The Future of Quantum Technology Applications

We may be standing at a moment in time for Quantum Computing that mirrors the 2017 breakthrough on transformers – a spark that ignited the generative AI revolution 5 years later. With recent advancements from Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon in developing more powerful and stable quantum chips, the trajectory of QC is accelerating faster than many of us expected.   Google’s Sycamore and next gen Willow chips are demonstrating increasing fidelity. Microsoft’s pursuit of topological qubits using Majorana particles promises longer coherence times and IBM’s roadmap is pushing towards modular error corrected systems. These aren’t just incremental steps, they are setting the stage for scalable, fault tolerant quantum machines.   Quantum systems excel at simulating the behavior of molecules and materials at atomic scale, solving optimization problems with exponentially large solution spaces and modeling complex probabilistic systems – tasks that could take classical supercomputers millennia. For example, accurately simulating protein folding or discovering new catalysts for carbon capture are well within quantum’s potential reach.   If scalable QC is just five years away, now is the time to ask : What would you do differently today, if quantum was real tomorrow ?. That question isn’t hypothetical – it’s an invitation to start rethinking foundational problems in chemistry, logistics, finance, AI and cryptography.   Of course building quantum systems is notoriously hard. Fragile qubits, error correction and decoherence remain formidable challenges. But globally public and private institutions are pouring resources into cracking these problems. I was in LA today visiting the famous USC Information Sciences Institute where cutting edge work on QC is underway and the energy is palpable.   This feels like a pivotal moment. One where future shaping ideas are being tested in real labs. Just as with AI, the future belongs to those preparing for it now. QC Is an area of emphasis at Visa Research and I hope it is part of how other organizations are thinking about the future too.

The last two days have seen two extremely interesting breakthroughs announced in quantum computing. There is a long path ahead, but these both point to the potential for dramatically upscaling ambitions for what's possible in relatively short timeframes. The most prominent advance was Microsoft's announcement of Majorana 1, a chip powered by "topological qubits" using a new material. This enables hardware-protected qubits that are more stable and fault-tolerant. The chip currently contains 8 topologic qubits, but it is designed to house one million. This is many orders of dimension larger than current systems. DARPA has selected the system for its utility-scale quantum computing program. Microsoft believes they can create a fault-tolerant quantum computer prototype in years. The other breakthrough is extraordinary: quantum gate teleportation, linking two quantum processes using quantum teleportation. Instead of packing millions of qubits into a single machine—which is exceptionally challenging—this approach allows smaller quantum devices to be connected via optical fibers, working together as one system. Oxford University researchers proved that distributed quantum computing can perform powerful calculations more efficiently than classical systems. This could not only create a pathway to workable quantum computers, but also a quantum internet, enabling ultra-secure communication and advanced computational capabilities. It certainly seems that the pace of scientific progress is increasing. Some of the applications - such as in quantum computing - could have massive implications, including in turn accelerating science across domains.

⚛️ Two quantum breakthroughs this week just moved us significantly closer to practical quantum computers that could solve real-world problems. Alice & Bob in Paris achieved something remarkable: their "Galvanic Cat" qubits can now resist errors for over an hour - that's millions of times longer than standard qubits that typically last only microseconds. This solves quantum computing's biggest challenge: keeping information stable long enough to perform meaningful calculations. Meanwhile, Caltech physicists assembled the largest qubit array ever built: 6,100 neutral atoms trapped by 12,000 laser "optical tweezers" with 99.98% accuracy. Think of it as building a quantum city where every atom is perfectly positioned and controlled. 🏗️ Here's why this matters for every industry: 💊 Pharmaceutical companies could simulate molecular interactions in hours instead of years, accelerating drug discovery 🔋 Materials scientists could design better batteries and solar panels by understanding quantum behavior 🧬 Medical researchers could unlock new treatments by modeling complex biological systems 🏦 Financial institutions could optimize portfolios and detect fraud with unprecedented precision These cat qubits could reduce quantum computer hardware requirements by up to 200 times compared to competing approaches - making quantum computers not just more powerful, but dramatically cheaper and more accessible. 💰 The actionable insight: Start preparing your teams now. Companies that understand quantum applications in their field will have a massive competitive advantage when these systems become commercially available in the next 5-7 years. What quantum applications could transform your industry? Share your thoughts below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/ea4p9Sby https://lnkd.in/e8Urf97w

