Exploring Quantum Technology

Turning Europe into a quantum industrial powerhouse Europe has been the cradle of quantum mechanics, the revolutionary science born from the genius of Max Planck, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and other visionaries who rewrote the rules of physical reality. On 2 July 2025, in the year marking a centenary since the initial development of quantum mechanics, the Commission has adopted an ambitious European Quantum Strategy, integrating Europe's unique scientific heritage with its vibrant quantum ecosystem of startups, SMEs, large industries, research and technology organisations, academia and research institutes. The mission is clear: turn Europe into a quantum industrial powerhouse that transforms breakthrough science into market-ready applications, while maintaining its scientific leadership. We are imagining a Union where medical scans can detect illnesses at the earliest stages, accelerating from weeks of uncertainty to mere seconds of precise diagnosis; where sensors are able to warn about volcanic activity or water shortages before they happen; and where unprecedented computational power will be available to solve complex problems in logistics, finance and climate modelling. A safer Europe, where our personal data, critical infrastructure, and businesses will always remain private and well-protected; where transport systems are optimised to reduce congestion and prevent accidents; and air travel is guided by quantum-enhanced precision navigation, pinpointing objects' locations down to the centimetre. A greener Europe, where sustainable energy grids can flawlessly manage millions of electric vehicles charging simultaneously overnight. These tangible, transformative technologies are within reach through support from the EU Quantum Strategy. The quantum community has clearly outlined what's needed to achieve this future: · Combine Europe's scientific excellence to bring quantum breakthroughs rapidly to market · Develop advanced quantum supercomputers like the ones we are supporting under the Quantum Flagship and are acquiring under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking to operate as accelerators next to our leading network of supercomputers · Deploy secure communication networks such as those under EuroQCI, our secure quantum communication infrastructure that will be spanning the whole EU, composed of a terrestrial segment relying on fibre communications networks linking strategic sites at national and cross-border level, and a space segment based on satellites · Support quantum startups and SMEs, enhancing supply chain resilience, and foster supranational innovation clusters · Integrate quantum advancements into strategic capabilities for security and defence, protecting citizens and infrastructure · Educate Europe's workforce through specialised initiatives like the European Quantum Skills Academy Quantum is not one more technology to add to the list; is a high tide that will deeply transform our society and economy.

The most important thing about the U.S. government's $2 billion quantum announcement may not be who received the money. It may be what they were paid to fix. Last month, the U.S. government published one of the clearest maps yet of where quantum computing actually breaks — not through a technical roadmap, but through nine letters of intent proposing $2.013 billion in federal incentives. Read the scope attached to each company, and this stops looking like a list of winners. It starts looking like a government-authored diagnosis of the engineering gaps between a laboratory device and a manufacturable quantum system. Seven of the nine are quantum computing companies. Here is what each was asked to solve: D-Wave: dielectric materials, interface control, and advanced packaging. Rigetti Computing: integrated readout electronics and next-generation cryostat architectures. Atom Computing: the hardware and systems integration required to control tens of thousands of neutral-atom qubits. PsiQuantum: electro-optic materials, single-photon detectors, and ultra-low-loss photonic packaging. Quantinuum: low-loss integrated photonics and reliable optical components at trapped-ion wavelengths. Diraq: scalable, reliable silicon-spin qubit arrays and their manufacturing integration. Infleqtion: high-power optical systems, readout, error correction, and large-scale neutral-atom integration. The pattern matters. These proposed investments are not primarily searching for a new qubit modality or another laboratory demonstration. They are aimed at reproducibility, yield, control, readout, packaging, interconnects, and systems integration. The bottleneck has not moved away from physics. It has expanded beyond physics. The central question is no longer only, "Can a qubit work?" It is, "Can thousands — or eventually millions — of devices be fabricated, connected, controlled, and operated with sufficiently consistent performance?" Taken together, these seven bets map the bottlenecks closest to the processor. The other two recipients — IBM and GlobalFoundries — were paid to build the foundry layer underneath. That layer is where the real structural question lives. Next. Views are my own

