhere between $450 billion and $850 billion in economic value by 2040.

But despite growing enterprise interest, the quantum computing space still remains in a nascent stage – a talking point which Huang was keen to emphasize, insisting that practical, real-world applications could still be decades away.

“So if you kind of said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that’d probably be on the early side. If you said 30 is probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it,” he said, according to reporting from Axios.

Huang’s critical comments prompted shares in a host of popular quantum computing companies to nosedive. Shares in Quantum Computing Inc fell by 45%, for example, while IonQ experienced a 42% dip.

Notably, shares in Reigetti Computing plummeted 46%. The firm has reported significant growth over the last year, recording an 1,800% rise in stock prices.

Total losses on the back of Huang’s comments amounted to around $4 billion in market capitalization.

Quantum computing hype is building

Huang’s comments on the lack of real-world applications for quantum computing aren’t without merit. However, despite this enterprises still appear to be bullish on the potential of the technology - and this has been reflected in venture capital funding for organizations operating in the space.

Analysis from Crunchbase in November last year showed quantum computing startups had raised $1.5 billion in VC funding up until that point, with funding pledges spanning some 50 deals.

Notably, this marked a doubling of the $785 million raised in the year prior as well as the $963 million raised in 2022, which represented an all-time high.

Direct investment in quantum by enterprises is also building, research shows. A recent study from QuEra Computing found that global budgets for quantum applications are expected to rise by 20% in 2025 alone.

“The projected growth in both confidence and investment reflects a growing recognition of quantum computing’s potential to address complex challenges and drive innovation in key sectors,” the firm said.

Google has a track record with quantum gains

Google’s positive outlook on quantum computing appears to be firmly based around recent successes with the technology. In early December, the company announced it had made a major breakthrough with its new ‘Willow’ quantum chip, for example.

Using the chip, Google said it had successfully completed calculations that would previously have taken current-gen supercomputers 10 septillion years.

At the time, Google said the Willow success would pave the way to a “useful, large-scale quantum computer”, and CEO Sundar Pichai was highly vocal about the potential real-world applications on social media.

“We see Willow as an important step in our journey to build a useful quantum computer with practical applications in areas like drug discovery, fusion energy, battery design + more,” he said.

Quantum computing has long been promised but has yet to genuinely deliver as a reality. Could the future finally be just around the corner? 

In the last few months, IBM, Intel, and other vendors have all announced developments in the world of quantum computing. Intel unveiled its Tunnel Falls 12-qubit silicon-based chip, for example, while IBM announced plans to launch its first European quantum data center and cloud region – another step forward for the quantum cloud.

Industry observers would be forgiven for feeling a distinct sense of deja vu regarding the announcements. Over the last decade or so, the technology has fallen victim to the IT hype cycle in the same way as artificial intelligence appears to have today.

However, while the noise of artificial intelligence (AI) has drowned out much of the quantum discourse in the public arena, engineers and scientists appear closer than ever to making the technology do something useful. 

Step back from dire warnings  quantum technology will render many encryption standards redundant – as well as the ‘steal now, crack later’ threat – and one can detect some definite progress on the technology that appears perpetually “just a few years away”.

Why scientists feel quantum computing isn't within touching distance

Raymond Simmonds, a physicist at the National Institute of Science and Technology, says he’shopeful that useful results might show up within the next few years. 

However, he also points out a more significant milestone was the point at which a quantum computer could perform a calculation simply not possible with regular classical computers. “That’s probably still ten years away,” he tells ITPro.

And, of course, that estimate is for a quantum computer designed for a specific task. Simmonds estimates a universal quantum computer – one that could be reprogrammed in a similar way to classical computers – was still 20 years away.

The issue is one of expectation. It’s easy to forget how long ago the first mechanical switches were implemented, before being shrunk to vacuum tubes, then transistors, and finally to ever more densely packed microchips.

“I think the difference with quantum computers is the bit itself,” explains Simmonds, The mechanical switch was the first ‘bit’, and it absolutely worked. Our bits don’t completely work.”

Simmonds notes challenges around maintaining quantum coherence and error correction before declaring himself more optimistic than others in the field, who believe a practical universal quantum computer is impossible.

IBM turns down the quantum noise

Nature published results from an IBM team in June 2023 showing quantum computing outperforming classical computers. The research attempted to simulate the dynamics of spins in a material model and accurately predict properties such as its magnetization.

One issue with quantum computing is how noisy things tend to be, making results less accurate than those obtained from a classical computer. However, the researchers were able to mitigate the errors and demonstrate IBM’s Quantum ‘Eagle’ quantum processor outperforming classical simulations.

“We are now entering a new era of utility for quantum computing," said Darío Gil, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research.

Intel edges closer to commercialization

Chip giant Intel also took a step forward with Tunnel Falls, a 12-qubit silicon chip, which will be made available to the quantum research community.

Jim Clarke, director of Quantum Hardware at Intel, said the plan was “to build a full-stack commercial quantum computing system.”

By making the technology available to the research community, Intel hopes to improve qubit performance and scalability. The follow-up to Tunnel Falls, already in development, is expected to be released in 2024.

However, as Clarke observes: “There are still fundamental questions and challenges that must be solved along the path to a fault-tolerant quantum computer.”

Therein lies the rub. While vendors continue to warn of the coming quantum storm – Dell’s CTO issued a stark warning during Dell Technologies World 2023 – its actual arrival always seems to be five years or so into the future.

Businesses need to prime for a quantum future

At the other end of the spectrum is Chirag Dekate of Gartner, vice president of research covering quantum, AI, and supercomputing.

Dekate notes the perception that quantum always appears to be five years away, but struck an optimistic tone with the roadmaps being produced by companies such as IBM and Google. 

The pace of innovation in the quantum field is, according to Dekate, outpacing that of the last decade. He goes further to predict the next ten years of quantum development would outpace the previous century of innovation.

“I'm secretly hoping that the time window for practical exploitation is closer to three to five years, as opposed to ten years,” he ssays.

Regardless of the when quantum computing becomes a practical option for businesses, Dekate says enterprises must begin preparing for an “inevitable” quantum future.

Although Dekate is optimistic technological hurdles can be overcome, he describes the industry as a ‘Wild West’, given the lack of standardization between varying quantum computing vendors. Standardizaing software layers, according to Dekate, will becrucial to creating a stable software ecosystem.

Despite technological challenges, such as error correction, Dekate sees a bright future for quantum computing in the near term. 

Where it’s taken classical computing seven decades to reach today’s standards, he says, in terms of quantum computing, this is going to happen over the next seven years”.

“Like we say that every enterprise today is a technology company, every enterprise in the future will be a quantum entity.”

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published draft standards for three algorithms aimed at withstanding attack by quantum computers.

Of the three published so far, CRYSTALS-Kyber is designed for general encryption purposes, such as creating secure websites. The other - CRYSTALS-Dilithium and SPHINCS+ - are aimed at protecting digital signatures.

A fourth, FALCON, is also designed for digital signatures and will be published in 2024.

Quantum technology remains a specter looming over cryptography and has the potential to crack many - if not all - public key encryption techniques. Current techniques are based on mathematical problems that a classical computer would struggle to solve. 

The promise of quantum computers - if and when they finally arrive in a usable state - solves those problems, effectively making current encryption techniques redundant.

NIST acknowledged that quantum computers remained in their infancy and systems powerful enough to defeat encryption algorithms did not yet exist. However, it said: “It’s important to plan ahead, in part because it takes years to integrate new algorithms across all computer systems”.

The point was echoed by Tim Callan, chief experience officer at Sectigo, who urged organizations to adopt a crypto-agile stance that permitted cryptography to be changed at will. He said: “Amazingly, most enterprises can't even tell you what cryptography they have implemented, where it is, how it's being used, whether or not it meets current standards”.

NIST’s announcement has been years in the making. Its efforts to develop quantum-resistant algorithms began in 2016 and have culminated in draft Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) for the selected algorithms.

An additional set of algorithms is expected in 2024 to augment the first set. Dustin Moody, a NIST mathematician and leader of the project, said that the second sets would likely only consist of one or two algorithms and would be designed for general encryption. They would also be based on different mathematical problems, affording alternative defense methods.

That need for an alternative defense method was underscored in 2022 when one algorithm planned for the second set, SIKE, was cracked with a conventional computer.

NIST is far from alone in planning for a future where traditional encryption techniques might be defeated by quantum computers. Google recently announced it would support X25519Kyber768 for TLS secrets in Chrome. The hybrid consists of X25519 - an elliptic curve algorithm, and Kyber-768 - a quantum-resistant key encapsulation method.

Echoing NIST’s remarks, Google said of the change rolled out in Chrome 116: “Many types of asymmetric cryptography used today are considered strong against attacks using existing technology but do not protect against attackers with a sufficiently-capable quantum computer”.

Callan applauded Google’s move to enable the changeover from traditional encryption, noting that a wholesale change of supporting hardware and software would be required. He also noted that the update “makes use of these algorithms much more practical in development or fully controlled environments”.

NIST expects that the completed post-quantum standards will replace three existing NIST cryptographic standards deemed most vulnerable to quantum computers: FIPS 186-5, NIST SP 800-56A, and NIST SP 800-56B.

C-suite executives are becoming increasingly concerned about the growing threat quantum computing presents to cyber security and are less concerned about other novel tech like deepfakes.

While it’s still only a theoretical issue, the scale of the problem quantum would pose has led many companies to plan for it in advance, an expert has said.

“You don’t have any type of proven attacks that can crack encrypted traffic and encrypted data, but they’re really, really worried about it,” said Itai Greenberg, chief strategy officer at Check Point, to ITPro.

A particular concern is the ‘steal now, crack later’ approach, in which hackers could covertly exfiltrate encrypted data today in the hope that years down the road they can decrypt it using quantum computing.

“The magnitude of the impact that something like this can cause to the world is enormous. The whole internet is based on basic encryption algorithms that we all use.”

“I’ve been asked by different, large financial and government institutions about this recently,”

Prominent figures such as John Roese, global chief technology officer (CTO) at Dell, have previously told ITPro that quantum poses a larger threat than AI, though it also carries a range of benefits such as a generational leap in computing speeds.

The UK government announced support for more research into quantum computing in the Spring Statement, while Microsoft is pursuing its own quantum supercomputer.

Despite the alarm raised at the board level, it may not be until the end of the decade that quantum computing is achieved. 

A threat that Greenberg described as ‘more realistic’ than quantum computing in the short term is that of deepfakes. 

