Quantum Computing ‘Making Progress Faster Than Expected’

Quantum computing technology is developing faster than expected and is set to outperform classical computing in five years, a new industry report has found.

QuEra, a quantum computing company based in Boston, Massachusetts, surveyed 920 international quantum computing academics, scientists and professionals for its report, “The Current and Future State of Quantum Computing.”

More than half (51%) of respondents said they believe quantum computing technology is making faster progress than expected with 40% saying it will become a superior alternative to classical computing for certain workloads within the next five years.

Asked about how their organizations expected to see a return on investment from quantum computing, the top two responses were solving previously unsolvable problems (72%) and solving problems faster than classical systems (68%).

Technology developments in recent years have proven a source of optimism, tackling the main barriers to quantum computing development and adoption identified by the respondents, scalability (33%), error correction and fault tolerance (31%) and hardware performance (20%).  

Participants said scalability is the biggest challenge facing quantum computing. Credit: QuEra

“Recent major breakthroughs have significantly accelerated quantum computing development and reduced the timescales for adoption,” said QuEra chief commercial officer Yuval Boger.

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“The first computer capable of achieving quantum advantage is slated to hit the market in 2026 and companies realize they will soon be in a race for first-mover advantage. We’ve seen a huge shift in companies moving from experimenting and educating their workforce, to preparing to capitalize the very minute quantum advantage computers hit the market.” 

However, it may not be plain sailing. A third (33%) of experts expect their organization to be caught off guard by the rapid progress of quantum. A majority of 65% also expect a cloud resource bottleneck similar to the soaring demand for GPUs that the AI boom triggered.  

Global Differences

QuEra’s survey included 350 respondents based in Europe and 338 in the U.S. and their responses highlighted international differences in attitude toward quantum development.

It found that 82% of respondents in the U.S. believed their country was well-positioned to play an important role compared with just 42% in Europe.

The importance of quantum sovereignty also varied between countries, with 34% of experts in the U.S. and France saying it is important that quantum technology be developed in their own country, compared with 24% in Germany and just 14% in the U.K. However, the U.K. is most open to international collaboration, with 60% agreeing it is important that quantum computers are made by friendly trading partners.

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“We have seen nations taking different approaches to developing and adopting quantum computers,” said Boger.

“Some are keen to integrate both local and global companies to contribute to its quantum ecosystem, while others are far more nationalistic and closed off. It’s clear that experts see the U.S. playing a leading role and the U.K. is one of the most confident European countries, suggesting their strategies may be paying off.”