A quantum processor is not defined by its best qubit. It is limited by its worst. A week ago, I celebrated the 1.68 ms "hero qubit" T1 time from the Princeton Nature paper. It’s an incredible materials science achievement. But for fault-tolerance, we don't need one perfect qubit. We need thousands of "good enough" qubits that are uniform and stable. So, let's "flip the story" and look at the spread in that same paper. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲-𝘁𝗼-𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 The paper transparently reports data on 45 qubits across nine chips. If you look at the time-averaged quality factor (Qavg), the variation is significant. • 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝘁: Qubit 34 hits an average quality factor of 15.2 million. • 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝘀𝘁: Qubit 27 only 5.5 million.    That is a 𝟯𝘅 𝘀𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 in performance on devices made from the same "recipe." 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲-𝗙𝗹𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 Even more critical is the temporal instability. A qubit's T1 is not a fixed number; it fluctuates. The paper reports a mean T1 fluctuation span of 𝟯𝟲%. And this 36% span, monitored over 88 hours, might not even capture the full picture. It misses faster, millisecond-scale fluctuations that the measurement protocol wasn't designed to resolve. Most notably, this 36% span is "𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗾𝘂𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀, 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗾𝘂𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲". 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 The platform is so clean that it confirms a fundamental truth: 𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗲𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗧𝟭, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘆𝗲𝘁 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺. The UHV fabrication step, for example, did not improve T1 but improved T2E (coherence). So we tackled dephasing noise, not relaxation. Better materials alone won't save us. At least not in the near-term. We clearly need to double down on real-time control that can track and adapt to these fluctuations. And are we even seeing the full picture? How fast are you measuring your T1s? 📸 Credits: Bland et al., 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 volume 647, pages 343–348 (2025) Andrew Houck Nathalie de Leon

Many of you will have seen the news about HSBC’s world-first application of quantum computing in algorithmic bond trading. Today, I’d like to highlight the technical paper that explains the research behind this milestone. In collaboration with IBM, our teams investigated how quantum feature maps can enhance statistical learning methods for predicting the likelihood that a trade is filled at a quoted price in the European corporate bond market. Using production-scale, real trading data, we ran quantum circuits on IBM quantum computers to generate transformed data representations. These were then used as inputs to established models including logistic regression, gradient boosting, random forest, and neural networks. The results: • Up to 34% improvement in predictive performance over classical baselines. • Demonstrated on real, production-scale trading data, not synthetic datasets. • Evidence that quantum-enhanced feature representations can capture complex market patterns beyond those typically learned by classical-only methods. This marks the first known application of quantum-enhanced statistical learning in algorithmic trading. For full technical details please see our published paper: 📄 Technical paper: https://lnkd.in/eKBqs3Y7 📰 Press release: https://lnkd.in/euMRbbJG Congratulations to Philip Intallura Ph.D , Joshua Freeland Freeland and all HSBC colleagues involved — and huge thanks to IBM for their partnership.

Three weeks ago, our Devsinc security architect, walked into my office with a chilling demonstration. Using quantum simulation software, she showed how RSA-2048 encryption – the same standard protecting billions of transactions daily – could theoretically be cracked in just 24 hours by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer. What took her classical computer billions of years to attempt, quantum algorithms could solve before tomorrow's sunrise. That moment crystallized a truth I've been grappling with: we're not just approaching a technological evolution; we're racing toward a cryptographic apocalypse. The quantum computing market tells a story of inevitable disruption, surging from $1.44 billion in 2025 to an expected $16.22 billion by 2034 – a staggering 30.88% CAGR that signals more than market enthusiasm. Research shows a 17-34% probability that cryptographically relevant quantum computers will exist by 2034, climbing to 79% by 2044. But here's what keeps me awake at night: adversaries are already employing "harvest now, decrypt later" strategies, collecting our encrypted data today to unlock tomorrow. For my fellow CTOs and CIOs: the U.S. National Security Memorandum 10 mandates full migration to post-quantum cryptography by 2035, with some agencies required to transition by 2030. This isn't optional. Ninety-five percent of cybersecurity experts rate quantum's threat to current systems as "very high," yet only 25% of organizations are actively addressing this in their risk management strategies. To the brilliant minds entering our industry: this represents the greatest cybersecurity challenge and opportunity of our generation. While quantum computing promises revolutionary advances in drug discovery, optimization, and AI, it simultaneously threatens the cryptographic foundation of our digital world. The demand for quantum-safe solutions will create entirely new career paths and industries. What moves me most is the democratizing potential of this challenge. Whether you're building solutions in Silicon Valley or Lahore, the quantum threat affects us all equally – and so does the opportunity to solve it. Post-quantum cryptography isn't just about surviving disruption; it's about architecting the secure digital infrastructure that will power humanity's next chapter. The countdown has begun. The question isn't whether quantum will break our current security – it's whether we'll be ready when it does.

