State of Quantum Computing:

Building a Quantum Economy

INSIGHT REPORT
SEPTEMBER 2022
Images: Getty Images, Unsplash

Contents
Preface 3

Executive summary 4

Introduction 5

1 Quantum computing: a rapidly growing economy 8

1.1 Global initiatives and public financing 10

1.2 Private financing 12

2 What can and will quantum computing do? 17

2.1 A new set of computing possibilities 18

2.2 Key sectors for high-impact applications 20

3 State of technology 26

3.1 Critical components for quantum computer operation 27

3.2 How developed are quantum computers? Are there many? 28

3.3 Which quantum computer is best? 30

3.4 What hardware is needed to run applications 35

4 Unlocking technology potential 36

4.1 Workforce availability and development/training 37

4.2 Policies and regulations 39

4.3 Standardization in developing algorithms and performance 40

measurements

Conclusion 42

Contributors 43

Appendix 44

Endnotes 45

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State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 2

September 2022 State of Quantum Computing:
Building a Quantum Economy

Preface
Derek O’Halloran
Head, Shaping the Future of Digital
Economy and New Value Creation;
Member, Executive Committee,
World Economic Forum

Quantum computing is seen as a strategic to support informed opinion and fact-based

technology by the world’s leading economies. This decision-making. The report seeks to avoid both
fundamentally new way of computing – it is not just over-excited hype and the downplaying of the
a stronger classical computer – has the potential to potential impact of quantum computing.
dramatically recast our ability to tackle climate change,
hunger and disease. For many, its potential to render Quantum technologies rebuild computing from
common cryptographic technologies obsolete, its the 1s and 0s up – replacing the “bit”. Knowing
economic potential and its impact on global digital the science behind turning on a light switch is
economy make it geopolitically strategic. not necessary to understand the transformational
impact of electricity on societies. At the same time,
Today, however, the combination of uncertainties the basic concepts and language of electricity no
that come with an emerging technology and a longer feel exotic or even scary. This document
rapidly moving but fragmented landscape make attempts to demystify quantum computing and
it difficult for decision-makers across the private build functional literacy among industry and
and public sectors to maintain awareness, build government leaders and influencers.
understanding or know when and how to act.
The insights shared in the paper are brought
This report aims to give a holistic and neutral to light by the World Economic Forum’s Global
overview of the current state of play in quantum Future Council on Quantum Computing. Thanks
computing – the technology, its applications, the to Council’s work, quantum computing becomes
state of the emerging industry and key components accessible and enjoyable to read about. Most
of a successful quantum ecosystem. It aims to importantly, it enables everyone to learn new ideas
provide an accessible baseline of information for and start considering how quantum computing will
business executives and policy-makers worldwide, impact their walk of life.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 3

Executive summary
Quantum computing is real, and
organizations need to take notice now.

Quantum technologies refer to a range of Most quantum applications with provable

technologies based on our growing ability to see and advantage over classical methods (including
control reality on a subatomic (“quantum”) level to breaking encryption) will require a large-scale
build sensors and an entirely new form of computing quantum computer to realize. Different hardware
and communications. Quantum technologies are platforms for quantum computing are currently
rapidly maturing, with an ever-growing number of being pursued internationally, at various stages of
governments and businesses launching strategic development and technical achievements. Yet, no
initiatives and collectively investing more than platform has reached the required scale, speed
$35.5 billion across multiple continents.1 Today, the and quality of computation to demonstrate an
technology is still in the research and development advantage over classical computers in a practical,
and demonstration phase, making it hard to predict real-life application. Moreover, it is too early to say
exact time horizons and applications – leading to which platform will be the first to reach the needed
various beliefs and bets in the market. scale, quality or when.

This report focuses on the computing aspect, At the same time, today’s imperfect quantum
where the unique capabilities of quantum computers are suitable to run a subset of
computers open the potential for tackling applications where a precise answer is not required
complex computation problems that, as a result and seeing trends or a likely direction is more
of fundamental limitations in scaling classical important. This, coupled with cloud access now
computation, would be intractable with classical offered by many quantum computing providers,
computing methods and unlocking new possibilities has allowed many more organizations to start
that have not yet been considered. Consequently, experimenting with quantum applications. Given
many expect that the impact of quantum computing rapid technological developments, it is only a matter
will be as foundationally transformative as the onset of time before an application that provides a real
of classical computing in the mid-20th century. It advantage with the available quantum technology
also comes with risks, as quantum computers are is found. When this occurs, and what application
expected to break the encryption used to secure can make best use of the available computational
modern digital communications, blockchain and resources is the name of the game.
some cryptocurrencies.
While these activities receive a lot of attention,
It is important to note that quantum computing the current quantum computing achievements
is expected to work best across three specific and future development rely on several enablers:
domains of research and industry, with significant workforce readiness, standardization and policy.
economic, environmental and societal opportunities Workforce availability is the critical bottleneck.
associated with them:
Despite uncertainty over when quantum
1. Molecular simulation and discovery in materials computers will be ready at scale, governments
science and biology and businesses must act now, as quantum
security risks and business opportunities cannot
2. Optimization and risk management in be ignored. This is a unique moment in modern
complex systems history where everyone can prepare for the
technology as it is being shaped and matured.
3. A bi-directional impact on existing technology Governments and academia can further work
areas such as AI, security and blockchain. on scaling quantum workforce programmes
and building national ecosystems, incentivizing
All in all, quantum computing is positioned to partnerships. For example, an excellent first
complement classical computing and be applied step for businesses is to understand quantum
to certain tasks outside the reach of today’s computing’s impact on business and industry,
supercomputers, carving out its powerful assess their quantum readiness and formulate a
computational niche that didn’t exist before, quantum strategy, build internal capabilities, and
eventually expanding modern research and align with top management and policy-makers
development and business horizons. on critical focus areas.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 4

 Introduction
Hype around quantum computing has created properties of quantum mechanics to provide a unit
unrealistic assumptions about the technology, that can be one or zero – or anything in between.
but in reality, it is far from maturity. The rules from quantum mechanics include
operations not found in the classical realm, such
Whereas classical computers are built from bits (1s as superposition, entanglement and interference.
and 0s), the basic unit of information in quantum By designing algorithms that take advantage of
computing is a quantum bit (or “qubit”). A “bit” these effects, there is a path towards the solution
is like a gate in an electronic circuit that can be of problems that otherwise might require large
either on or off, whereas a qubit uses the unique classical computing resources.