This is the technology that allows people to alter their appearance in pre-recorded videos or even over a live conference call, and can be used for novelty or by a criminal to trick a victim into thinking someone they’re not.

Real-time deepfakes were used to trick politicians such as the Mayor of Berlin, and deepfaked audio files like those produced by Microsoft’s VALL-E can be used to believably play the role of a trusted individual over the phone or via audio files in an email.

Greenberg said the threat was considered “niche” in boardrooms at present, and customers are far more concerned about quantum computing than this other novel technology. 

The threat of adding deepfake technology to traditionally successful attacks like ransomware and phishing has been hypothesised for years, since the technology started to become renowned.

The threat has always thought to be real, but one that would arrive in the future. Over the past few years, the technology has become more mature and increasingly convincing across both video and voice, sparking fears that it could usher in a new era of cyber crime sooner rather than later.

“But the quality of deepfake videos and sounds is becoming so good that I can see how this could become a major threat to the world,” said Greenberg.

“On the voice, it’s a much better job than the video level. It’s very, very impressive on the video level but it still feels a little bit fake. But it won’t take too long until it becomes amazing… I’m not talking about years, I’m talking about months.”

He noted that there is no widely-available solution for detecting deepfake videos or calls at present, but that work is ongoing to develop tools rooted in AI to achieve this.

Intel has developed its own tool for detecting deepfakes in real time, called FakeCatcher. It works by picking out key details in an individual’s face, then using deep learning to analyze the changing color of blood under their skin. 

This is a feature of biology that deepfakes cannot reproduce, so works as an effective marker that a person is really who they appear to be. Intel claims it has a detection accuracy of 96%, and that this even applies to heavily compressed video.

In the meantime, Greenberg stressed that companies should continue to bear in mind that there are always new technological challenges but that existing best practices should be upheld.

One way in which companies are assessing their own core security standpoints right now is by looking at their cloud infrastructure.

Greenberg said that many companies have struggled to effectively distribute their security when they moved to the cloud, and lost the hard and fast firewall and security barriers they previously enjoyed in on-prem storage and computing.

“From a security standpoint, the cloud as we know it is very prone to mistakes,” he also noted.

“A small mistake that you make in the cloud can put you in a position of big risk, whereas when you make a small mistake on-prem you still have the defense of the perimeter.”

Many companies moved to the cloud in the past few years, but in light of the complexities it presents this pace may have slowed down. Greenberg urged companies to establish a clear, consolidated security platform in the cloud rather than relying on disparate security products.

“I think that customers are gradually and slowly moving critical machine applications to the cloud. They started by shifting a lot of IT applications to the cloud, but as they are moving their mission critical elements they’re taking baby steps to do it properly.”

The creation of a “reliable and practical” quantum supercomputer could be reached within the next decade, according to researchers at Microsoft. 

In an announcement outlining its quantum computing roadmap this week, the tech giant said it has achieved the “first milestone” towards developing next-generation computing capabilities. 

Chetan Nayak, technical fellow and corporate VP of quantum hardware at Microsoft, said the firm's ambitions rest on recent advances in the development of ‘topological qubits’. 

Microsoft announced last year it had reached a breakthrough with the development of these qubits, which offer far greater reliability and stability compared to traditional techniques. 

Harnessing topological qubits, Nayak said the company will be able to develop a quantum supercomputer capable of performing 1 million reliable quantum operations per second (rQOPS), which marks a step change compared to current capabilities. 

A peer-reviewed paper published by Microsoft researchers outlines these capabilities, noting that the breakthrough has significant long-term potential. 

Quantum development challenges

The announcement follows years of development in the quantum computing space for Microsoft, which Nayak noted has proved challenging in terms of ‘scaling up’ capabilities.

“A quantum supercomputer must be powered by reliable logical qubits, each of which is formed from many physical qubits. The more stable the physical qubit is, the easier it is to scale up because you need fewer of them,” he said. 

“Over the years, Microsoft researchers have fabricated a variety of qubits used in many of today’s NISQ computers, including spin, transmon, and gatemon qubits. However, we concluded that none of these qubits is perfectly suited to scale up.

“That’s why we set out to engineer a brand-new qubit with inherent stability at the hardware level. It has been an arduous development path in the near term because it required that we make a physics breakthrough that has eluded researchers for decades.”

Microsoft’s quantum supercomputer roadmap

Having established a breakthrough, Microsoft said the next phase of its roadmap will focus on several key areas, starting with the development of hardware-protected qubits. 

Hardware-protected qubits will have built-in error protection for computation processes, the company said, and will be smaller, faster, and more controllable for reliability. 

“This unique qubit will scale to support a reliable qubit, and will enable engineering of a quantum supercomputer,” Nayak wrote. “Each qubit operation will take less than one microsecond. This means problems can be solved in weeks, rather than decades or centuries.”

“Our qubits will be controlled by digital voltage pulses to ensure that a machine with millions of them doesn’t have an excessive error rate or require unattainable input/output bandwidth.”

High-quality hardware-protected qubits, which are the next phase of development on the roadmap, will then help reduce computational error rates. 

The development of a ‘multi-qubit system’ is also on the horizon, the company added. This will create a series of quantum algorithms that can be “executed when multiple qubits operate together as a programmable Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) in a full stack quantum machine”. 

Longer-term, the goal for Microsoft is to create what it describes as a “resilient quantum system” before finally reaching a fully-operational quantum supercomputer. 

This quantum system, the firm said, will be capable of solving “impactful problems even the most powerful classical supercomputers cannot”. 

Businesses must be more aware of the data requirements for artificial intelligence (AI), and use this period of focus on AI risks to prepare for the quantum computing ‘threat’. 

That’s according to John Roese, global chief technology officer (CTO) at Dell, who shines a light on the main challenges businesses face when adopting AI models, and the lessons they can learn from the deployment of generative AI.

Roese acknowledges the computing bottleneck associated with training AI models, but denies this is the main hurdle holding businesses back when deploying the technology.

“The bigger issue for an enterprise use of a large language model (LLM) is in order to train it, you have to have access to the right data and provide the data to the training infrastructure,” he tells ITPro at Dell Technologies World 2023. “Most customers have not done enough work on their data management.”

Stripping out bias

As an example of good data management, Roese cites Dell’s work over the past four years to eliminate non-inclusive language from its content library and internal code environment. These include labels like ‘whitelist’ and ‘blacklist’.

If an LLM was trained on the firm’s content repository, Roese explains, it would be unlikely to not incorporate the biases of these words. Firms that don’t curate data before using it to train AI models intended for products such as chatbots could inadvertently create services that reflect an inherent racism or misogyny, as demonstrated by Microsoft’s Tay scandal.

“If you want to create a chatbot or an LLM that reflects your dataset, it will reflect your dataset – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and it’s important to know that you've created a dataset that is reflecting your values.”

Roese also notes LLMs work best with unstructured data, as neural networks seek to create connections of their own rather than relying on arbitrary structures. As a result, he says, businesses need to ensure that their data is “sitting in the right place” to be used for training to avoid having to spend lots of time restructuring data down the line.

Are the majority of firms aware of these requirements at present? “No, they're not,” Roese admits. “And that's very disturbing to be perfectly honest.”

AI is a dress rehearsal for quantum

Generative AI has been hailed as one of the most significant technological developments of the century. At Dell Technologies World 2023, CEO Michael Dell compared it to the invention of the internet or PC.

In recent months, many have highlighted the risks of generative AI, with analysts calling it an existential threat, and pioneers calling for a temporary development pause. 

But Roese recommends businesses use the big upheaval generative AI has triggered as a “learning experience” to better position themselves for future technologies that will disrupt the sector to a far greater extent.

“Everybody's talking about generative AI as if it is the destination – but it isn’t,” Roese stresses, arguing people are so “shell-shocked” by the headline-grabbing technology that they have failed to give proper thought to what comes next. “The answer to that is actually quite simple in my mind, it's quantum,” he continues.

The primary use case for quantum, Roese explains, is clear: quantum machine learning. He notes while generative AI is branded as “disruptive” and sparking fear in some, it’s just the logical progression of existing technologies.

“Imagine if it now ran at five orders of magnitude higher performance. And that, inevitably, is coming.”

Maintaining cyber security in the face of developments in quantum computing is something that will become increasingly important as we approach the 2030s.

Experts suggest it’s a matter of if, not when, standards such as AES encryption break down, for example. Once encryption is cracked, the security of data will be wholly undermined.

The private sector isn’t alone in the race to quantum, as many nation-states have already announced huge investments aimed at proactive quantum development and adoption.

In the Spring Statement, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt announced a £900 million ($1.1 billion) fund for quantum computing research, as part of a wider £2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) investment program for UK quantum.

Companies will have to navigate this disruption in the near future, Roese warns, and would do well to use the choppy waters of generative AI as a dress rehearsal for weathering the coming storm of quantum computing.

Exascale computing represents the next frontier in high-performance computing (HPC). It delivers unprecedented processing power capable of executing up to one quintillion (10¹⁸) calculations per second, marking a significant leap forward and enabling breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligenc (AI), climate and weather modelling, drug discovery, and nuclear fusion research.

For years, nations have raced to develop sovereign exascale supercomputers, recognizing their strategic importance in scientific progress, economic competitiveness, and national security. The EU, UK, US, China, and Japan have all made significant advances, with multiple exascale machines now operational.

As the world faces various challenges such as climate change, harnessing the power of supercomputers is going to be an advantage that nations want, and are likely to be protective over once they have it.

Despite its immense power, exascale computing is not just about speed: it is about solving previously intractable problems. With the ability to process vast datasets and run complex simulations, exascale systems are expected to accelerate scientific discoveries, from modelling the universe’s origins to simulating new materials at the atomic level.

What exactly is exascale computing?

Exascale computing refers to a new generation of supercomputers capable of performing at least one exaFLOP, equivalent to one quintillion (10¹⁸) calculations per second. This represents a thousandfold increase over the previous HPC benchmark, petascale computing, which is still very powerful.

At its core, exascale computing is about unprecedented processing power, enabling highly complex simulations, real-time data analysis, and AI model training at a scale never seen before. These machines rely on thousands of interconnected processors and accelerators, such as GPUs and custom-built AI chips, to distribute workloads efficiently, and require vast memory bandwidth and energy-efficient architectures to operate.

The transition to exascale computing has been driven by growing global demand for faster and more detailed simulations in areas such as climate modelling, materials science, and medical research.

Traditional supercomputers, even at petascale levels, struggle with the increasing complexity of modern datasets and AI models. Exascale systems bridge this gap, allowing scientists and engineers to simulate entire planetary systems, predict weather patterns with greater accuracy, or model atomic interactions for next-generation medicines.