Most enterprises treat quantum computing as a nerdy R&D curiosity. A mistake. Critical business problems, which are fundamentally constrained by classical computing today, are likely to be solved by 2030. With a hybrid combination of high performance computing and quantum approaches. Three sectors stand out: Pharma, Life & Material Sciences: Drug discovery is essentially a molecular simulation challenge. Classical systems approximate. Quantum systems are designed around quantum mechanics itself. Thus, it is not just about faster research, but the ability to model molecular interactions with higher fidelity. For protein folding, compound optimization, personalized therapeutics. Reaching quantum advantage first in pharma won’t merely accelerate pipelines — it will redefine them. Financial Services: Banks, insurers, stock exchanges operate enormous optimization, transaction or probability engines. E.g., for risk simulations, or fraud detections. Many of these problems scale exponentially in complexity. Quantum algorithms are particularly promising where classical Monte Carlo simulations hit practical limits. And, quantum computing is becoming a cybersecurity challenge. Post-quantum cryptography migration will likely be one of the largest infrastructure transitions the financial sector has seen for decades. Complex Logistics & Supply Chains: Airlines, shipping companies, manufacturers, energy grids, and global retailers all face combinatorial optimization problems. These systems already operate at scales where small efficiency gains create major business impact. Enterprises operating in these segments should get „quantum-ready“ now: • Identify quantum-relevant business problems • Work with quantum partners who advocate an open approach • Build internal quantum literacy • Develop hybrid workflows • Prepare your security stack for the post-quantum era. Additionally we need quantum computing companies delivering at production scale. IQM Quantum Computers calls this Production Quantum. Which is the delivery of a production-ready full stack solution rather than just a scientific solution for a specific problem. This is the same pattern we saw with #AI. The competitive gap formed before the technology fully matured. #Quantum readiness is becoming a strategic capability and critical timing question. For an increasing number of enterprises. Not only for R&D departments.

Lets Learn #Quantum – Post #16: Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) The Invisible Safe: Why Hackers Are Stealing Data They Can't Read Yet The biggest short-term impact of quantum computing isn't what it can create. It is what it can destroy. Right now, our digital world relies on encryption algorithms like RSA to protect banking, emails, and cloud data. Standard supercomputers would take thousands of years to crack them. But quantum computers change the rules. Running Shor’s Algorithm, a quantum computer could break today's encryption in hours. The Threat Happening Right Now Why care today if full-scale quantum computers are still year away? Because cybercriminals are actively executing a strategy known as Harvest Now, Decrypt Later (HNDL). Imagine a thief stealing a locked titanium safe. They cannot open it today, so they hide it in a basement and wait. Years from now, a new tool is invented that pops that safe open instantly. That is HNDL. Bad actors are intercepting and archiving sensitive enterprise data today, waiting for the day a quantum computer can unlock it. If your data needs to remain secret for the next decade, it is already at risk. Enter PQC: Upgrading the Locks Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) is the defense. It is a new generation of math shields designed to resist attacks from both conventional and quantum computers. The breakthrough? PQC runs seamlessly on your current servers, smartphones, and cloud platforms. Think of it as swapping out a traditional door lock for a multi-dimensional biometric scanner. The house stays the same; only the lock changes. Instead of traditional math, PQC relies on Lattice-Based Cryptography. Think of it like a maze with thousands of overlapping dimensions instead of two. Even a quantum computer gets completely lost trying to find the exit. The Strategic Reality You cannot swap out the security architecture of a global enterprise overnight. Migrating infrastructure takes years, which is why forward-thinking leaders are already auditing networks and testing PQC algorithms today using a hybrid approach. The quantum threat is not a future IT issue. It is a current strategic risk. The question for leadership is no longer: "When will a quantum computer be built?" The real question is: "Will our data still be secure when it arrives?" #QuantumTechnology #PostQuantumCryptography #PQC #QuantumSecurity #CyberSecurity #QuantumComputing #DigitalTransformation #DataProtection #TechnologyLeadership Co-authored with Atul Tripathi Sundar Ram, Sachin Arora, Himanshu Ghawri, Azizur Rahman, Shivendra singh, Prasun Nandy, Jaydeep Sarkar, Joydeep Roy, Arihant Garg, Amit Kumar, Hetal Shah, Arun Rangaraju, Sayantan Chatterjee, Rajesh Kumar Ojha, Dr. Raghav Manohar Narsalay, Praveen Sasidharan, Sundareshwar K (Sundar), Manu Dwivedi, Venkat Nippani, Himadri Ganguly, Ritesh Jain, Abhijit Chakraborty, Sumit Srivastav, Anit Shanker #soyoucan