FIGURE 1 Classical vs quantum computer

Classical bit Quantum qubit

1 0
z
Superposition (50%) 1
0
Overlay of different states

or

x y

0 1
Can be only in one state Can be in a superposition state, by being in one of
at the same time, 0 or 1 multiple states of 0 and 1 at the same time

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 5

 Each chapter of Quantum computers manipulate the quantum technology. Where is money coming from? What
this report offers properties of qubits to solve problems that are too are the highest growing areas? Which countries are
an understanding difficult for classical computers, e.g. factoring large taking this technology seriously, having developed a
of the baseline numbers for potentially breaking RSA encryption. quantum strategy?
(current status) The mere mentioning of these possibilities, given
their unseen potential, makes the public and Chapter 2 examines the potential of quantum
of quantum
media anxious. The complexity of the quantum computing. What can it do now? What will it be
technology, what
theory on which quantum computers are built able to do? Although the promise is great, use
the targets are and only raises the expectations – and fear. If quantum cases are concentrated within a few industries.
estimates how far computers can do things that modern computers The technology is also not a silver bullet for the
from realization can’t, they can do anything; from resolving the climate crisis, despite its potential to offer a great
they are. climate crisis to breaking the internet. With frequent deal of help.
announcements from big companies like Google,
IBM or Microsoft reaching quantum advantage or Chapter 3 provides an overview of existing
achieving a breakthrough with a new type of qubit,2 approaches to building a quantum computer –
the technology seems to be just around the corner. against a simple, original model. It sheds light on
Yet, it is critical to have a more nuanced view of the what it will take for quantum computers to be
excitement. ready, why they are not there yet, why it is so hard
to predict which approach (and organization) will
Each chapter of this report offers an understanding be first to develop a useful quantum computer, and
of the baseline (current status) of quantum when it will happen. Lastly, the chapter touches
technology, what the targets are and estimates how on the link between the maturity of quantum
far from realization they are. Despite a multitude of computers and their ability to run quantum
technology developments, quantum computing is applications – and break today’s encryption.
still in unchartered territory, with many unknowns in
the hardware and the applications space, including Chapter 4 examines whether quantum
the critical question: when will the first quantum ecosystems have all the necessary enablers to
advantage application be seen? This is when the support innovation. What is the limiting factor for
technology will start having a real impact. Is it any organization that wants to explore quantum
achievable with today’s imperfect computers, or is it computing applications? Why is it so difficult to
still a long way off? find the right quantum computing provider to
partner with?
This report offers guidance in four areas:
The hype around quantum computing is real, and
Chapter 1 looks at the current level of funding, this report is a guiding light to help companies
industry growth and national interest in quantum jump-start their quantum journeys.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 6

Do you speak quantum? Top 12 concepts to know

Below are some key terms and definitions that Quantum error correction (QEC): A
will become familiar over the course of 6 computing technique for dealing with errors
this report. in quantum computers that exploits encoding
across extra (large) number of qubits to
reduce errors rates.
Quantum technologies: Any technology
1 that uses the principles of quantum
physics, including quantum computing,
medical devices, highly-sensitive sensors,
7 Noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ)
devices: NISQ is a commonly used term to
secure communications, atomic clocks, describe today’s quantum computers, which
etc. Quantum computing is a subset of are “noisy” (i.e. prone to errors, which can
quantum technologies. accumulate and lead to incorrect computation)
and are of intermediate-scale (i.e. these
devices have tens to hundreds of qubits).
Quantum computing (QC): A new
2 approach to computation that exploits the
nature of storing and manipulating quantum Quantum circuit: A sequence of quantum
information. 8 operations applied on multiple qubits. It is
an ordered sequence of quantum gates,
measurements and resets, forming the basis
Qubit: A quantum bit, a unit of information of quantum algorithms.
3 storage in quantum computing
fundamentally different to a classical “bit”
that can hold a linear superposition of Quantum algorithm: A collection of quantum
states, meaning it can be zero and one at 9 circuits to run on a quantum computer to find
the same time, but upon measurement, a solution to a problem. Quantum algorithms
reveal either zero or one with a defined are the engines of quantum applications. One
probability distribution. algorithm can be the basis of multiple
applications in different industries.

Hardware platforms: Various approaches

4 to building a quantum computer based on Quantum advantage: A stage when
different ways to create and control the
10 a quantum computer can solve certain
quantum properties of a qubit. Depending problems cheaper, faster and more accurately
on an underlying physical principle, all than classical computing.
hardware platforms will have unique
characteristics, affecting their speed,
scalability, quality of computation or Post-quantum cryptography (PQC):
integration with existing technologies (e.g.
11 Cryptographic algorithms thought to
silicon chips). be secure against attacks by quantum
computers.

Quantum noise: Noise in the quantum

5 computation process caused by Quantum readiness: The ability of a business
undesirable external and internal
12 or organization to familiarize and prepare to
factors that might lead to errors in the run applications and gain an advantage when
computation. quantum computing hardware is more mature.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 7

 1 Quantum computing: a
rapidly growing economy
In light of hefty public and private investments,
both established and start-up companies
from all over the world see the accelerated
momentum with technology development.

Quantum computing
activities can be seen
in every continent, with
major flagship initiatives
materializing across
most G20 countries.

Private investment is growing rapidly – and

shifting from venture capital to initial public
offerings marking sector’s growing maturity.

$35.5 billion
Public and private investments totalled
$35.5 billion by 2022 across a range of
quantum technologies.
 Countries with The development of quantum computing The hefty mix of public and private investments has
leading quantum technologies today is a global endeavour. sparked a diverse constellation of companies to
R&D clusters All continents are home to companies and develop quantum computers or key building blocks. At
from around governments actively supporting the creation of the beginning of 2022, 46 companies worldwide were
the globe have new, quantum-powered computing solutions. actively developing quantum computing hardware.4
Countries with leading quantum R&D clusters from A growing number of start-ups are entering the scene
made strategic
around the globe have made strategic investments and attracting funding from investors worldwide. As
investments to
to capture part of the future quantum computing a result, today’s early-stage quantum computers
capture part of the supply chain and create strategic and independent work with a wide variety of hardware platforms in
future quantum access to future capabilities. different stages of development. These include
computing supply superconducting qubits, neutral atoms, trapped
chain. These multi-billion-dollar investments fuel ions, photonic qubits and silicon-based qubits.
technological advances. According to the
latest research, public investments in quantum These different quantum computing flavours reflect
technologies exceed $30 billion (see Figure 1). a dynamic and rapidly evolving technology sector.
Private investments for quantum technologies Significant milestones have been reported from
added $3.2 billion in 2021 alone and over $5.5 different corners of the planet: the first quantum
billion in the past decade.3 It is important to note processor was made available to everyone
that these numbers are underestimations since not through the cloud access in 2016,5 in 2019 the
all public investment is captured due to national achievement of quantum supremacy was claimed,6
security concerns and what is tracked and reported whereby the quantum processor realized in a
in various regions. While some large companies matter of minutes a complex calculation that would
have private and public funds, a few heavily take the world’s most powerful computer system at
support their quantum efforts from corporate R&D the time two days to process. Improvements in the
funds. As with public investments, corporate R&D error rates for qubit control and reliable read-out
funds are typically not captured by the private have continued to be a part of the R&D landscape,
investments described above. as well as critical breakthroughs in scaling.