Beyond its scientific applications, exascale computing is also a matter of national strategy and security. Countries investing in exascale tech are using it to advance AI, develop next-generation encryption, and enhance defence capabilities.

Which countries have exascale capabilities?

The US remains the leader in exascale computing, with three operational systems. Frontier, launched in 2022, was the world’s first exascale supercomputer, delivering 1.1 exaFLOPS. In 2024, the Aurora system exceeded 1.012 exaFLOPS, followed by El Capitan in late 2024, which became the world’s fastest supercomputer, hitting 1.742 exaFLOPS.

These machines drive AI research, climate modelling, and national security initiatives.

Europe has also made strides, with Jupiter, the EU’s first exascale supercomputer, having gone live in September 2025. France is also building its own exascale supercomputer, with AMD and Atos subsidiary Eviden starting assembly on the Alice Recoque supercomputer in 2026 with an aim to solve complex scientific and industrial problems.

Meanwhile, China and Japan continue to advance their HPC capabilities, though China’s exascale progress remains largely undisclosed.

The UK, however, has struggled to keep pace. Despite announcing a £1.3 billion exascale project in 2023, the government withdrew funding in 2024, shifting priorities to other AI initiatives. As of 2025, the project was revived with £750 million in government backing – though with “exascale” notably missing from the announcement.

Industry applications of exascale computing

Exascale computing is revolutionizing scientific research, enabling simulations and analyses at an unprecedented scale and accuracy, while in climate science, researchers can now model entire planetary systems, predicting extreme weather events and long-term climate changes with greater precision.

Similarly, in astrophysics, exascale supercomputers are used to simulate the formation of galaxies and black holes, helping scientists better understand the universe’s origins.

The healthcare sector is another key beneficiary. Exascale computing accelerates drug discovery and genomic research, allowing scientists to simulate the behavior of proteins and molecular interactions in record time, which has major implications for cancer treatment, precision medicine, and the development of new vaccines.

AI-driven medical diagnostics also stand to benefit, as exascale systems can process vast amounts of patient data, leading to earlier disease detection and more personalized treatment plans.

In the energy sector, exascale computing is driving advances in nuclear fusion, renewable energy optimization, and oil and gas exploration. By running highly detailed simulations, researchers can improve the efficiency of wind farms, optimize energy grids, and develop next-generation nuclear reactors. Companies in the oil and gas industry also use exascale models to better predict underground reserves and reduce environmental impact.

How powerful is exascale computing?

Exascale computing represents a monumental leap in classical supercomputing, providing the raw processing power to perform one quintillion (10¹⁸) calculations per second. To put this into perspective, an exascale supercomputer can complete in one second what would take a human over 31 billion years to calculate manually.

Compared to petascale systems, the previous high-performance computing benchmark, exascale machines are around 1,000 times faster, making them capable of handling unprecedented levels of data analysis, simulation, and AI model training.

However, while exascale computing pushes classical computing to its limits, quantum computing takes an entirely different approach.

Instead of using traditional binary processing (0s and 1s), quantum computers leverage qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously, allowing them to solve certain complex problems exponentially faster. While exascale supercomputers excel in areas like physics simulations, AI, and cryptography, quantum computing is expected to outperform classical systems in highly specialized tasks, such as molecular modelling, financial risk analysis, and encryption breaking.

Despite its potential, quantum computing is still in its infancy, with most systems limited by error rates and hardware constraints. Exascale computing, on the other hand, is already a proven technology, actively driving advancements in AI, medicine, climate science, and engineering.

In the foreseeable future, rather than replacing exascale computing, quantum and classical supercomputers are likely to work in tandem, combining their strengths to tackle some of the world’s most complex computational challenges.

Where next?

Exascale computing represents a major leap in high-performance computing, driving advances in climate modelling, medical research, and AI. With the ability to process one quintillion calculations per second, exascale systems are revolutionising scientific discovery.

As competition in supercomputing intensifies, exascale is shaping the future of AI, advanced simulations, and scientific breakthroughs. The energy demands and software challenges of these systems remain key hurdles, but continued innovation in hardware efficiency and scalable algorithms is pushing the industry forward.

IBM has unveiled its new 433-quantum bit (qubit) processor, while adding three new companies to its quantum network.

The company said the IBM Osprey, its new processor, has the largest qubit count of any IBM quantum computing processor, more than three times the number of qubits in its 127-qubit IBM Eagle processor released in 2021.

The processor is expected to run complex quantum computations beyond what normal computers are able to. To underline its power, IBM said that the number of classical bits that would be necessary to represent a state on the new processor far exceeds the total number of atoms in the known universe.

Additionally, IBM revealed its IBM Quantum System Two, its quantum system that’s designed to be modular and flexible by combining processors into a single system, is expected to be online by the end of 2023.

The company said this machine will be a building block of quantum-centric supercomputing. The company’s goal is to scale up its systems to over 4,000 qubits by 2025, which it says will go beyond the capabilities of existing physical electronics.

“The new 433 qubit ‘Osprey’ processor brings us a step closer to the point where quantum computers will be used to tackle previously unsolvable problems,” said Dr Darío Gil, senior vice president of IBM and director of research.

“We are continuously scaling up and advancing our quantum technology across hardware, software, and classical integration to meet the biggest challenges of our time, in conjunction with our partners and clients worldwide. This work will prove foundational for the coming era of quantum-centric supercomputing.”

IBM has also added new companies to its IBM Quantum Network, made up of over 200 Fortune 500 companies, universities, laboratories and startups that are working towards a quantum future.

This includes Vodafone, to explore quantum computing and quantum-safe cryptography, the French bank Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale, to find use cases in financial services, and Swiss innovation campus uptownBasel, to boost skill development and promote leading quantum and high-performance computing (HPC) projects.

The companies will have access to the world’s largest fleet of over 20 quantum computers which can be accessed through the quantum cloud, said IBM.

“As we continue to increase the scale of quantum systems and make them simpler to use, we will continue to see adoption and growth of the quantum industry,” said Jay Gambetta, IBM fellow and VP of IBM Quantum.

“Our breakthroughs define the next wave in quantum, which we call quantum-centric supercomputing, where modularity, communication, and middleware will contribute to enhanced scaling computation capacity, and integration of quantum and classical workflows.”

A year ago, IBM unveiled the Eagle processor, the company’s first quantum chip that surpassed 100 qubits. IBM developed a new 3D packaging architecture to build the Eagle, and the company said it could be used to develop more advanced quantum processors in the future.

GCHQ's director has called on the UK to invest in quantum technology after warning of impending Chinese technology domination.

In a speech made today, Jeremy Fleming underlined that when it comes to technology, the politically motivated actions of the Chinese state are an increasingly urgent problem that must be acknowledged and addressed.

The nation’s security and prosperity is dependent on "mastering quantum capabilities", he said, without clarifying exactly why quantum technology is of such importance.

The UK needs to maintain a mystery of bleeding-edge tech and systems exponentially more powerful than our current digital technologies that push at the edges of known physics, the director added.

Fleming said the UK must continue to make deep investments in the next generation of key technologies or risk compromising national security and prosperity.

He also warned that the UK’s companies, universities, and intelligence agencies cannot afford to be late to the quantum revolution, or to be relaxed about the extent to which others, perhaps especially in China, are watching their progress.

The definition of national security is being changed into a much broader concept by the actions of China, he said, before branding technology a battleground for control, values, and influence.

“We and our like-minded allies see technology as a way to enable greater freedoms, greater prosperity, greater global collaboration,” said Fleming. “And yes, fair competition. But the Chinese leadership’s approach is to also see it as a tool to gain advantage through control: of their markets, of those in their sphere of influence, and of their own citizens.”

Fleming also mentioned that there are wider concerns about China’s actions around the world. An example of this is in the Solomon Islands, where huge Chinese loans are paying for China tech upgrades. The deals countries are making with China have serious strings attached, he said, which could be offers of new technologies like smart cities, which have the potential to export surveillance and data, or demands for new bilateral security treaties.

“In a future crisis, Beijing could exploit information covertly extracted from client economies and governments, but no doubt use its monopoly to demand compliance in international fora,” explained Fleming. “To catch a glimpse of that future, one need only look at how China has already sought to do just this, leveraging its influence over many smaller nations in votes over technology, ethics and foreign policy.”

China's world-leading rate of patent filings was highlighted and used to exemplify the rate at which the country is developing as a technology-first nation. A total of 43% of the world's patents were filed by Chinese nationals in 2019 and 11% of the UK's research output now includes Chinese authors, too.

He also mentioned China’s digital yuan, and said the way it’s being implemented allows the monitoring of citizens and forces companies to use the service. In the future, it could allow the country to partially evade the sorts of financial sanctions currently being applied to Russia, he warned.

Fleming also referred to China’s development of the BeiDou satellite system, a rival alternative to the GPS, and how the government has forced Chinese citizens and businesses to adopt it and how it’s being built into Chinese exports to more than 120 countries. The BeiDou system is the same technology used by Huawei’s new Huawei Mate 50 phone which was revealed last month.

“Many believe that China is building a powerful anti-satellite capability, with a doctrine of denying other nations access to space in the event of a conflict,” he said. “And there are fears the technology could be used to track individuals.”

Fleming also said China is seeking to subvert or redesign global security standards in a bid for control. He pointed to the “New IP” standards submitted by China to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 2018.

He said that although these standards appeared to come from Chinese industry, the hands of the state were very clear since Chinese tech companies are rarely allowed to move in the space without direction from the government.

The New IP standards proposed would have fundamentally changed some of the principles which underlie the internet, said Fleming. It would reduce interoperability causing fragmentation of systems, and move away from the multistakeholder model, towards greater governmental control, while introducing new tracking methods.

“Thankfully, this proposal has not taken root in the ITU, and the UK had a role in this,” he said.

Aside from investing in quantum technology, Fleming also called for the UK to continue with its deep engagement with the global market. This includes the importance of the chip supply chain, highlighting how important Taiwan is and how the UK cannot recreate the scale of Taiwan’s manufacturing capabilities.

Fleming added that any risks to Taiwan and its chip supply chain have the potential to directly impact the resilience of the UK and global future growth, underlining that this is one example of why the UK tilted its national security and defence efforts towards the Indo-Pacific.

The GSMA has teamed up with IBM and Vodafone to form the GSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce, which the trio say will support the roadmap for post-quantum cryptology.

Their aim is to help define policy, regulation, and operator business processes for the enhanced protection of telecommunications as quantum computing takes on a more prominent role.