PsiQuantum Achieves Breakthrough in Mass-Producing Light-Powered Quantum Chips American quantum computing startup PsiQuantum has announced a major breakthrough in manufacturing scalable photonic quantum chips, marking a significant step toward making practical quantum computing a reality. The company, which emerged from stealth mode in 2021, has been working on a light-powered (photonic) quantum computing approach, which was previously considered impractical due to hardware limitations. Why Photonic Quantum Computing? • Photonic quantum computers encode data in individual particles of light (photons), rather than in superconducting circuits like many other quantum systems. • This approach has key advantages: • Low noise compared to superconducting qubits. • High-speed operation due to the natural speed of light. • Seamless integration with fiber-optic networks, which could make quantum internet feasible. • However, the challenge has always been scaling up, as photons are difficult to control, detect, and stabilize in large-scale computations. PsiQuantum’s Breakthrough • In a paper published in Nature, the company unveiled a manufacturing process that enables large-scale production of photonic quantum chips. • The new hardware design solves key engineering problems, making it possible to reliably manipulate and measure photons at scale. • Unlike previous photonic quantum systems, which struggled with extreme hardware demands, PsiQuantum’s solution reduces errors and improves stability in complex computations. Implications for the Future of Quantum Computing • Scalability Achieved – This breakthrough could allow for mass production of quantum chips, removing a key bottleneck in commercial quantum computing development. • Quantum Networking Potential – With natural fiber-optic compatibility, photonic quantum computers could lead to highly secure quantum communications networks. • New Industrial Applications – The technology may soon be applied to optimization problems, cryptography, and materials science, revolutionizing industries that require complex simulations. The Bigger Picture PsiQuantum’s ability to mass-produce photonic quantum chips puts light-powered quantum computing in direct competition with other approaches, such as superconducting and trapped-ion quantum systems. If successful, it could make quantum computing more accessible, scalable, and commercially viable—a leap forward in the race to achieve practical quantum supremacy.

📘 Quantum Technologies Are Entering a Strategic | The Plug and Play Tech Center report "Quantum Leap: Transforming Industries with Emerging Tech (2025)" offers a timely, ecosystem-level perspective on how quantum technologies are transitioning from long-term research to early commercial and strategic relevance. Rather than treating quantum as a single breakthrough moment, the report frames progress across three interconnected domains: quantum computing, quantum communication, and quantum sensing. Together, these technologies are beginning to influence real-world decision-making in areas where classical systems struggle—such as large-scale optimization, complex simulation, secure communications, and high-precision measurement. One of the report’s most important contributions is its emphasis on near-term value creation. It highlights how hybrid and quantum-inspired approaches, delivered through cloud platforms, are already enabling experimentation and pilot deployments across industries including healthcare, finance, energy, logistics, aerospace, and automotive. At the same time, the report underscores the growing urgency of post-quantum cryptography, as “store-now, decrypt-later” risks push organizations to rethink long-term data security. Equally notable is the report’s focus on the quantum value chain and innovation ecosystem. It makes clear that competitive advantage will not come from hardware alone, but from the integration of software, talent, data, partnerships, regulation, and intellectual property strategy. As investment shifts toward later-stage quantum startups and applied use cases, organizations that build these capabilities early will be better positioned as the technology matures. Overall, The Quantum Leap positions quantum not as a distant moonshot, but as a strategic augmentation to AI and classical computing—one that requires thoughtful planning today. For leaders in regulated and technology-intensive industries, the message is clear: the time to build hybrid architectures, workforce readiness, governance models, and secure deployment pathways is now. #QuantumComputing #EmergingTech #DeepTech #InnovationEcosystems #AI #Cybersecurity #FutureOfIndustry #TechnologyStrategy