FIGURE 2 Map of global public investments in quantum technologies

Denmark Sweden
DKK 230 million SEK 1.6 billion
= $34 million = $160 million Russia
RUB 50 billion = $663 million
Netherlands Finland
€765 million €24 million
= $904 million = $27 million China
$15 billion
United Kingdom
£1 billion
Canada = $1.3 billion South Korea
Israel KRW 44.5 billion
CAD 1.37 billion = $1.1 billion ILS 1.2 billion
France = $40 million
= $380 million
€1.8 billion
Japan
US National Quantum Initiative = $2.2b
JPY 80 billion = $700 million
$1.2 billion India
Spain INR 73 billion = $1 billion Taiwan
€60 million TWD 8 billion = $282 million
= $67 million Thailand
THB 200 million
= $6 million Singapore
Germany SGD 150 million = $109 million
Global effort 2022: €2.6 billion = $3.1 billion

~$30 billion European Quantum Flagship Australia

€1 billion = $1.1 billion AUD 130 million = $98.5 million

Hungary
HUF 3.5 billion = $11 million New Zealand
NZD 36.75 million = $20.9 million

Source: QURECA, 2022

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 9

 1.1 Global initiatives and public financing

Asia, North America, Europe and Australia have efforts on high-performance computing. There
very different innovation ecosystems. Consequently, are also initiatives in addition to existing research
national governments follow different pathways centres and clusters of excellence in quantum
in the quantum computing journey. The United technologies, e.g. Quantum Delta NL in the
States established a national programme in 2019, Netherlands, a dedicated legal entity that governs
the National Quantum Initiative Act,7 to support all related public investments in technology.
the development of all quantum technologies. This
includes the founding of the Quantum Economic In line with these investments, the European
Development Consortium (QED-C) to support the industry has also started to coalesce to accelerate
development of a quantum supply chain with the goal the development of commercial quantum solutions.
and mission to support the future quantum industry. One example is the European Quantum Industry
Canada and its provinces continue to work to evolve Consortium (QuIC). This pan-European organization
their national- and provincial-level strategies. brings together start-ups, small and medium
enterprises (SMEs), large companies, investors,
In Europe, national and regional initiatives have research and technology organisations, and other
been launched to spearhead the development associations. At national levels, several other
of quantum computing solutions. The UK, the industry associations have also been formed, such
Netherlands, Germany and France have developed as Le Lab Quantique (France), the Danish Quantum
national quantum programmes and strategies, Community (Denmark), the Finnish Institute Q and
with total public support of over $7 billion.8 The UK Quantum (United Kingdom).
European Commission has also established a
separate $1.1 billion research and innovation Asia has had a long and growing effort across
National initiative known as the EU Quantum Flagship, which the quantum landscape. Singapore’s focused
governments follow is dedicated to developing and commercializing effort in quantum information dates back to the
different pathways quantum technologies in the European Union. early 2000s. This was followed by a significant
in the quantum Within the EU, quantum computing is prominent effort in China that initially focused on quantum
computing journey. and developed in collaboration with European communications but now includes a large focus on

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 10

 quantum computation. China’s five-year plan was Australia houses world-class quantum research
launched in 2016 and put quantum computing as facilities and expertise established over two
a top priority for national technology sovereignty. decades of sustained research and investment.
During the past ten years, China invested more than In 2020, the nation announced its national
$1 billion in quantum technology, with additional quantum industry roadmap and, in 2021, a new
investments of $150 million in a start-up fund.9 Quantum Commercialisation Hub to establish
Longer-term plans include up to $15 billion of public strategic partnerships with like-minded countries
investments.10 Efforts in China are believed to be to commercialize Australia’s quantum research.
quite large, but no publicly available figure exists. The development of a national quantum strategy to
Beginning in 2019, Japan and South Korea created outline Australia’s vision for its quantum industry is
formal quantum strategies; both developed efforts currently underway.
to build quantum computers and access quantum
computers through the cloud on hardware created Numerous activities are underway in other parts of
by other companies. Early in 2022, India announced the world, where the quantum ecosystem is lagging
a plan to spend more than $1 billion over the next in terms of funding and technology. Such initiatives
five years to support the development of quantum include regional chapters from One Quantum,
technologies, including an effort to build a small Quantum Leap Africa, QWorld and events such as
prototype quantum computer by 2026. Quantum Latino and Quantum Eastern Europe.

FIGURE 3 China and European Union lead significantly on public funding for quantum computing

Announced planned governmental funding, $ billion

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

China 15.3

European Union 7.2

United States 1.9

Japan 1.8

United Kingdom 1.3

India 1.0

Canada 1.0

Russia 0.7

Israel 0.5

Singapore 0.3

Australia 0.2

Other 0.1

EU public funding sources, %

41.9 28.0 14.0 11.9

1.7
Germany France European Union Netherlands Sweden Others 2.6

Source: McKinsey & Company, adapted from Johnny Kung and Muriam Fancy, 2021

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 11

 1.2 Private financing

Private financing has enabled the rise in quantum 196 start-ups globally have been established.12
computing start-ups. Figure 4 shows the rise in quantum computing
start-ups globally since 2015. The growth in private
The first commercial special-purpose quantum companies has been enabled by private financing.
computing company was founded in 1999, and Figure 5 shows that the amount of private financing
thirteen years later, the first quantum computing and the number of quantum computing start-ups
software company was founded.11 Since then, have grown rapidly in tandem.

FIGURE 4 Map of start-ups in quantum computing

23
5 1 1
19 53
59 4 9

15 7
1
6
1 18
3

7
2 1 2

2021 2015

Note: Not exhaustive

Source: McKinsey & Company, adapted from PitchBook, 2021, World Economic Forum analysis

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 12

 FIGURE 5 More than two-thirds of equity investments in quantum computing have been
made since 2018

~800
800 40

2/3
679

600 30 of all equity investments (~$1.3

billion) have come since 2018
Invested equity ($ millions)

Deals completed
$800
529
400 20

249 million
226
Equity investments could
have reached a single-year
200 132 10 record in 2021 (estimation)
200 205
92 143
72 89

88
14 70
58

73
70

%
10
0 0
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Hardware Software Venture capital deals

of investments since 2018

have been in hardware
Source: Boston Consulting Group, adapted from PitchBook, 2021

Where the private financing is going

In 2020, more than 90% of this investment went to capital investments needed to develop hardware
hardware players. Yet, the number of software and and the expectation of many that, as in the current
algorithm start-ups is growing faster than hardware ICT economy, there can be a lot of value created in
start-ups. This can be explained by the massive the application domain.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 13

 FIGURE 6 Share of start-up funding

Quantum
computing
industries Total

Component Hardware Systems Application Services

manufacturers manufacturers software software

Number of players

100
33

>
suppliers

72
Largely not specific
to quantum
computer hardware; 228
there are 38
QC-focused
components 39
suppliers that figure
into the overall
company count

46

4% 73% 14% 7% 2%
Share of
start-up funding

Source: McKinsey & Company, adapted from CaptalIQ, Crunchbase, PitchBook, 2022

FIGURE 7 As capital investment in quantum computing rises, more money is focused on software