Instead of relying on bits for calculation like today’s computers, quantum machines leverage the exponential power of quantum bits, called qubits. That involves a simultaneous mix of 0s and 1s and opens up the possibility of solving complex of problems that today’s supercomputers struggle with.

The Taskforce has been set up to help navigate these new waters. The team will help define requirements, identify dependencies, as well as create the roadmap to implement quantum-safe networking, to help mitigate potential risks.

“The GSMA Taskforce’s goal is to bring together leading global communication services providers with experts from IBM, Vodafone, and other operators and ecosystem partners to understand and implement quantum-safe technology,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer at the GSMA.

These future quantum-safe controls will aim to protect sensitive business information and consumer data from attackers that harvest present-day data for later decryption.

That will be no small feat, either. In its announcement, the GSMA noted the World Economic Forum’s recent estimation that more than 20 billion devices will need to be upgraded or replaced in the next 10-20 years in order to use the new forms of quantum-safe encrypted communication.

“By working together to establish consistent policies, we can define quantum-safe approaches that protect critical infrastructure and customer data, complementing our ongoing security efforts to increase resiliency in future networks,” Sinclair added.

Back in July 2022, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced it had chosen the first four post-quantum cryptography algorithms to be standardised for cyber security in the quantum computing era.

These were designed to rely on the computational difficulty of problems from the mathematical areas such as lattices, isogenies, hash functions, and multivariate equations, and protect current systems from future quantum machines.

Taskforce member IBM, which boasts the world’s largest fleet of cloud-accessible quantum computers, contributed to the development of three of these four chosen algorithms.

“Given the accelerated advancements of quantum computing, data and systems secured with today’s encryption could become insecure in a matter of years,” warned Scott Crowder, Vice President of IBM Quantum Adoption and Business Development.

“IBM is pleased to work with the GSMA Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce members to prioritize the telco industry’s move to adopt quantum-safe technology.”

Quantum computing still sounds like the realm of science fiction. The promise is that quantum computing can perform calculations over a hundred million times quicker than the fastest current supercomputer. This will have hugely positive implications for solving the big problems in science.

But it has a darker side effect: encryption that would have taken thousands of years to crack with conventional computers could be dispatched in a matter of minutes – or even seconds. The implication today is that adversaries are currently able to hoover up and store data, which they can attack with a quantum computer in years to come. Some commercial and personal data will remain sensitive far into the future. So, it's worth future-proofing data to withstand quantum computing attacks.

How quantum computing works

The increased performance of quantum computing compared to existing 'Von Neumann' machines is such a massive leap that one could easily be forgiven for not believing it's real. But the speed is a by-product of how quantum computing works, which is markedly different. Traditional computer chips are still based around the computing concept devised by John Von Neumann and published in 1945. In this system, each operation is performed sequentially, by being read from the input device, worked on logically, and then output again back to storage.

Even massively parallel supercomputers function in this way. If they are performing thousands of operations at the same time, each one is still executed sequentially by the CPU core. GPUs are simpler than CPUs, but they contain sequential units too, albeit with much greater parallelisation of lots more units. Traditional computing also works with bits, which have two states - usually represented as 0 and 1. The input will be one state, and after operation the output will be the same or the other state. As problems get more complex, with more possibilities to calculate, breaking these into individual sequential calculations can mean they go well beyond the capabilities of current architectures.

This is not how quantum computers work. Rather than containing lots of individual computing cores to run sequential operations on single bits in parallel, a quantum computer works on the probability of an object’s state before it is measured. Known as a qubit, these states are undefined properties of an object prior to detection, such as the polarisation of a photon or spin of an electron. Because these quantum states don’t have a clear position before measurement, they mix many different possible positions at once, rather than just two.

However, despite being undefined until measured, these mixed states can be 'entangled' with those of other objects in a mathematically related way. By applying the mathematics of this entanglement to an algorithm, complex problems can be solved in essentially one operation. On the one hand, this can be used for very difficult science such as predicting multiple particle interactions in a chemical reaction or creating security codes that are much more difficult to break than current ones. But conversely, they can also be used to crack existing codes that would have been impossible to breach with current computer technology, because they can run through lots of possible solutions at once.

Putting this in perspective, a conventional computer would take around 300 trillion years – 22,000 times the age of the universe – to crack the ubiquitous 2,048-bit RSA encryption. But a quantum computer with 4,099 qubits would require just 10 seconds, using Shor’s Algorithm, which is designed to find the prime factors of an integer used in encryption keys. It’s clear that there is a danger looming for many forms of cryptography. For example, the ubiquitous SSL and TLS used for encrypting web connections employ 2,048-bit RSA keys and would therefore be vulnerable to being breached by a quantum computer.

How fast are current quantum computers?

The good news is that we were not at this stage just yet. While 4,099 qubits don’t sound like a lot when we now have 64-core processors executing more than 3 billion operations per second per core, it’s still more than the most potent current quantum computer. IBM’s Eagle, unveiled at the end of 2021, only has 127 qubits. Google’s Sycamore only has 53 qubits, the University of Science and Technology of China’s Jiuzhang has 76 cubits, and most quantum processors (QPUs) have fewer than 50 qubits. There are ‘quantum annealing’ processors from D-Wave with up to 5,760 qubits, but these require a limited set of possible outcomes, and can’t run the Shor’s Algorithm required to break encryption.

Development is moving forward, however. Xanadu plans to launch a 216-qubit QPU called Borealis in 2022, and IBM aims to hit 433 qubits in 2022 with Osprey, followed by 1,121 qubits with Condor in 2023. So while traditional encryption remains safe for now, it will not be the case for much longer. IBM’s roadmap, for example, is aiming for 4,158 qubits by 2025, making it likely that cracking 2,048-bit RSA virtually in real time will be possible before 2030, which is the final year when NIST originally reckoned it would still be secure. You may not be able to go out and buy a quantum computing desktop computer by 2030 – D-Wave’s first commercially available quantum computer cost $15 million when it shipped in 2017. Prices will fall, but it is only likely to be large companies and countries that have QPUs for years to come. However, not all those countries will have our best interests at heart, so the danger is looming.

Hardening cyber security against quantum computing

Fortunately, there is time to get ready for the threat; for example, by using security products based on post-quantum cryptography. These products can protect your sensitive data today and future-proof it against attacks from quantum computers.

Current encryption algorithms use either integer factorisation, discrete logarithms, or elliptic-curve discrete logarithms, all of which Shor’s Algorithm can defeat using a quantum computer. Post-quantum cryptography switches to alternative approaches that are not vulnerable to quantum computing. Research is still in its infancy based around six primary methods, but there are already products appearing that employ the technology. One example is QST-VPN, based on the OpenVPN library but with post-quantum secure algorithms protecting user data. The server software is provided via the AWS cloud, with clients for Windows, MacOS and a wide range of Linux distributions, and offers an opportunity for businesses to begin bolstering their security now, rather than after the quantum horse has bolted.

Quantum computing has massive potential to revolutionise how fast we can perform calculations. Like every new technological development, this has both good and bad implications. But now that we know what’s in store for cyber security – in the not-too-distant future – we can at least prepare, so that the beneficial potential of quantum computing prevails over the more nefarious possibilities.

Learn more about how QST-VPN can help protect your business

China’s Baidu revealed today its first superconducting quantum computer that fully integrates hardware, software, and applications.

The supercomputer, named Qian Shi, offers a quantum computing service to the public with 10 quantum bits (qubits) of power. Baidu added that it has also recently completed the design of a 36-qubit superconducting quantum chip with couplers.

This is the company’s first industry-level superconducting quantum computer, which incorporates its hardware platform with its software stack. On top of this infrastructure are a number of quantum applications, including quantum algorithms used to design new materials for novel lithium batteries or simulate protein folding.

The internet company has also developed Liang Xi, what it claims to be the world’s first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration that offers quantum services through private deployment, cloud services, and hardware access.

The platform is able to plug into Qian Shi and other third-party quantum computers, including a 10-qubit superconducting quantum device and a trapped ion quantum device developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Users can visit these quantum computational resources via mobile app, PC, and cloud.

Together, the two systems allow customers to create their own quantum-powered algorithms at a fraction of the cost typically associated, Baidu claims.

"With Qian Shi and Liang Xi, users can create quantum algorithms and use quantum computing power without developing their own quantum hardware, control systems, or programming languages," said Runyao Duan, director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at Baidu Research.

"Baidu's innovations make it possible to access quantum computing anytime and anywhere, even via smartphone. Baidu's platform is also instantly compatible with a wide range of quantum chips, meaning 'plug-and-play' access is now a reality."

Baidu is aiming to integrate quantum technologies into its core business, with its Institute for Quantum Computing at Baidu Research aiming to become a world-leading in quantum AI research. The institute was established in 2018 and is looking to build full-stack quantum software and hardware products, create quantum infrastructure, and develop an industrial quantum network.

This comes after Fujitsu and the Riken research institute announced earlier this week they are set to offer quantum computing capabilities to companies operating in Japan.

From April 2023, the Japanese company is set to become the country’s first domestic company to commercialise quantum computing, in a sector that has so far been dominated by companies like Google and IBM.

Fujitsu and the Riken research institute are set to offer quantum computing capabilities to companies operating in Japan.

From April 2023, Fujitsu will become the country's first domestic company to commercialise quantum computing, in a sector which has so far been dominated by the likes of Google and IBM, according to Nikkei Asia.

It’s set to deploy a method of computing that uses a superconductive circuit that is cooled to very low temperatures to eliminate electrical resistance. The computers are predicted to be used in areas like financial forecasting and the research and development of new materials and medicines.

Fujitsu’s computer will have 64 qubits, substantially more than Google's 53 qubit Sycamore machine, opened in in 2019. However, the most powerful system will still be provided by IBM in 2021, operating at 127 qubits, which operates from Kawasaki city in the Kanagawa prefecture.

Fujitsu reportedly stated that it aims to create a computer that contains over 1,000 qubits, although this will not appear until after April 2026, according to Nikkei Asia.

The commercialisation of quantum services is seen as a logical next step for Fujitsu, which already has a number of research projects in operation. This includes a research base in Wako city in the Saitama prefecture to develop quantum computers with Riken, opened in April 2021. There are around 20 researchers participating in the project.

The company also has a joint research project on material design with Fujifilm, launched in April, which makes use of the principles of quantum computing. It also aims to add more partners to bring together more knowledge and data.

Google recently bolstered its Australian quantum computing initiative by adding two new universities to the programme while expanding its investment with two others. This came as part of a $1 billion investment into Australian infrastructure and research to help build the country’s digital country for the future.