Intelligence Report on Quantum Diplomacy in Action 2025–2026 (Geneva, October 2025 – Third Edition) This third edition, produced under the patronage of #Switzerland and GESDA - Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator with contributions from UNESCO , CERN -hosted Open Quantum Institute (OQI), ILO, UNIDIR and many others, sounds an urgent yet hopeful alarm: fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC) is now realistically expected within the coming decade and will profoundly reshape economy, #security, #labour markets and #global #equity. Key findings: 1. Technology & Economic Maturity
Quantum advantage in real-world applications is projected by ~2030. Global public investment has reached ≈$40 billion (mid-2024), yet private funding slowed in 2023. Market size is ~$870 m (2024) → $5 bn by 2030, with potential $180 bn economic value added. 2. The Widening Quantum Divide
Quantum infrastructure, funding and talent remain heavily concentrated in the Global North. UNESCO’s 2025 global survey shows 32 % of institutions have zero quantum facilities and 84 % of countries experience net talent outflow or stagnation. Without deliberate action, quantum risks amplifying existing digital and development divides. 3. Future of Labour
Quantum + AI + automation convergence could restructure value chains, especially in pharmaceuticals, materials, energy and finance. Anticipatory upskilling toward “quantum literacy” and cross-disciplinary competence is essential by 2030. 4. Global Security & Cryptography
“Harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks already underway. Transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is the most urgent priority; QKD remains complementary for specific high-security links. NIST finalised first PQC standards in 2024; migration must accelerate. 5. SDG Applications
OQI has supported 19 multidisciplinary use cases targeting health (new antibiotics, drug metabolism), water (leak detection, aquifer modelling), food security, and climate (weather forecasting, carbon capture). A rigorous multi-phase methodology from ideation → proof-of-concept, with donated cloud access, is yielding the first small-scale NISQ-era results. The report closes with a global Call to Action (Annex V) urging all stakeholders — from hardware makers to policymakers — to commit portions of resources (10 % proposed) to inclusive, peaceful and sustainable quantum development, ensuring the second quantum revolution serves humanity and the planet rather than deepening division. For further details you are invited to read the full report and for a deeper dive, you might also enjoy my Quantum Trifecta Newsletter. #quantum #investing #economy #trade #society #digital #technology #diplomacy #sovereignty

Breakthrough for the #quantum internet: For the first time a major telco provider has successfully conducted entangled photon experiments - on its own infrastructure. ➡️ 30 kilometers, 17 days, 99 per cent fidelity. Our teams at T-Labs have successfully transmitted entangled photons over a fiber-optic network. Over a distance comparable to travelling from Berlin to Potsdam. The system automatically compensated for changing environmental conditions in the network.   Together with our partner Qunnect we have demonstrated that quantum entanglement works reliably. The goal: a quantum internet that supports applications beyond secure point-to-point networks. Therefore, it is necessary to distribute the types of entangled photons. The so-called qubits, that are used for #QuantumComputing, sensors or memory. Polarization qubits, like the ones used for this test, are highly compatible with many quantum devices. But: they are difficult to stabilize in fibers.   From the lab to the streets of Berlin: This success is a decisive step towards the quantum internet. 🔬 It shows how existing telecommunications infrastructure can support the quantum technologies of tomorrow. This opens the door to new forms of communication.   Why does this matter for people and society?   🗨️ Improved communications: The quantum internet promises faster and more efficient long-distance communications. 🔐 Maximum security: Entanglement can be used in quantum key distribution protocols. Enabling ultra-secure communication links for enterprises and government institutions 💡Technological advancement: high-precision time synchronization for satellite networks and highly accurate sensing in industrial IoT environments will need entanglement.   Developing quantum technologies isn’t just a technical challenge. A #humancentered approach asks how these systems can be built to serve real needs and be part of everyday infrastructure. With 2025 designated as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, now is the time to move from research to readiness. Matheus Sena, Marc Geitz, Riccardo Pascotto, Dr. Oliver Holschke, Abdu Mudesir

For those tracking progress in Quantum… As my colleague Hartmut Neven has predicted, real-world applications possible only on quantum computers are much closer than people think – as near as five years, even though fully error corrected quantum computers may be further away.  Recently, my colleagues on our Quantum AI team at Google Research took another important step on that path with a new set of results we published last week in Nature that share a promising new approach to applications on today’s quantum computers. Our analog-digital quantum simulator using super-conducting qubits shows performance beyond the reach of classical simulations in cross-entropy benchmarking experiments. Simulations with the level of experimental fidelity in this simulator would require more than a million years on a Frontier supercomputer. The simulator brings together digital’s flexibility and control with the analog’s speed – and provides a path towards applications that cannot be accomplished on a classical computer. Along the way, my colleagues also made a scientific discovery – they observed the breakdown of a well-known prediction in non-equilibrium physics, the Kibble-Zurek mechanism - an important result in our understanding of magnetism, and also useful in various kinds of quantum simulations. Congratulations to Trond Andersen, Nikita Astrakhantsev, and the rest of the team on this exciting step – much more to come! You can read the Nature paper here: https://lnkd.in/gg2En5qe 