$440 million
invested in software
1,500
1,357
100

from 2010 to 2019

1,000
782
Deals completed
Invested equity ($ millions)

798 50

$764 million
invested in software from
500

46 6
73 20 325

175
239
609
609

4 12 94 100 113 104

2020 to 2021 33 257 102
52
8 19 94

0 0
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Hardware Software Venture capital deals

Source: Boston Consulting Group,

adapted from PitchBook, 2021 State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 14
 TA B L E 1 Notable private financing deals

Deal size
Company and HQ Deal date Select investors
($ millions)

Quantum Machines Battery Ventures, Red Dot Capital

(quantum control) 6 September 2021 50 Partners, Samsung NEXT Ventures,
Tel Aviv, Israel Valor Equity Partners

PsiQuantum (photonic QC) Baillie Gifford, BlackRock,

27 July 2021 450
Palo Alto, US M12, Temasek

Quantinuum (formerly Cambridge

Quantum Computing) (quantum software) 8 June 2021* 300 Honeywell
Cambridge, United Kingdom

Xanadu (various) Bessemer Venture Partners,

25 May 2021 100
Toronto, Canada Georgian, Tiger Global

Rigetti (superconducting QC) Andreessen Horowitz, Battery

4 August 2020 79 Ventures, Bessemer Venture
Berkeley, US Partners, DCVC

IonQ (ion traps QC) Airbus Ventures, Amazon Web

16 June 2021 62
College Park, US Services, Mubadala

IQM Quantum Computers

(superconducting QC) 22 July 2022 128 World Fund
Espoo, Finland

Oxford Quantum Circuits Lansdowne Partners, The University

5 July 2022 46
Reading, United Kingdom of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners

Note: *Date announced

Source: Temkin, 2021, Honeywell, 2021, World Economic Forum analysis

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 15

 Companies shifting from private financing to IPOs,
mergers and acquisitions, and new start-ups

Several quantum computing companies have completed an initial public

offering (IPO) through special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). SPACs
allow these quantum computing companies to circumvent the IPO process,
saving them time, money and reducing regulatory oversight (see Table 2).

TA B L E 2 Quantum computing SPAC deals

Company Exchange SPAC Announcement date Proceeds

SPAC dMY
New York Stock
IonQ Technology Group, 8 March 2021 $636 million
Exchange
Inc III

SPAC Supernova
Rigetti 13 NASDAQ Partners Acquisition 6 October 2021 $261.75 million
Company II

Centricus Acquisition
Arqit 14 NASDAQ 12 May 2021 $70 million
Corp

New York Stock $9 million (after

D-Wave 15 DPCM Capital 8 February 2022
Exchange redemptions)

Source: SEC Filings, World IonQ was the first quantum computing company earlier deal, on 25 May 20021 Quantum Benchmark
Economic Forum, Global to do this, becoming the “first publicly traded, was acquired by Keysight Technologies.18
Future Council on Quantum pure-play quantum computing company”.16 They
Computing analysis
chose were followed shortly by Rigetti, Arqit and Recent mergers and acquisitions have also been
D-Wave, although it remains to be seen whether observed in Europe. In 2021 Zurich Instruments
this strategy stays as all four companies are trading was acquired by the German technology group
below the initial pricing points, with some losing up Rohde & Schwarz.19 In January 2022, the Dutch
to 50% value.17 Qu&Co merged with Pasqal.20 A few months
later, the Danish QDevil became part of Quantum
Following the Honeywell investment in Cambridge Machines.21 Additionally, many young start-ups
Quantum Computing, in June 2021, Honeywell came out of stealth and experienced steep growth
Quantum Systems merged with Cambridge Quantum trajectories fuelled by venture capital and European
Systems to form Quantinuum in late 2021. In an Investment Bank investments.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 16

 2 What can and will
quantum computing do?
Quantum computing is a complementary
technology offering transformational impact in
materials science, biology, complex systems
and affecting security, blockchain and AI.

Quantum computing can tackle These problems correspond to game-

new mathematical problems, changing applications across basic
resembling how nature works at science and the industries based on them.
the atomic and subatomic scale.

One significant risk to

manage is cybersecurity; at
scale, quantum computing
will break today’s
encryption methods.
 2.1 A new set of computing possibilities

According to popular perception, quantum with digital computing. Given the nature of how
computers will be faster computers. This is not computation is consumed, it will naturally co-exist
necessarily true, however, as quantum computing with rather than replace classical computing.
will have strengths and weaknesses compared

BOX 1 Classical computers will keep most of their tasks

Classical computers are expected to stay data), or do not provide any meaningful advantage
alongside quantum ones, to support quantum over existing computers (e.g. browsing the
computing processing workflow (e.g. running internet, reading emails, etc.). In other words,
quantum circuits) in hybrid data centres, and to if an application does not require quantum
continue powering daily tasks for which quantum circuits to run, it will likely continue to be run by
computers are either not suited (e.g. copying classical computers.

The rebuild of computing from “bits up” opens corresponding application of this ability is breaking
the door to tackling new types of problems that RSA encryption, which is the foundation of the
are not feasible through classical computing. majority of today’s secure data-transfer methods.
Quantum computing can tackle certain classes
of mathematical problems, which correspond to Key types of mathematical and physical problems
specific problem statements in the world. that quantum computers are expected to address
exceptionally well include quantum simulation,
For example, quantum computers have the optimization, quantum linear algebra and prime
provable potential to factor large numbers, a factorization. The ability to solve these abstract
mathematical problem so challenging that it is used problems (one by one or in combination) opens
to encrypt data transfers, exponentially faster than real-world opportunities in three broad areas
classical computers. The most straightforward (see Table 3):

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 18

 TA B L E 3 Quantum computing areas of use

Existing technology
Application domains Materials science and biology Complex systems
and research

Affected industries Energy, food and agriculture, Finance, transport and logistics, Industries with intense use of AI,
manufacturing, chemicals, industries with complex products blockchain or high-performance
medicine. (aviation, automotive, etc.). computing (HPC) in general,
energy and materials industries,
digital communications, defence
and security.

Quantum Discovery and design of new Management and optimization Impact on existing technologies
computing use molecules and materials, of sophisticated systems with such as AI, blockchain, as well
cases affecting multiple fields: advanced a large number of variables or as our scientific capabilities.
materials development, drug unknowns, from highly complex
design, crops and fertilizers, scheduling, logistical and supply
green hydrogen catalysts, chain challenges to modelling
batteries, chemistry. financial portfolios and risk
profiles to assessing national
defence strategies.

Social and Reduced energy consumption, Reduced energy consumption Breaks current cryptography,
environmental carbon capture, efficient and emissions across potential stronger
impacts materials and processes, more global networks, circular cryptography with increased
robust and nature-friendly crop business models. privacy and security.
variety, accelerated disease
and response discovery, Accelerates exploration and
personalized medicine. discovery in fundamental
science research.

Alleviates peak computational

load in combination with HPC.