The research is set to cover topics like quantum algorthims or quantum hardware research, with university teams looking at ways to make the new technology useful and usable.

Google has bolstered its Australian quantum computing initiative by adding two new universities to the programme while expanding its investments with two others.

The tech giant announced in November 2021 that it was deepening its investment in quantum computing under the Digital Future Initiative, a $1 billion investment into Australian infrastructure, research, and partnerships that aims to help build the country’s digital economy for the future. Through the investment, it launched Google Research Australia.

As part of this, the tech giant is expanding its investment in quantum computing research with Macquarie University (MQ) and the University of Technology (UTS), it said today. It’s also launching new partnerships with the University of Sydney (USYD) and UNSW Sydney (UNSW).

“This collaborative research will help tackle issues of global significance and will span the gamut from quantum algorithms and quantum hardware research,” said Hartmut Neven, engineering vice president of the Google AI Quantum Team. “Teams will look into ways to make quantum computing useful and usable, exploring application fields like sensing, communications and materials science – which have the potential to change how we interact with our world.”

Through the Digital Future Initiative, the company is looking to boost quantum algorithm work in several areas:

• Macquarie University’s professor Dominic Berry will look at developing algorithms that could be used to design a more efficient process to produce fertiliser – or to design faster charging, longer range batteries for electric cars.
• UNSW’s professor Susan Coppersmith is researching the properties of materials on an atomic scale
• Associate Professor Ivan Kassal, from the University of Sydney, will aim to develop new quantum algorithms for simulating chemical reactions, to better understand how pollution affects our atmosphere and ecosystems.
• Professor Bremner from UTS will explore mathematical structures to speed up computation with quantum computers.

The tech giant also revealed it’s building its quantum research team based in Sydney, which includes its newly-appointed quantum computing scientist, Marika Kieferova. Kieferova will help to coordinate these projects and represent the quantum research team locally in Australia. Google hopes the investment will allow it to explore fundamental questions about the nature of quantum computing and help it progress towards scalable quantum computing.

Google isn’t the only big tech company collaborating with universities in the field of quantum computing in Australia. In April, AWS made the Australian National University’s (ANU) ANU Quantum Numbers (AQN) generator available on its platform. This was said to be the world’s most popular and powerful online random number generator which had been running out of ANU’s campus for the last ten years.

Furthermore, the Australian government invested $111 million (£60 million) in quantum technology last November. This was part of a national strategy to secure critical technologies for the country’s future. Quantum technologies were identified as one of the government’s nine technologies for initial focus as part of its Blueprint and Action Plan for Critical Technologies.

The US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has revealed the first four encryption tools that are designed to withstand future cyber attacks powered by quantum computing.

The four selected encryption algorithms will become part of NIST’s post-quantum cryptographic standard, which is expected to be finalised in two years. They’ll be used to withstand potential future assaults by hackers using quantum computers, which may have the ability to crack the security used to protect privacy in digital systems, including in online banking and email software.

The announcement is part of a six-year effort pushed by NIST when, in 2016, it called on the world’s cryptographers to devise and vet encryption methods that could resist an attack from a future quantum computer that would be more powerful than today's most advanced hardware. NIST said the selection of these encryption tools marks the beginning of the finale of the agency’s post-quantum cryptography standardisation project.

Four additional algorithms are under consideration for inclusion in the standard, and NIST plans to announce the finalists from that round in the near future. It said it’s announcing its choices in two stages because of the need for a robust variety of defence tools. The agency also said there are different systems and tasks that use encryption, and a useful standard would offer solutions designed for different situations, use varied approaches for encryption, and offer more than one algorithm for each use case in the event one proves vulnerable.

“NIST constantly looks to the future to anticipate the needs of US industry and society as a whole, and when they are built, quantum computers powerful enough to break present-day encryption will pose a serious threat to our information systems,” said under secretary of commerce for standards and technology, and NIST director, Laurie E Locascio. “Our post-quantum cryptography programme has leveraged the top minds in cryptography — worldwide — to produce this first group of quantum-resistant algorithms that will lead to a standard and significantly increase the security of our digital information.”

Which encryption tools can withstand a quantum computer attack?

The four quantum-resistant algorithms rely on maths problems that both conventional and quantum computers should have difficulty solving, thereby defending privacy both now and down the road, added the agency.

The algorithms are designed for two main tasks for which encryption is typically used, general encryption, used to protect information exchanged across a public network, and digital signatures, used for identity authentication. All four of the algorithms were created by experts collaborating from multiple countries and institutions.

For general encryption, used when users access secure websites, NIST has selected the CRYSTALS-Kyber algorithm. Its advantages include comparatively small encryption keys that two parties can exchange easily, as well as its speed of operation.

For digital signatures, often used when users need to verify identities during a digital transaction or to sign a document remotely, NIST has selected the three algorithms CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON and SPHINCS+. Reviewers noted the high efficiency of the first two, and NIST recommends CRYSTALS-Dilithium as the primary algorithm, with FALCON for applications that need smaller signatures than Dilithium can provide. The third, SPHINCS+, is larger and slower than the other two, but is valuable as a backup for one key reason: It’s based on a different maths approach than all three of NIST’s other selections.

Three of the selected algorithms are based on a family of maths problems called structured lattices, while SPHINCS+ uses hash functions. The additional four algorithms still under consideration are designed for general encryption and do not use structured lattices or hash functions in their approaches.

While the standard is in development, NIST has encouraged cyber security experts to explore the new algorithms and consider how their applications will use them, but not to deploy them into their systems yet, as the algorithms could change slightly before the standard is finalised.

To prepare, NIST said that users can inventory their systems for applications that use public-key cryptography, which will need to be replaced before cryptographically relevant quantum computers appear. They can also alert their IT departments and vendors about the upcoming change.

Amazon Web Services have announced a new Center for Quantum Networking, which will join the ranks of its AWS Center for Quantum Computing and Amazon Quantum Solutions Lab in seeking out and developing new hardware and software to support quantum systems.

The company indicated that emerging quantum networking is to play a key role in the future of AWS, and that it boasts “fascinating possible applications” that put it at an advantage against conventional networking.

The move comes after last month's announcement that AWS would be joining Q-NEXT, a quantum research centre led by the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory.

Quantum key distribution (QKD), in particular, would be a major security benefit of quantum networking, according to AWS. This utilises the principle of quantum entanglement to pair a series of messages sent in the form of photons, so that sender and recipient can each read an identical representation of a unique encryption key. Encrypted messages could then be sent through traditional channels.

In regular networks, bits are the basic unit of information and capable of holding a value of either 1 or 0. In quantum networks, the basic unit of information is called a qubit and can hold a value of 1, 0, both, or neither. Once a qubit has been observed, however, its quantum value collapses and it retains a set value or 1 or 0.

For this reason, if anyone intercepted an encryption key sent through this method, it would be immediately apparent to the sender and recipient because the qubits that arrived with the recipient would have collapsed, and therefore be different to what was original sent.

This is the basic principle of QKD, with the physics of the process itself ensuring that encrypted messages are readable only by the sender and recipient, and easy to spot if they have been tampered with in any way.

There is a long way to go before the current limitations of quantum networks are solved, and AWS notes that among other challenges, “special new technologies, such as quantum repeaters and transducers, will need to be developed in order to implement quantum global networks”.

The inability to amplify photons currently limits network range, while the weakness of individual photons provides a stumbling block for interaction with all but the most sensitive systems.

Despite this, the move to establish a dedicated centre for research in quantum networking indicates real confidence on the part of AWS in the long-term security potential of this research step.

BT and Toshiba have officially launched the trial of their quantum-secured metro network which will protect the transmission of valuable data between multiple physical locations around London using quantum key distribution (QKD).

Although QKD offers “unhackable” encryption that is powerful enough to protect organisations from the rising threat of quantum cyber attacks, it’s still susceptible to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks, in which an exchange between two computer systems is breached by a third party.

However, Andrew Shields, head of the Quantum Technology Division at Toshiba told IT Pro that BT and Toshiba’s network is protected from man-in-the-middle attacks through quantum-safe conventional cryptography authentication:

“When the other side receives a communication, they have to know where it's coming from and that hasn't been changed in transit and we use conventional cryptography to do that authentication,” said Shields.

The cryptography is quantum-safe, meaning that it “can’t be broken by a quantum computer”, he added.

BT's managing director for applied research Tim Whitley told IT Pro that BT had been in touch with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which previously raised the concerns of potential man-in-the-middle attacks.

“They're fully aware of what we're doing in this trial and I think they’re actually very supportive of the research,” he said. The NCSC wasn’t immediately available to comment.

First announced in October 2021 and scheduled to last for three years, the trail follows a smaller-scale experiment successfully conducted last year at BT’s research and engineering campus in Adastral Park, Ipswich, where researchers used a six-metre-long hollow, air-filled cable.

This time around, the fibre ring connecting the three BT core nodes has a total length of approximately 76 km, stretching from Slough to London’s West End and City, with a trial catchment area of 20km in radial distance.

Commenting on the official launch, Minister for Science, Research and Innovation George Freeman said that the trial “represents significant progress towards achieving our ambition to make the UK a quantum-enabled economy”.

“This is the kind of innovation that helps cement the UK as a global innovation economy in the vanguard of discovering, developing and commercially adopting transformational technology with real societal benefits," he added.

AWS has made the Australian National University’s (ANU) ANU Quantum Numbers (AQN) generator available on its platform.

ANU claims that the AQN is the world’s most popular and powerful online random number generator. It has been running out of ANU’s campus for the last ten years where it registered over two billion requests for random numbers from 70 countries. ANU decided to launch the service on AWS to scale AQN and deliver the service faster and more reliably to over 310,000 AWS customers.

The service uses quantum technology to generate truly random numbers at high speed and in real time by measuring the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum. ANU said that the fluctuations are truly random by definition and provide an unbiased source of entropy, or randomness, which can be measured by using a quantum optics setup known as homodyne detection. The numbers are measured and then uploaded to AWS servers to be served via its API.

AQN is now available on the AWS Marketplace, where users can make 100 random number requests per second, for the price of US$0.005 per request.

What are random number generators used for?

ANU researcher Syed Assad said a range of critical applications relies on random numbers.

“Random numbers are needed in IT, data science and modelling,” he said. “Without random numbers, you can’t have reliable models for forecasting and research simulation.

“But they are also used by artists to help with removing human biases from their creative work. In computer gaming and smart contracts, true random numbers are also an indispensable resource. We’ve even had a request from a father to generate random numbers that he then used as inspiration for his daughter’s name,” added Assad.