Quantum Computing and Defense: The Next Strategic Frontier Quantum computing presents major implications for future military and defense technology. Based on available public and government data, five nations are leading global investment in quantum research with dual-use (civil and defense) potential: 🇨🇳 China ↳ Estimated $15 billion in national quantum R&D funding ↳ PLA-linked institutes developing quantum communication and sensing ↳ Quantum satellite demonstrations for secure communication ↳ Leads globally in quantum patents and publications 🇺🇸 United States ↳ Multi-billion-dollar investment through the National Quantum Initiative ↳ Coordination across DOE, NSF, DOD, and NIST ↳ Defense projects via DARPA and Air Force Research Lab ↳ Focus on quantum cryptography, simulation, and sensing systems 🇪🇺 European Union ↳ Over €10 billion committed by EU and member states collectively ↳ Quantum Flagship (€1 billion) drives collaborative R&D ↳ Focus on dual-use sensors, communications, and aircraft systems ↳ Partnerships across Germany, France, and the Netherlands 🇬🇧 United Kingdom ↳ £2.5 billion (≈ $3 billion) through the National Quantum Strategy ↳ MOD projects in quantum radar, navigation, and timing ↳ Strong collaboration between government, academia, and industry ↳ Clear pathway toward operational defense applications 🇨🇦 Canada ↳ CAD 360 million through the National Quantum Strategy ↳ Partnerships between universities and the Department of National Defence ↳ Research focused on secure communications and quantum simulation ↳ Active contributor within NATO’s emerging tech discussions These investments reflect each nation's strategic priorities in next-generation defense capabilities. The data shows substantial government commitment across all five countries, with varying approaches to implementation. What trends do you see in your country's technology investments? Share your thoughts on defense technology development ♻️ Repost to help people in your network Follow me for more defense technology analysis

Today in Science Magazine, work from our IBM team, in collaboration with The University of Manchester, University of Oxford, ETH Zürich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg, shows the creation and simulation of a new molecule with an electronic structure that has never existed before — a half‑Möbius topology: https://lnkd.in/eFU5s9qR. The molecule was assembled using scanning probe microscopy at temperatures just above absolute zero — building it one atom at a time using STM, atom manipulation, and AFM. The electronic orbitals of this half‑Möbius molecule twist by 90 degrees with every loop around the ring, completing a full turn only after four revolutions. Why is this also important for quantum computing? This work demonstrates, for the first time, that quantum computing calculations can provide decisive scientific guidance and powerful characterization capabilities to support the discovery of new complex chemical molecules. In close collaboration with leading experimental laboratories, quantum simulations can now contribute directly to interpreting experimental observations and to guiding the design and understanding of novel molecular systems. The calculations performed in this project go well beyond the regime accessible to brute-force classical simulations, although we do not exclude the possibility that approximate classical methods could also provide valuable insights. Nevertheless, the discovery process itself benefited from quantum simulation, and we chose to employ quantum computing because it offers a natural and scalable framework for tackling problems of this kind. In particular, by comparing Dyson orbitals measured with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) with images reconstructed from electronic structure calculations performed on a quantum computer using the SqDRIFT algorithm, we were able, for the first time, to contribute directly to the discovery and characterization of a new molecule exhibiting entirely novel electronic structure properties. paper: https://lnkd.in/esg9sHqV

🌟 NEWS BREAK: Quantum AI is not waiting for enterprise certainty. 💫   That was the clearest signal from my #SASInnovate conversation with Amy Stout, Head of Quantum Product Strategy at SAS. This was such a refreshing conversation, and I wanted to share it with you.   For years, many leaders have treated quantum as something fascinating, expensive, and comfortably distant. A technology to watch, not yet a capability to prepare for. Amy reframed that assumption with useful precision.    Quantum is real today. The question is maturity.    The systems exist. The use cases are emerging. The hardware still needs to evolve. Yet, the organizations that wait for perfect certainty may find themselves behind when quantum capability becomes commercially decisive.    SAS’s #QuantumAI survey shows that 60% of businesses are already exploring quantum AI. That number matters because the barrier is no longer only cost. Amy highlighted three barriers leaders must address together: 1️⃣ High cost 2️⃣ Lack of skills 3️⃣ Uncertainty around practical real-world use cases.    The last one is the leadership challenge.  Where does quantum AI create value first?    Amy pointed to three areas where the opportunity is becoming clearer: 1️⃣ Optimization 2️⃣ Machine Learning 3️⃣ Simulation. Optimization matters when organizations face an exponential number of variables, interactions, and possibilities. Machine learning may help teams explore certain datasets in richer ways. Simulation could become especially powerful in areas such as chemistry, molecular modeling, and other problems that classical computing struggles to solve.   For CEOs, CTOs, and boards, the takeaway is not to turn quantum into another technology slogan.    It is to treat quantum AI as a #ReadinessDiscipline. 📍 Which problems are complex enough to justify experimentation?  📍 Which workflows could benefit from quantum-classical approaches?  📍 Which skills should we start developing now?  📍 Which partners can help us learn without overcommitting?    Amy made one point that stayed with me: even if significant ROI is still several years away, readiness cannot be built overnight.    This is where #ExecutiveJudgment matters.    Quantum AI is not yet a universal enterprise answer. But it is already a leadership question.    The opportunity is to build the capability, confidence, and use-case clarity that will allow organizations to act when the timing becomes right.    Where is your organization today: watching quantum AI from a distance, or learning where it may create value first? Some practical tips here: https://bit.ly/49n5mie   #SASInnovate #SASVisionary #QuantumAI #ExecutiveJudgment #ReadinessDiscipline