Illustrative Molecules with the right Optimizing empty shipping The ability to accelerate training
examples attributes to sequester carbon container space yielding of machine learning algorithms.
at scale. both environmental and
economic gains. Breaking RSA and
More naturally resilient grains to cryptocurrencies encryption.
improve food production while Improving real-time customer
avoiding monocultures. credit scoring. Contributing to our fundamental
understanding of the quantum
behaviour of nature.

Underlying
Quantum simulation, optimization, quantum linear algebra and prime factorization.
quantum problems

Source: World Economic Quantum computing is based on the ability to 1) advantage has yet to be realized. The current
Forum, Global Future create and 2) control quantum circuits. To be status is reviewed in further depth in the “State of
Council on Quantum effective in real-world deployment, this needs Technology” section. As such, the applications in
Computing
to happen 3) at scale and with high quality section 2.2 are based on a shared understanding
and speed. While different quantum computing of where this technology is naturally suited to
development paths are at various stages of have a major impact – based on the nature of
maturity, reaching appropriate scale, quality the problem and the natural capabilities of
and speed to demonstrate impactful quantum quantum computing.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 19

 2.2 Key sectors for high-impact applications

Materials science – entering a new age of discovery

[Quantum Given the ability of quantum computers to simulate Advanced materials

computers] could quantum interactions at the atomic and molecular New quantum computing capabilities open up
transform the level, problems well outside the scope of current the possibility of quantum-mechanical modelling
way the climate, computers have the potential to be solved, systems, such as molecules, polymers and solids,
food and energy launching a new chapter of scientific discovery (in at a different level of precision.
new materials, medicine, energy, biology) that could
security, and health
transform the way the climate, food and energy – For chemical-based industries, it becomes
are managed.
security, and health are managed. possible to identify the most effective molecular
designs or structures to accomplish specific
Systems or processes, such as molecules, tasks and achieve required effects – before
chemical reactions, nuclei or electrons in solids, are synthesizing a single molecule in the lab22 – from
quantum mechanical. Understanding the behaviour new catalysts to new batteries (see below).
and properties of these processes is the central
challenge in physics, chemistry and biology, and – For manufacturing and construction industries,
is the basis of advancement in pharmaceuticals, extending the knowledge from molecules and
energy, agriculture and materials science. compounds to materials will allow new alloys,
fabrics and coatings to be designed with the
Traditional experimental methods advance slowly. desired characteristics of weight, durability
The exponentially large number of possible and flexibility at a faster rate. This would pave
combinations of molecules that could produce the way to conscious industrial and customer
the desired outcome – like an efficient and clean products adhering to energy efficiency, safety,
catalytic process for energy production – mean that allergies or other constraints (e.g. zero-carbon
the probability of finding new solutions in any given cement clinker).
experiment is low, making the overall endeavour
both slow and expensive. TotalEnergies and Quantinuum are using quantum
computing algorithms to develop and deploy
The inability of conventional computers to precisely new carbon capture materials by simulating the
mimic quantum systems with more than just a few behaviour of metal-organic frameworks, a task too
particles means computing has had constrained difficult for modern supercomputers.23
impact on these fields. Even the most advanced
supercomputers would take centuries to model any Energy generation, storage and efficiency
of these problem statements. The most direct application of materials science
to the energy industry lies with the components
The properties of atoms and molecules and their of the energy system, allowing for the generation
interactions are determined by quantum mechanics, and storage of electricity, as well as with energy
making quantum computers naturally suited to model processes modelling and research. Additionally, some
and dramatically accelerate discovery in these fields. of the use cases promising significant improvements

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 20

 [Quantum in energy efficiency – all of which could contribute to ammonia despite its vast energy footprint.
computers] could ongoing climate change efforts across industries. Similar to the carbon capture case, nitrogen
contribute to fixation (ammonia production) can be modelled
ongoing climate – Simulate perovskites to create more efficient by future quantum computers. In doing so,
change efforts solar cells that convert more solar energy researchers can also use quantum computers
into electricity. This can involve mimicking to mimic processes inside two existing bacteria
across industries.
and learning from the natural photosynthesis that can carry out nitrogen fixation with low
process24 occurring in plants that can be energy requirements – a task outside of the
simulated with quantum computers. modelling capabilities of current computers.

– Design novel batteries and energy storage – Novel crop-protection chemicals with the
systems, accelerating quantum simulation of desired characteristics are more likely to
electrolyte, anode and cathode materials, and be designed using quantum simulation and
choosing the best options through optimization. optimization tools, with a less significant
carbon footprint and reduced side effects
– Discover better catalysts – special chemical on plant growth.
compounds accelerating chemical reactions that
serve a defined purpose. Catalysts are key to: The applicability of quantum computers to model
the nitrogen fixation process has been explored in
– Decreasing energy costs and speed of theoretical proof-of-concept by ETH Zurich
green hydrogen production and Microsoft.27

– The viability and efficiency of carbon Healthcare

sequestration – a chemical reaction of As part of nature, the human body is also made
extracting carbon dioxide out of the air of molecules. Understanding and treating it better
(aka carbon capture). is one of the fundamental opportunities offered by
quantum computing.
– Model gas phase processes (thermal cracking,
pyrolysis, combustion), leading to more – More efficient drug design will significantly
efficient generation and use of energy in reduce the computational barrier to assessing
various processes and products. and comparing new compounds and their
characteristics “in vitro”, without the need to
Mercedes-Benz and PsiQuantum have recently synthesize them. The same approach applies to
shared research findings about the impact of specific areas of modelling protein folding28 and
quantum computing on the design of the batteries peptides design.29
for electric vehicles, including lithium-ion batteries
(most common), which suggests an order of – Genome sequencing will be done in a
magnitude speedup in computational runtime.25 fraction of the time, paving the way to the next
step in drug design, personalized medicine,
Food production addressing specific patient biological markers
Extending the logic of materials science to and situations, theoretically increasing
agriculture, everything has molecular structures, treatment efficiency.
which makes quantum computing an essential tool
for speeding up existing processes and solving Seventeen companies have recognized the promise
some previously intractable (chemical) problems. of quantum computing and formed QuPharma,30
a consortium for pre-competitive collaboration, in
– Improve the energy efficiency of fertilizer 2020. At the same time, leading pharmaceuticals
(ammonia) production, which accounts for companies (Biogen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche,
1-2% of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.26 Pfizer, Merck, Janssen) have already started31 their
Due to its complexity, the molecule of own partnerships and study of the quantum or
ammonia cannot be modelled by any existing quantum-inspired applications for small molecule
supercomputers. The only industrial process discovery, molecular dynamics simulation, quantum-
able to perform nitrogen fixation was developed level chemical molecules simulation and more.
in the 1900s, and it is still being used to produce