In the past, AQN has created numbers to assign participants in randomised clinical trials, simulate processes and events in computer games, generate secure passwords, simulate virus outbreak behaviours, and predict the weather.

“Quantum physics practically provides an infinite source of truly random numbers,” said professor Ping Koy Lam, AQN team leader. “These quantum random numbers are guaranteed by the laws of physics to be unpredictable and unbiased.”

“This technology relies on the detection of vacuum. A vacuum is not a region of space that is completely empty and devoid of energy. In fact, it still contains noise at the quantum level.”

Lam added that through the AWS Marketplace, ANU is offering an incredibly powerful source of randomness easily accessible to customers across the globe.

Why use a quantum random number generator?

ANU said that other random number generators can be biassed or may repeat at some point. This can lead to biases in other things like simulations or data science. If an application relies on a truly unbiased source of randomness it can also introduce a weakness or security hole that could potentially be exploited. Quantum mechanics, however, guarantees the numbers that AQN provides are unbiased and the experiment is set up to run automatically without human intervention. It also claims that AQN is the fastest on-demand quantum service available.

The group said that for organisations to run their own random numbers, they would have to build their own reliable quantum random number generator which would mean buying and integrating lasers, optical components, high-speed detectors, and fast electronics. It predicts that for most users, it will be much cheaper to get them through the AWS API.

Tech Central, a government-funded technology and innovation hub, launched a Quantum Terminal today as Australia makes continues to make quantum technology one of its priority focuses.

Q-Ctrl, Sydney Quantum Academy, and Quantum Brilliance are now in place in Sydney’s first centralised live collaboration space for researchers, developers, engineers, and entrepreneurs, said the NSW government. They will be working to advance quantum technology, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence.

The government is also investing up to $21 million (£11 million) to prioritise affordable accommodation for scale-ups. From December, businesses will be able to apply for rebates on rental and fit-out costs of up to $600,000 a year through the Tech Central Scaleup Accommodation Rebate.

The scaleup hub will be operated by Stone & Chalk, a technology innovation hub, and will provide 8,000 square metres of workspace for the high-growth technology scale-ups. Tech Central is currently based across six different areas of Sydney and is the home of the city's tech economy, and hosts companies like Atlassian and Cicada Innovations.

“This is a modern government with a strong understanding of how to foster and harness technological and digital innovation for the good of our citizens and businesses,” said minister for Digital and Customer Service Victor Dominello. “The US has one Silicon Valley, NSW is investing in them across the city.”

Earlier this month, the Australian government announced it was investing $111 million (£60 million) in quantum technology as part of a national strategy to secure critical technologies for the country’s future. The investment allocated $70 million for a Quantum Commercialisation Hub, which will foster strategic partnerships to commercialise the country’s quantum research. The hub will also be supported by the development of a National Quantum Strategy, designed to align industry and government efforts to unlock greater private sector investment.

As part of a $1 billion investment into Australia, Google announced this month that it would deepen its investment in quantum computing research with Macquarie University, which could help design more efficient batteries and allow scientists to make discoveries that were previously out of reach.

The Australian government is investing $111 million (£60 million) in quantum technology as part of a national strategy to secure critical technologies for the country’s future.

Prime minister Scott Morrison released the Blueprint and Action Plan for Critical Technologies today, which identified quantum technologies as one of the government’s nine technologies for initial focus.

The investment allocates $70 million for a Quantum Commercialisation Hub, which will foster strategic partnerships with like-minded countries to commercialise Australia’s quantum research and help the country access new markets and investors. Morrison revealed that its first step is a joint cooperation agreement which the government has signed with the US.

The hub will be supported by the development of a National Quantum Strategy and quantum technologies prospectus, designed to align industry and government efforts and unlock greater private sector investment.

The strategy will be led by a National Committee on Quantum, a group of industry stakeholders and experts which will be headed by Australia’s chief scientist, Cathy Foley.

“This investment will help secure future economic opportunities for Australian businesses, create local jobs and importantly, it will help keep Australians safe,” said Morrison.

The government says it has estimated that the development, commercialisation, and adoption of quantum technologies can deliver the country $4 billion in economic value and create 16,000 new jobs by 2040. It added that advances in the technology may improve Australia's communication networks, defence and national security capabilities, mining and manufacturing precision sensors, and quantum computing capacity.

The investment is part of Australia’s new Blueprint for Critical Technologies which aims to protect and promote critical technologies in the national interest. It aims to ensure Australia has access to, and choice in, critical technologies and systems that are secure and reliable, as well as promoting the country as a trusted and secure partner for investment and research.

It also looks to maintain Australia’s integrity of its research, science, and ideas to help national industries thrive and maximise its sovereign IP. Lastly, it wants to use the blueprint to support its regional resilience and shape an international environment that enables open and competitive markets, and secure and trusted technological innovation.

The blueprint’s action plan specifies the nation’s first-ever Critical Technologies List containing 63 critical technologies, but Morrison said the initial focus will be on nine for now.

The other eight are critical materials extraction and processing, advanced communications (including 5G and 6G), AI, cyber security technologies, genomics and genetic engineering, novel antibiotics, antivirals, and vaccines, low emission alternative fuels, and, lastly, autonomous vehicles, drones, swarming, and collaborative robotics.

BT and Toshiba are set to build and trial a quantum-secured metro network in London, which the companies say is the world’s first commercially available network of its kind.

The new network will connect sites in London’s Docklands, the City, and the M4 Corridor, and will provide data services secured using Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC).

Building on the point-to-point solution launched last year for Bristol-based National Composites Centre and Centre for Modelling and Simulation, the network will be extended to serve multiple customers across London.

The initial trial of the network will be for enterprise customers who are carrying sensitive traffic, like database backups, between sites, and will explore potential future offerings like encrypted links and “quantum keys as a service”.

Operated by BT, the network will provide quantum-secured services including dedicated high bandwidth end-to-end encrypted links, delivered over Openreach’s Optical Spectrum Access Filter Connect (OSA FC) for private fibre networks. The QKD links will be provided through a quantum network that includes both core and access components and will be integrated into BT’s existing network management operations. Toshiba will supply quantum key distribution hardware and key management software.

“We’re excited to be taking this collaboration to the next level by building the world’s first commercially operational quantum-secured metro network in London,” said Howard Watson, CTO of BT.

“Secure, robust and trusted data transfer is increasingly crucial to our customers across the globe, so we’re proud of the role our Quantum R&D programme is playing in making the world’s networks safer as we enter the dawn of a new age of quantum computing.”

In September, BT announced it had conducted the world’s first trial of QKD over hollow-core fibre cable. The technology can be used to conduct ultra-secure communications with reduced latency and no appreciable crosstalk. The company used a cable with a hollow, air-filled centre, which allowed signals to be transmitted over quantum light on a single photon channel, instead of glass used in optical fibre communications.

Infosys is teaming up with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enrich its quantum computing capabilities.

The IT giant will leverage AWS’ Amazon Braket to develop new quantum applications as part of its Cobalt Cloud offering.

“Through our use of AWS in this space, we are bringing together the power of Amazon Braket and Infosys Cobalt to help enterprises build quantum computing capabilities and use cases to accelerate their cloud-powered transformation,” explained Ravi Kumar, president at Infosys.

Kumar added, “We are exploring a variety of use cases from the logistics, finance, energy, and telecom sectors that can help clients evaluate future benefits and value that quantum computing could bring to their business. Enterprises can look forward to solving their various complex computational challenges with Infosys Cobalt and Amazon Braket."

A fully managed solution, Amazon Braket streamlines scientific research and software development for quantum computing. Users can test their algorithms on a local simulator or choose from a variety of fully managed, high-performance simulators.

Infosys will leverage circuit simulators and quantum hardware technologies from Amazon Braket to build, test, and evaluate quantum applications. Infosys center for emerging technology solutions (iCETS), an incubator devoted to engineering next-gen services, will spearhead the development.

Infosys' use of Amazon Braket is aimed at preparing businesses for a future centered around quantum computing. The strategic partnership will also allow researchers and developers to explore and investigate complex computational problems as quantum technologies advance.

“Quantum Computing is an area of intense research, and a number of businesses around the world are asking about its timeline and the opportunities that it could open,” said Matt Garman, senior vice president of sales and marketing at AWS.

“At this stage, it's important to be aware and evaluate the potential future impact of quantum computing. Infosys, a long-standing AWS Premier Consulting Partner, has experience in incubating emerging technology solutions. We see this collaboration as an important step towards setting the right expectations when discussing business problems with customers where quantum computing could have a role."

Researchers in the Netherlands have built a multi-node quantum network. The project is another step on the road to a quantum internet that uses quantum physics for communications.

The team, from research institute QuTech, strung together three quantum processors in a network that enabled each node to talk with the other using a physics process called quantum entanglement. This binds the properties of two quantum particles that are physically separate so the state of one instantly affects the state of the other.

The processors - which the researchers called Alice, Bob, and Charlie - used quantum bits (qubits) to set up their connection using a new quantum network protocol that the researchers created. Alice sends two qubits to Bob. The first establishes the entanglement, and the second is a memory qubit that Bob stores to set up its own connection to Charlie.

When that connection is made, Bob entangles its two qubits, forming a link that connects Alice, Bob, and Charlie together. The quantum networking protocol the researchers created also teleports the entanglement to both Alice and Bob, enabling them to talk directly to each other.

This rudimentary network is significant because, unlike conventional computers, quantum processors allow a single bit to simultaneously represent 0 and 1. This makes it possible to handle far greater computational loads than conventional computing and will pave the way for quantum cryptography that makes it practically impossible to crack an encrypted connection between two devices.

The researchers also created a 'flag' signal that will enable processors to indicate when they're connected. This is critical to scalability, they said.

The team conducted the initial demonstration within the same building, but the researchers look forward to demonstrating the protocol on traditional telecom fiber across their Quantum Internet Demonstrator. This is a network infrastructure it’ll use to demonstrate its quantum research over wider areas. The first metropolitan link is due to be turned on next year.

In the meantime, they will focus on developing higher-level software and hardware layers to build out the technology stack, they said.

QuTech is a collaboration between the Delft University of Technology and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO).

Last October, BT and Toshiba unveiled the first cross-site quantum data connection between two sites, using it to demonstrate how quantum key distribution could secure data traffic. In the US, The Department of Energy and the University of Chicago created a 52-mile link quantum link, with plans to develop it into a three-node network spanning 80 miles.