🚨 Quantum Computing Breakthrough in Finance 🚨 HSBC just announced a world-first. By using IBM’s Heron quantum processor, the bank achieved a 34% improvement in predicting bond trading probabilities. This marks the first time a bank has applied quantum computing to real financial trading data at scale, moving beyond theory and into production-level application. Some are calling this a “Sputnik moment” for quantum. That is not a perfect analogy, given the geopolitical nature of Sputnik and the corporate implications of HSBC's use of quantum computing. But I am not surprised to see a big leap forward for quantum in the world of finance. In fact, when I wrote Quantum: Computing Nouveau back in 2018, I predicted this exact trajectory: that quantum would move from academic labs to financial markets and other industries where optimization, forecasting, and massive data challenges are prevalent. In my 2018 book, I outlined - Why finance would be among the earliest adopters of quantum, thanks to its reliance on complex risk management, forecasting, and trading models. - How quantum computing could deliver step-change improvements in processing power, solving problems classical computing struggles and corporate NP problems. In computer science, NP (nondeterministic polynomial-time) problems are problems where it’s easy to verify a solution once you have it, but extremely hard to calculate the solution in the first place. - The looming arms race for quantum advantage, not only among tech companies, but also in financial services, energy, logistics, and governments. HSBC’s milestone confirms that we’re crossing the threshold from theory to practice. Quantum computing isn’t just “new math”—it’s new computing, with profound implications for markets, cybersecurity, and global competition. 🔮 Back in 2018, I wrote that quantum computing is not just optional. It is a conditio sine qua non for the future of finance and data-driven industries. Today, we’re watching that future unfold. #Quantum #QuantumComputing #Future #Finance https://lnkd.in/gMNc2M9b

𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗿𝘂𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲. Quantum technologies are unlocking a new layer of resilience and foresight. From predicting logistics breakdowns to securing global trade routes, the frontier has shifted. Those who wait for “maturity” will be left managing legacy risks. The World Economic Forum's Report shows how quantum computing, sensing and communication are transforming the industrial core. Essential Takeaways for #CEOs, #CTOs, #PolicyLeaders, and #InnovationHeads & #Investors ✅Quantum is moving from labs to production floors. Early adopters are deploying quantum applications in materials science, logistics and energy systems with measurable ROI. ✅The new competitive edge lies in quantum readiness. Firms investing in infrastructure, partnerships, and talent now will own the standards of tomorrow’s industrial intelligence. ✅Value creation depends on convergence. Quantum only delivers impact when integrated with AI, IoT, and digital twins ✅Quantum supply chains are becoming predictive. From demand forecasting to dynamic risk mitigation, quantum optimization can turn uncertainty into advantage. ✅Manufacturing innovation will multiply. Quantum simulations enable the discovery of new materials, catalysts, and batteries that are lighter, stronger, and more sustainable. ✅Collaboration is non-negotiable. No single actor can scale quantum. Public-private alliances, open standards, and shared testbeds will define success. ✅Talent and governance are the real bottlenecks. The technology is advancing fast but skills, regulation,and trust frameworks lag behind. Aligning them is the next strategic frontier. ✅National ecosystems are the new power centers. Countries that build cross-sector quantum coalitions will shape the industrial policies and export advantages of the next decade. ✅Risk management must evolve. Quantum introduces new cybersecurity, IP, and supply risks. Resilience frameworks must adapt before the technology scales. ✅The winners will master orchestration, not ownership. Quantum success won’t come from hoarding IP but from integrating across value chains faster than competitors. 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 ►Manufacturing: Faster design, smarter materials, less waste. ►Supply Chains: Real-time visibility and risk anticipation. ►Energy & Mobility: Breakthroughs in batteries and grid efficiency. ►Healthcare: Molecule modeling that shrinks R&D from years to weeks. Bottom Line Nations investing now In Quantum will own the future of productivity. Behind every quantum breakthrough is a simple truth that smarter tech only matters when it strengthens how we build, connect and trust. Reflection Point What happens when your competitor’s supply chain sees the future and yours doesn’t? #QuantumComputing #AI #SupplyChain #Manufacturing #TechConvergence #Leadership #Innovation