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 21

Modelling complex systems – enabling (better) real-time decisions

Quantum computers that can run quantum circuits – Similarly, credit scoring at the point of sale,
are naturally positioned to work with complex which considers more diverse and uncommon
systems where data has inherent structure32 and sources, such as social media behaviour or
many variables. Structure that is pervasive across a other patterns, can become a reality due to
large dataspace is extremely costly to determine with the increased speed and complexity of scoring
classical computers and solving many of today’s hard models. Such an approach could increase
computational problems with this structure comes profitability of credit offers and allow to reach
down to finding the balance between the time spent unbanked population.
finding the answer and its usefulness for the end user.
– Better securities and derivatives valuation,
With many industry sectors relying increasingly incorporating more market factors to price risk
on data for planning and operations, quantum in close to real-time. The ultimate extension
computers will allow industries to potentially of this is portfolio risk assessment, analysis
augment their optimization and machine learning and optimization, allowing for future behaviour
processes to find new insights and make better and to be modelled and for portfolios to be
more precise decisions. optimized according to given parameters – by
comparing various combinations in a much
Financial, investment and insurance products more efficient way. One notable example is
One of the most straightforward applications of the better performing sustainable investment
aforementioned concepts is in the financial industry. portfolios, taking into account more ESG-
Banks, credit unions and trading companies are all related information, scoring and emissions
dealing with a massive amount of data, probabilities disclosures. Lastly, quantum computers are
and assumptions in their decision-making. also more efficient in running Monte Carlo
(probability) simulations.
– Crunch billions and trillions of financial
transactions and associated data on location, Some of the largest financial institutions have
time of day, merchant history, payment habits already carried out inquiries to investigate the
and more to identify unusual activity and flag most promising use cases for industry preparation
potential fraud. Quantum computers can (BBVA33), or are working on their quantum
improve pattern recognition in structured and applications with clear timelines to be the first to get
unstructured data sets, improving the quality a competitive advantage once quantum computers
and speed of fraud detection. are more developed (Goldman Sachs34).

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 22

 Quantum Transport, logistics and supply chains an advanced system and optimizing product
computers can From the complexity of transport routes to that of components by comparing options.
process highly global supply chains, the sheer number of start
complex design and end points and types of transport leads to an – Whether in aerospace or aviation, engineering
incredible number of route options that need to be requires an incredible number of design choices
tasks [...] both
optimized according to given criteria. in materials, structure, weight distribution,
simulating the
flexibility and cost to work in perfect harmony
behaviour of [...] an – Route and traffic optimization for public for the end product to function. New models
advanced system transport can adjust to real-time road and take years to decades to develop. Quantum
and optimizing demand conditions, including more transport computing is expected to overhaul the process
product [...] modalities (trains, bicycles, taxis, etc.). with dramatic speed and quality improvements.
options.
– Optimizing international shipping and – A similar logic applies to almost any
delivery routes increases anticipation and manufacturable industrial or consumer
service disruptions management. product. Improving the product design and
characteristics of an end product in every
– Management and coordination of global area will lead to an overall increase in the
supply chains with thousands of business quality of new products, faster development
partners, national and macro risks affecting their and a decrease in the time-to-market – forcing
delivery performance. companies to rethink how they compete.

Deutsche Bahn started its work on exploring the In 2019, in response to inevitable computing
potential of existing quantum computers to be used limitations, Airbus launched its Quantum Computing
regularly in real-world train scheduling (stage 1) Challenge,36 asking competing teams around the
and increasing the network capacity and use while world to address five critical design problems for
minimizing costs (stage 2).35 developing a new aircraft using quantum computing
methods. The winning team developed a quantum
New product design algorithm that proved quantum computing could
Quantum computers can process highly complex optimize an aircraft’s payload capability to maximize
design tasks with numerous variables, both revenue, optimize fuel burn and lower overall
simulating the behaviour of the material or operating costs.37

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 23

 Impact on existing technologies, digital infrastructure and research

The types of problems that quantum computing is year-long competition to develop quantum-
expected to be best at solving (quantum simulation, resistant algorithms. Four of these have
optimization, quantum linear algebra and prime formed a basis of an upcoming post-quantum
factorization) underpin the inner workings of cryptography standard.39
many existing technologies. On the one hand, it is
expected to accelerate machine learning algorithms – The second approach is to use quantum
and provide pathways for unprecedented random number generators (QRNGs) to
opportunities in fundamental science, from physics secure communications instead of pseudo-
to chemistry to biology and advanced materials. random numbers generated with today’s
On the other hand, it carries a disruptive potential techniques. Several quantum computing start-
for the security of today’s digital communications ups are offering QRNG devices.
and, by extension, national security. Blockchain
solutions, including cryptocurrencies, are also under – Lastly, the quantum key distribution technique
threat, although good news exists for these areas. (QKD) exchanges encryption keys using
quantum communications. These experiments
Cybersecurity have been successful for networks of limited
Modern digital systems, products and services rely geographical size, and development continues.
on a set of mathematical problems to secure data
collection, storage and exchange. These problems None of the three methods is a silver bullet able to
are beyond the reach of classical computers, but provide guaranteed protection from break-ins in
quantum computing can solve them much faster the new quantum computing era. Malicious actors
– up to a matter of minutes and days38 – making constantly adapt, but using at least one of the
encryption breaking both feasible and worthwhile. stated approaches – or a combination of them – will
reduce the risk to a manageable level.
– Shor’s algorithm, developed in 1994,
spearheaded the field of quantum computing as More details about quantum threats, as well as
it was a tangible quantum algorithm that could available solutions and what firms can do to protect
have serious implications for society. If used on a themselves today, are covered in the newest white
general-purpose scalable quantum computer (that paper on Quantum Security.
does not exist yet), it would break the encryption
of today’s digital communications, compromising Artificial intelligence
existing public-key cryptographic algorithms. A primary application of quantum computing
is solving machine learning algorithms more
There’s a lot at stake when it comes to digital efficiently, thus turbocharging existing and new
encryption: artificial intelligence (AI) applications, e.g. quantum-
assisted models for generating data to enhance
– Data breaches, especially sensitive health or weather forecasting.40 In some applications, such
financial data as quantum neural networks, the entire learning
technique is transplanted into the quantum domain.
– Private and business digital communication,
including objects of critical infrastructure like Machine learning problems are relevant in multiple
power grids industries, including, for example, autonomous
driving, automated trading, speech and image
– The integrity of digital documents recognition, and predictive maintenance.