IBM is teaming up with one of the most prestigious hospitals in the US to bring quantum technology to the field of medical research in order to derive deep insight from complex data at the heart of the biggest health care challenges.

The computing giant has signed a 10-year partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, a world-class nonprofit research hospital. They’re joining forces to use quantum computing to analyze massive amounts of data, intent on making discoveries in fields such as genomics and medications. They’re calling it the Discovery Accelerator.

“Through this innovative collaboration, we have a unique opportunity to bring the future to life,” said Tom Mihaljevic, CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic. “These new computing technologies can help revolutionize discovery in the life sciences. The Discovery Accelerator will enable our renowned teams to build a forward-looking digital infrastructure and help transform medicine, while training the workforce of the future and potentially growing our economy.”

As part of the collaboration, IBM will install a new quantum computer on the Cleveland Clinic’s campus. IBM also plans to install the first of its next-generation 1,000+ qubit quantum systems at a client facility, also to be located in Cleveland, in the coming years.

IBM says quantum computing could have an immense impact on key health care challenges, such as discovering new molecules that can serve as the basis of new pharmaceutical breakthroughs.

IBM keeps hitting quantum computing milestones. The company has built 28 quantum computers in the last four years - eight of them developed in 2020 alone.

The company has successfully doubled its quantum volume for three years running. Quantum volume measures the length and complexity of circuits. The higher the volume, the higher the potential for exploring solutions to real-world problems across industry, government, and research.

The Discovery Accelerator will leverage IBM’s multi-year roadmap for advancing quantum computing, bringing its revolutionary capabilities into the hands of scientists and practitioners in health care and life sciences. In addition to an on-premises quantum system, Cleveland Clinic will also have access to IBM’s fleet of currently more than 20 quantum systems, accessible via the cloud.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned one of the greatest races in the history of scientific discovery – one that demands unprecedented agility and speed,” said Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO of IBM. “At the same time, science is experiencing a change of its own – with high performance computing, hybrid cloud, data, AI, and quantum computing, being used in new ways to break through long-standing bottlenecks in scientific discovery.”

IBM is offering the quantum industry’s first developer certification in a bid to help workforces become “quantum-ready”.

Developers will have to display their knowledge of Qiskit, IBM’s open source quantum development kit, and answer 60 questions in the certification exam.

IBM hopes this will allow people from all development backgrounds to earn a certification in programming Qiskit, “allowing them to leverage their quantum coding skills into a potential opportunity in this exciting new workforce.”

Armed with the knowledge of how to use Python and basic linear algebra, Qiskit allows users to programme quantum computing hardware. Since IBM launched it in 2017, thousands of users have developed applications, maintained and improved code and more.

Now, the company wants to “build a diverse, global, cloud-based ecosystem of developers who can bring quantum computing skills to their own communities and industries.” It hopes that with this new certification, it will help companies and research institutions get their workforce “quantum-ready”.

The certification takes the form of a 60 question exam offered on the Pearson VUE platform and those who pass it must demonstrate experience of using Qiskit to create and execute quantum computing programmes on IBM quantum computers and simulators. They must also display the ability to perform these tasks with little to no assistance from product documentation, support or peers.

IBM also hinted that this is the first of several in a series of new certifications. Upcoming certifications are said to tap into the skills displayed in this newly released certification to demonstrate familiarity with building quantum computing applications to solve problems in optimization, chemistry and finance.”

Earlier this month, IBM unveiled a range of new and enhanced services to help organisations manage their cloud security strategy and controls for hybrid cloud environments. These would be available on the IBM Security Services for Cloud and help enterprises to adopt a consistent and unified security approach across IBM.

You may not have realised it as you were doom-scrolling through news about pandemics and politics, but 2020 was the year of the quantum internet – all thanks to a pair of experiments that suggests this futuristic networking technology could indeed be possible.

It’s not a new idea, with the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) setting up the first quantum key distribution network in 2003 and experiments in quantum teleportation going back to 1997 at the University of Vienna.

So what was so special about 2020? In February, scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China published a paper detailing a 1,200km quantum link with the Micius satellite, the longest yet. A few months later, in September, researchers at the University of Bristol revealed a way to scale this nascent tech beyond a single connection.

“When I started, getting quantum computing to work between two people was a big deal,” says Siddarth Joshi, a research fellow at the University of Bristol’s Faculty of Engineering. “Now we are getting it to work between larger and larger networks. And satellites, when I started, were a dream. Now there’s a satellite in orbit and we’re building other satellites.”

Plenty of other researchers are investigating this area, with notable work at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Chicago, and a Delft University of Technology project to build a network between four cities. But, in 2020, these two sets of results marked a step forward for the tech.

“We can do a lot of interesting things on a one-to-one basis at a near distance,” says Dr Harun Šiljak, assistant professor at the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin. “But when we try to stretch it over hundreds of kilometres, or if there’s dozens of participants, things get ugly. And 2020 brought us both an advancement in trust-free communications over distance with the Chinese, and in terms of scaling with what’s being done in Bristol.”

How it works

What is the quantum internet? With the standard internet, packets of data are sent via networks and reassembled at the other end. For added protection, those packets are now largely encrypted.

Quantum internet takes advantage of inherent connections between quantum bits, or qubits. That link between particles is known as entanglement, and whatever change you make to one entangled particle happens to the other. Rather than sending packets of data, the quantum internet sends an entangled light particle down a fibre-optic line, holding back the particle that’s linked to it. They now have a connection for sending data. Meddle with that and it’s immediately obvious, as any attempt to measure a quantum state automatically changes it – it’s a rule of physics – making it impossible to intercept the transmission.

Qubits can act like binary but better: rather than a one or a zero, a qubit can be either, both or neither, making it possible to encode even more data. Shove one of those qubits into the particle you held back, and the data will show up in the one you sent down the fibre-optic cable.

That’s the simplified version, and it’s so much more complicated than that in reality – not least because physics is hard and particles of light are finicky at best.

We’ve already seen the first wave of this technology, which uses the property of entanglement to share something similar to encryption keys, called quantum key distribution (QKD).

The first quantum key distribution was in 2004 for a bank in Austria, and commercial QKD services are already on offer from companies such as ID Quantique and MagiQ Technologies. QKD is one aspect of the quantum internet, but now there’s work sharing even more information over longer distances to more people.

“The big advantage of quantum communication is that it’s far more secure than anything else,” Joshi says. The encryption we use to protect our communications now is difficult to decrypt, but not impossible – and will become simple when quantum computers arrive. “If somebody has a sufficiently powerful computer, they can solve the problem and be able to decrypt it very easily,” he says.

After all, anyone with a fast PC today could decrypt communications from 30 years ago, if they had access to them. “If you want to keep data secure in the long term, you want something like quantum communication, where it’s not based on a problem that is difficult to solve, but a problem that is impossible to solve – it relies on the laws of physics to ensure that a process is one way, like burning a message on a piece of paper.”

That said, Joshi notes that transmission is only one aspect of security or privacy: If the person you’re sending it to takes a screenshot of the message and posts it to Twitter, it doesn’t matter if it was sent using 30-year-old encryption or quantum networking.

The Chinese satellite

With both experiments, the issue to overcome wasn’t with the idea of the quantum internet but scaling: First in the distance covered and, second, with the number of participants.

Let’s start with distance. This is a problem because of attenuation; the signal decays and that can cause the quantum properties to fade. “You’re trying to distribute something that’s very fragile over a large distance, and you’re doing it through fibre-optic cable,” Šiljak says. That’s true for traditional communications as well, with repeaters in place to boost the light signal and send it forward, but the physics aren’t the same for quantum signals, he adds.

One way of avoiding that issue is line-of-sight transmissions, which works with satellites. In 2016, China launched the world’s first quantum satellite, named Micius, as part of the Quantum Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS) project – at the time, it was dubbed by Popular Science as a “satellite for the post-Snowden age”. It’s widely assumed that China’s focus on satellite quantum communications is due to potential military benefits.

Indeed, this style of quantum communications only works if you trust who runs the satellite. “That’s a major thing,” Šiljak sasaysid. “Back when Micius was just launched … every participant in the conversation had to trust the satellite – you established a connection with the satellite, and agreed on the keys … we pretty much trusted that the satellite on our side is not managed by some entity that we don’t trust.”

That’s no longer the case, with the key exchange happening between the sender and receiver via the satellite, but without the satellite having the means to intercept the data. “That was a big advancement, since that’s what we’ve been imagining with the quantum internet,” Šiljak says. “And it’s finally happening.”

While this means quantum satellites could work, it doesn’t solve the attenuation issues for fibre optics, with researchers in Chicago building a 50km fibre-optic quantum loop to investigate the problem. “If we want anything resembling the internet, we need quantum repeaters,” Šiljak says. “That’s the holy grail we’re pursuing.”

More people

The University of Bristol project, part of the Quantum Communications Hub and UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, scaled up the number of people in the network, connecting eight via quantum communications. It’s not many, but it’s a start.

Previously, one of the challenges with quantum networks was the need for both a transmitter and a receiver, rather like the walkie-talkies you may have had as a child. One set let you speak to a friend, but to include a third friend, you’d need another set. “Now imagine that scaled up to 100 people,” Joshi said. “You’d have to have 99 walkie-talkies.”

The other way to manage such communications is to have a trusted node. Everyone on the network shares their message with the node, which in turn doles it out to the recipient. That’s what Joshi’s project managed using an idea called multiplexing, which means that everyone on the network has a quantum-entangled state with everyone else. He compares it to the internet, where you have one device and one internet cable or Wi-Fi connection, but that setup means you can receive signals from anyone. “We were able to do this across the city of Bristol, so it’s not just a lab demonstration,” he said.

However, there’s a limit to this technology: Go beyond 50 to 100 people on the network and it won’t work. This time Joshi compares it to a home Wi-Fi network, which can normally only connect 32 devices. “The way around that is you have to figure out how to connect one router to another router, and start building larger and larger networks,” he says. “That is exactly what our next step is.”

It won’t be easy. Not only will adding users increase the network complexity, but it’s unclear exactly how the quantum internet will be used in the future, so Joshi and his team don’t know exactly what to optimise for. “Because quantum networks are such an emerging field, you’re trying to create networks that are as flexible as possible,” he says.

Other challenges

Another major challenge for the quantum internet is memory. “The fundamental principle of memory, of something that could store quantum information, is as yet unsolved,” Šiljak says. “It’s another major issue and it touches both on computation and communication.”