– Breaking blockchain and cryptocurrencies, By accelerating machine learning training routines,

which are also used in digital identity, financial with many groundbreaking models requiring a
transactions and trading, among other areas. significant amount of computational capacity
(e.g. GPT-3 allegedly took 355 years in effective
The good news is that there are actionable computing time41), quantum computing has an
approaches for businesses to implement to start opportunity to be a part of an overall shift towards
preparing or enabling a full-scale transition to the democratizing AI and opening doors for smaller
security infrastructure capable of withstanding firms to train complex models theoretically at a
attacks from quantum computers: fraction of the time and cost and without access
to modern hyperscale data centres. At the same
– The first is post-quantum cryptography, a time, with faster training, businesses can transition
There’s a lot set of new encryption algorithms that quantum to AI applications capable of processing real-time
at stake when it computers cannot break. The US National data flows and constantly improving or adjusting to
comes to digital Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) circumstances, which would trigger new use cases
encryption. only recently announced the results of a six- and business model pivots.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 24

 [Quantum] Defence and security China, a world leader in quantum technologies, is
simulation, Governments worldwide are pouring money succinct in disclosing information about the state
optimization and into quantum computer research to increase of quantum computing development. Yet, China’s
machine learning national security. Quantum computers could be People’s Liberation Army is known to fund quantum
used for various defence applications, including research through a network of military science
can contribute to
developing better materials for military machinery academies44 and collaborating academic institutions.
our fundamental
and weaponry, accessing opponents’ secure
understanding in communication lines and running combat Scientific breakthroughs
scientific fields. simulations. The critical use case remains the ability Simulation, optimization and machine learning can
of quantum computers to break RSA encryption. contribute to our fundamental understanding in
On 4 May 2022, the Office of the President of scientific fields such as nuclear, particle, condensed
the United States released a memorandum42 matter, fluid and astrophysics, plasma science,
demanding the transition of vulnerable national chemistry, materials and biology. For many scientists,
systems to quantum-resistant cryptography, this is the deeper motivation to work on quantum
marking it as the first country to have taken security computers. Whether it’s the physical, chemical and
action against a potential quantum computing biological processes previously mentioned, finding
threat at a national level. patterns in large amounts of data coming from space
observatories, the unravelling of the behaviour of
Realizing the potential of the technology, NATO has quarks and gluons that clump together inside the
launched the world’s first $1 billion multi-country nuclei of atoms,45 or the explanation of dark matter in
emerging technology innovation fund43 to support our universe, or emerging phenomena from trillions of
investments in early-stage ventures with dual-use trillions of interacting electrons in a solid, the limitations
technologies, including quantum computing. of classical computing hamper scientific fields.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 25

 3 State of technology
Although quantum computers have yet to
demonstrate their advantage, the hardware
development is steadily progressing to the
point when organizations can experiment
with it through the cloud.

With multiple technology pathways Two approaches to build a quantum computer

developing in parallel, an exciting – superconducting qubits and trapped ions –
period of steady technology advances have currently reached a more advanced level
is beginning with tangible roadmaps to of development than others, though it is likely
track progress and align industry uptake. that multiple hardware platforms will be able to
either catch up or otherwise play a role in the
future.

Given the high physical infrastructural

requirements to create environments in
which quantum computers operate, most
users will get access to the technology
via the cloud, and likely paired with other
traditional cloud computing services.

Even though today’s imperfect quantum

computers have not yet demonstrated a
quantum advantage and cannot run many
promising industry applications, they can
already be accessed for research, pilots
and business use case assessments.
 3.1 Critical components for quantum
computer operation

To fully exploit the potential of quantum in calculation speed or quality, while the rest of the
applications, real quantum computers with real problem is being addressed by a classical computer.
hardware to run quantum circuits are required.
Although it is possible to use classical computation While all components of a quantum computing
to simulate qubits and quantum interactions, this stack are important and can influence the quality
can only be done up to a certain size, after which and the speed of the calculation, the underlying
there isn’t enough computational power. hardware and quantum circuits to be run are
arguably the most critical components that must be
So what is needed for a quantum computer figured out.
to work?
Quantum computing relies on a hierarchy, or “stack”, – Quantum hardware (e.g. the qubit processing
of components to ensure ease of use, interoperability, unit, or QPU) is where the actual quantum
scalability and reproducibility. Together, this stack circuits are run.
of interrelated technologies – physical hardware,
control electronics, programming languages and – A quantum circuit is a sequence of quantum
algorithms to name a few – allows instructions that operations applied on multiple qubits.
form quantum circuits to reach a quantum processor Combinations of the results of quantum circuits
and perform necessary actions on qubits to produce advance a program to solve a computation.
a computational result. Quantum computers can
operate independently or in tandem with classical Many quantum computing hardware platforms
computers, either in parallel or in sequence. For require specialized environments to operate within,
instance, a quantum computer takes up part of including cryogenic cooling, ultra-high vacuum and
the computation, where it can provide advantage magnetic shielding.

BOX 2 Cloud access to quantum computers as a game changer

High hardware requirements mean that most commercial systems are offered
“as-a-service”, often in collaboration with leading cloud providers. This means that
organizations will likely be buying computing time, not quantum computers.

Still, it is a good idea to create clarity over “what’s (and hence applications) can be run on today’s
in the box” or the cloud and whether it is the imperfect quantum machines; the most promising
right option for an organization. Knowing the applications of quantum with provable advantage
state of development and quantum hardware (e.g. Shor’s) will need much more developed and
types is essential from a quantum application scalable quantum hardware to operate.
perspective. Only parts of quantum algorithms

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 27

 3.2 How developed are quantum computers?
Are there many?

In 2022, there Competing quantum computing systems under stages, level 3 is the most technically advanced
continue to be development today rely on various quantum and higher-level systems satisfy all lower-level
technological physical interactions to define qubits – electrical, requirements).
improvements optical and magnetic. The hardware and
conditions needed to create and control qubits While two hardware platforms are ahead on the
across multiple
differ according to the quantum activity being development path – superconducting qubits and
hardware platforms
controlled, e.g. a photon of light or the spin of an trapped ions – other platforms and approaches
with technological electron. Each approach has different trade-offs could still be able to catch up at a later stage. In
development in terms of investment and benefits. Again, there the long term, it is likely that multiple hardware
roadmaps to help are parallels to classical computing, which evolved approaches will co-exist and find their niche in a
forecast paths. over multiple modes of physical infrastructure – new quantum computation ecosystem, based on
from vacuum tubes to magnetic tape to silicon their inherent advantages.
circuits on chips.
Important to note that no system has reached the
In 2022, there continue to be technological fourth milestone (level 4) today and cannot operate
improvements across multiple hardware platforms at scale. Roughly speaking, “at scale” could be
with technological development roadmaps to help understood as the ability to control 1 million qubits
forecast paths. in a computation, theoretically allowing for the
creation of a sufficient number of error-corrected
Despite the differences in approaches, the basic qubits to demonstrate quantum advantage in a
milestones in the development of a quantum real-life application. Today, our best-performing
computing system are the same: platforms have demonstrated capabilities in the
low hundreds.
1. The system must be able to create well-
characterized46 qubits. Building systems that follow the four steps of
development require universal control and are
2. The system must allow for the qubits to be capable of running quantum circuits. These
initialized, universally controlled and measurable “quantum circuit-model platforms” all have a
for calculations. universal gate set, which is a set of gates that
allow any arbitrary quantum circuit to be run, and
3. The system must be able to correct errors combinations of quantum circuits with classical
inherent in the physical hardware realization computations drive algorithms to fuel application
of the qubits. development. These are critical pre-requisites for
building a general-purpose quantum computer
4. The system must be able to do all of the that can be integrated as part of a computational
above at scale. workflow. As mentioned prior, quantum computers
will not exist on their own in vacuum but must be
Based on the above, all hardware platforms can be architected into the appropriate classical computer
classified according to the milestones achieved by infrastructure for ease of use and flexibility for the
mid-2022 (see Table 4, where level 1 is in its early end user.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 28