Another hurdle relates directly to Šiljak’s own work: Connecting the existing internet to a quantum version. At the core is the idea of reversible computing, in which computers don’t lose information when performing an operation. “Imagine that you have a computer that is summing two numbers. You put in two numbers and you get an output third number – but you aren’t able to reconstruct the inputs from the outputs,” he says. “If the answer is seven, you have no idea which two numbers were used.”

It gets a bit weird here: By losing that information about the inputs, power is dissipated. It’s like entropy, but for computers, Šiljak says of the theory. “If your computer forgets things, it has to spend more energy than a computer that does not,” he explains. When Šiljak started working on that idea, the one example that kept being raised was quantum computers, which have to be reversible by their nature.

What does that have to do with interconnects? While traditional computers aren’t reversible, quantum ones would be – and for them to interact there needs to be a structure in between them. Building that won’t be easy, though.

When will the quantum internet arrive?

Quantum internet won’t replace the existing internet but be an added function. Joshi believes it will start being adopted for specific use cases by government and financial institutions to keep backbone connections secure. That work has already started, with Joshi working with commercial partners, but could take a decade.

It will take much longer for a quantum network to connect all the way down to your house, and will require optical fibre to do so. “We might see limited applications that to an extent resemble our electrical computer network, but not necessarily the internet,” Šiljak says.

That may make the idea of a quantum internet sound unlikely; after all, so far, it can connect two people sitting nearby. But that’s exactly how the internet itself began, argues Joshi, “connecting just two universities in CERN”. In particular, the first communication was sending simple messages. “That’s exactly how the quantum internet is starting right now,” he says. “We have good analogies from the past, we’ve done this all before.”

Indeed, Joshi looks to optical fibre rollouts as another analogy from the past to explain how quantum internet will arrive. First, it will link data centres and other important back-end sites. Then it will filter down in stages, eventually reaching individual homes. “That’s the kind of adoption curve we’re looking at here as well,” he says.

Security for all

Perfectly secure communication has a clear use case for the military, financial institutions and governments, who not only need to know a message hasn’t been read but also have the money to run cutting-edge systems.

However, the researchers behind these projects believe the quantum internet will be for everyone – and should be. “I would say that privacy and security are fundamental rights,” Joshi says. “One day this is going to be universal, everybody wants this.”

In fact, he argues that in the long-term, it’s personal data that matters the most. A financial transaction, such as with your bank, is only of interest to hackers to hijack in the moment, not decades down the line. “You send money, it’s received on the other end of the globe within seconds,” Joshi says. “If you have a sufficiently complex problem that a current computer cannot hack in a few seconds, that’s fine.

“But what do you want to really keep private? Your personal details, your medical information. You don’t want that information to leak out 30 years later and embarrass you,” he adds. “That is where quantum communication really shines.”

Of course, governments have long fought against end-to-end encryption for private individuals, arguing that it gets in the way of prevention and investigation of serious crimes such as terrorism. We can expect them to do the same here. “There’ll be two competing interests,” Joshi predicted. “The government will want the technology to exist in its unmodified and perfectly secure form, and also want the technology to exist such that they can snoop on everybody else.”

This won’t just have a niche application, Šiljak says. If quantum internet can be built in an affordable, scalable way to be used by the military or fintechs then it shouldn’t be too expensive or complex for everyone to use.

“I don’t see a scenario in which it remains a closed technology,” Šiljak says. “Once we have it, it’s going to be distributed globally.”

Q-CTRL has announced a new AI-based toolset to facilitate the unassisted performance optimization of quantum computers.

By and large, quantum algorithms are susceptible to errors, creating a substantial barrier to progress and advancement in quantum computing. Q-CTRL’s new automated closed-loop hardware optimization tool uses custom AI agents to run quantum algorithms, resulting in fewer errors and better overall performance for end-users.

Integrated with Q-CTRL’s flagship BOULDER OPAL software for developers and R&D teams, automated closed-loop hardware optimization is also trained to obtain new experimental data/results from quantum computers while simultaneously running optimizations for algorithms. It can be used as a standalone tool or in tandem with a machine-learner online optimization package (M-LOOP) that manages quantum experiments autonomously.

Users can also use the Q-CTRL Python package to manually send batch requests to experimental apparatus for running multiple tests in quick succession.

Q-CTRL had previously demonstrated its novel quantum technology on an IBM quantum computer, resulting in quantum logic gates for individual qubits (or quantum bits) with up to 10 times better performance than standard logic gates. Q-CTRL’s custom AI agent could also detect new multi-qubit gates autonomously with up to two times lower error-rate.

"Just like software abstraction on conventional computers enables programmers to write algorithms without a need to understand how a transistor works, this tool makes it much easier for researchers to explore the potential of quantum computers," said Michael J. Biercuk, founder and CEO of Q-CTRL.

"Watching a quantum computer tune itself up with this tool and deliver quantum logic with lower errors than that achieved by the best hardware development teams in the world is quite amazing. We believe it will accelerate the development of quantum computer hardware and applications, pushing the industry closer toward delivering real-world business value,” Biercuk added.

Quantum computing is one of those concepts that sound as if it has come straight out of a comic book, like adamantium, vibranium, or Infinity Stones. But while all these things are the products of creative human imagination, the difference with quantum computing is that it’s very nearly here, and the implications could be much more profound than an almost indestructible metal. Most of us at least know that quantum computing promises processing power many orders of magnitude beyond what we have now. But fewer realise how it changes the nature of computing, and just what that means for business.

What is quantum computing?

What exactly is quantum computing and how does it work? A normal computer is binary, so it calculates using logic gates that have two clearly defined states – 0 or 1. A single unit of binary information is called a bit. A quantum computer, however, operates using quantum states to create a qubit. A quantum-level object, such as a photon or an electron, holds all its possible quantum states at once, a phenomenon known as “superposition”, until it is measured. However, superpositions of one object can be “entangled” with those of another, making them mathematically related, thereby producing a chain of calculations that can all occur simultaneously. A special algorithm can then use these connections to solve complex problems much faster than a traditional computer.

This all remained an exciting theory until the first working example with a single qubit was demonstrated in 1997. IBM then managed 2 qubits in 1998, and the power slowly grew after that. Canadian startup D-Wave unveiled a 28-qubit quantum computer in 2007, which was beginning to approach a useful level. Now quantum computing is becoming commercially available. IBM offers 53 qubits; Google’s Sycamore processor is at the same level; but its Bristlecone processor is at 72 qubits, which is currently the largest demonstrated, although Rigetti claims to have 128 qubits nearing operation.

The target of these commercial developments is something called “quantum supremacy”, which is where the quantum computer can easily outperform the conventional equivalent. There is some debate about how many qubits might be required for this. Alexander Dalzell of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena first calculated the requirement at over 10,000 qubits, then more like 2,000, and finally ended up with between 208 and 420 qubits depending on the circuit technology used. But Google claimed its 53 qubit processor had already achieved quantum supremacy, by performing a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years. This has since been contested by IBM researchers, but shows that we are already reaching the point where quantum computing can emerge from the lab and start being used in the real world.

How can quantum computing be harnessed?

What are the implications of quantum computing and why is it important? The stock example is security. A conventional computer capable of one trillion operations per second, currently equivalent to around half a rack of servers, would take approximately 300 trillion years to crack 2,048-bit RSA encryption – around 22,000 times the current age of the universe. But a quantum computer capable of a mere million operations per second would require just 10 seconds using Shor’s algorithm, which is a polynomial calculation designed for quantum computers. In other words, strong encryption that previously seemed impregnable would provide as much protection as using “password” for your password.

None of the currently operational quantum computers are at this level just yet, but they are delivering performance that is providing useful results already in some areas. Commercial services are starting to become available. IBM, D-wave, and Rigetti are offering cloud interfaces to their quantum computers, and Microsoft is releasing Azure Quantum to provide a set of services that allow developers to start learning about and creating quantum algorithms. GPU-based systems are being used to simulate the behaviour of quantum computing so that software can be developed ready for when powerful enough real services become more widely available.

Where quantum computing can help your business

There are four main areas that are already a focus of attention. Cybersecurity is the obvious first one, because if quantum computers render existing encryption worthless, they can also be used to produce more secure algorithms, random number generators and keys that can’t be defeated by their own processing prowess. The other areas revolve around the capacity quantum computing has for comparing lots of different possibilities and finding the optimum one amongst them or best fit. For example, in financial services this could provide portfolio optimisation, high-frequency trading advantages, and more efficient fraud detection. Goldman Sachs, RBS and Citigroup are already recruiting towards taking advantage of these possibilities.

Logistics is another obvious beneficiary. Traffic management, delivery route optimisation, and other traffic-related problems are finding potential quantum solutions, with Daimler and Honda already aiming to acquire quantum computers for these kinds of activities. Similarly, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and materials science can optimise their processes, such as the manufacturing supply chain. Existing quantum computers with just 50 qubits are delivering good results for applications such as protein folding and new drug formula discovery.

There are essentially two types of quantum computing available. Most current offerings are general-purpose gate or circuit-based designs. These can theoretically operate on any kind of quantum algorithm. IBM, Google, and Rigetti offer these kinds of quantum computer. The other type is called an annealing quantum processor, and these can only be used for optimisation algorithms, which find the best solution to a specific problem where the number of options is discrete. D-wave is the main player in this area, and it is claiming to offer 5,000 qubits in 2020, although this can’t be equated with the general-purpose quantum computers, because quantum annealing can’t run Shor’s algorithm so couldn’t be used for cracking encryption, for example. But quantum annealing could be used to solve the “travelling salesman problem”, a format that a lot of common business calculations fit into. For these kinds of computational requirements, it can deliver very useful results already.

However, switching business computing from conventional to quantum computing isn’t a simple matter of code porting. Because the hardware works in a qualitatively different way – massively parallel rather than very fast but essentially serial – functions will need to be redeveloped to take advantage of the possibilities. That’s where a technology partner with specific skills in this area is essential. Reply, for example, is a company that was founded with the purpose of helping businesses get ready for the quantum computing revolution, and has already developed process optimisation and security hardening products for leading Italian companies in railway transportation, banking, telecommunications and energy.

Quantum computing has reached the point where it’s time for businesses to start considering their options so they can gain a competitive advantage. With such a huge amount of computing power on the horizon and some already here, there will be a massive transformation in what is possible as greater amounts of qubits come online. The obsolescence of traditional encryption will just be the beginning, as processes become more efficient and big data-enabled scientific discoveries many orders of magnitude quicker to achieve. What we once called impossible is now merely complex, which will mean companies that start developing now have a clear opportunity to build value, while those that don’t could rapidly be left behind.

Discover how Reply can help your business embrace the power of quantum computing