 One existing approach outside the realm of can demonstrate computational advantage over
universal quantum computing is quantum classical computers (speedups) since the problem
annealing, which will never produce general- space is hard to make rigorous.
purpose quantum computers but is tailored to
solve certain optimization problems. It is somewhat Some useful applications and benefits could be
easier to build and scale, hence it was one of the realized at less than full maturity or scale – for both
first commercially available platforms, currently circuit-based and non universal approaches.
counting a few thousand qubits. It is unclear if it

TA B L E 4 Quantum computing hardware platforms according to their level of development

towards the universal quantum computer

Maturity Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4

Milestone/ Platforms demonstrating Platforms demonstrating Platforms demonstrating Platforms

threshold coherence properties a universal gate set quantum error correction demonstrating
(creating qubits). (controlling qubits). and/or error mitigation. level 1-3
properties
at scale.

Hardware T-cells Neutral atoms Superconducting None (yet)

platforms (non- Advantages: potential Advantages: qubit qubits
exhaustive) for on-chip integration, stability (long coherence Advantages: operation
expected to be scalable. times) and low error speed, integrability
rates, modularity (optical via semiconductor
interconnects or shuttling scaling and packaging
on chip), identical qubits. techniques, relatively
easy to manufacture.
Photonic simulators
Advantages: all- Trapped ions
to-all connectivity, Advantages: all-to-all
horizontal scalability, connectivity (this can
has the potential to be allow for building shorter
seamlessly integrated in (faster) quantum circuits,
the existing chip (silicon) and use a wider range of
architectures, qubits quantum error correction
resistant to interference methods), modularity
(noise). (optical interconnects
or shuttling on chip),
Spin systems identical qubits.
Advantages: potential
for on-chip integration,
leading to easier
scalability and
manufacturing, operating
speed, stability (long
coherence times).

Nitrogen-vacancy
(NV) centres
Advantages: potential
for on-chip integration,
stability (long coherence
times), modularity (optical
interconnects).

Source: World Economic What can hardware platforms do at each level?

Forum, Global Future
Council on Quantum
Computing
Level 1: Platforms demonstrating coherence approaches, such as Majorana qubits, that hold
properties. Approaches at this level have promise as intrinsically noise-resilient qubits, are
demonstrated that they can create qubits but quite close to but haven’t yet reached criteria for
cannot necessarily reliably control them. The a Level 1 platform. All non gate-based technical
absence of universal control (done with universal approaches can be considered Level 1.47
gate sets implementation) does not yet allow these
platforms to run universal quantum algorithms. It Level 2: Platforms demonstrating a universal
is critical that qubits demonstrated here show the gate set. All approaches at this level have proven
potential to achieve scale, quality and speed to they would be able to run an arbitrary quantum
realize effective quantum circuit operations. Some application – if or when they reach necessary scale

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 29

 There are and computational quality required by quantum algorithm resolves more errors than it generates,
defined (although algorithms. This was achieved by demonstrating then scaling to larger number of qubits reduces
constantly the capability to run general quantum circuits the error rates. In other words, the key to scalable
updated) roadmaps with a universal gate set. A typical universal gate fault-tolerant QEC will be many high-quality qubits
for several set consists of a reset operation that initializes in scalable system architecture. This is an ongoing
the qubits, a set of single qubit operations area of research where initial demonstrations of
platforms, meaning
and an entangling two-qubit operation, and a QEC concepts on a few hardware platforms have
that it is only a
measurement operation. been achieved.
matter of time as
to when quantum Level 2 hardware, however, often operates without Other avenues of exploration include error mitigation
computers will get error correction, referred to as “noisy intermediate- and suppression techniques, which entails methods to
[to level 4]. scale quantum devices” or NISQ devices. Errors either learn the physical noise through running a larger
occurring at this level can be suppressed using set of quantum circuits, or to alter the quantum circuits
error-mitigation techniques but not removed to minimize the effects of certain forms of noise.
entirely, thus potentially affecting the quality of the These techniques extend what is possible on noisy
calculation and its usability in real-life scenarios. intermediate scale quantum systems but potentially at
the cost of overall circuit runtime and system stability.
Level 3: Platforms demonstrating quantum error
correction and/or error mitigation. The technical Level 4: Platforms demonstrating coherence
demands for handling errors in quantum systems properties, speed and quality at scale. No
are a challenge for all physical hardware systems. hardware platform has reached this level yet, as it
Achieving scalable fault-tolerant quantum error would signify demonstrating a quantum advantage
correction (QEC) is widely considered the ultimate on a real-world application. However, there are
goal for general capability for quantum computing defined (although constantly updated) roadmaps for
systems. If the quality of the qubit is sufficiently several platforms, meaning that it is only a matter of
high, such that the execution of an error correcting time as to when quantum computers will get there.

3.3 Which quantum computer is best?

Comparing different approaches in terms of As of 2022, three main challenges need to be

performance is not as straightforward as one may addressed to build a computer demonstrating
think. Similar to choosing a new PC, one may quantum advantage with real-world applications:
favour speed over memory, calculation reliability scale, quality and speed, corresponding to the
over special features or power consumption over areas against which systems could be evaluated.
footprint. More fundamentally, different hardware The performance metrics can thus be roughly
platforms may legitimately track particular metrics of grouped into an analysis of individual components
progress or performance based on the architecture and benchmarks that offer a holistic analysis of the
goals being pursued. entire system.

FIGURE 8 Areas for quantum computers’ evaluation

Scale Speed Quality

Scaling up the hardware Executing operations Mitigating errors in
effectively the hardware

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Future Council on Quantum Computing

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 30

 Scale

News articles often present the number of qubits as entagled or even fully connected (here the number
a metric to evaluate new achievements in quantum drops to 24 qubits), and thus their use may be
hardware. The number of qubits explains how limited.
scalable the hardware is, but it doesn’t explain
anything about the quality or speed of the qubits One of the balanced ways to look at the pure scale
and quantum operations. Numbers may fluctuate of the platforms (see Figure 9) is to count the largest
significantly depending on which qubits are taken number of connected qubits with universal control
into account. For instance, neutral atoms platform (to prepare a non-trivial quantum state). Again, every
has demostrated 289 coherent qubits, the largest metric will have its caveats, and should not be used
achievement so far; however, not all of them are as a standalone measure for platform evaluation.

FIGURE 9 Quantum computing platforms scale comparison: the largest number of

connected qubits with universal control (to prepare a non-trivial quantum state)

—
Number of connected
qubits with universal control

Phototonic
simulators
NV
centres 9
Superconducting
qubits

14
Trapped ions

102 24
Neutral
atoms
Spin
systems

24
Source: World Economic Forum, Global Future Council on Quantum Computing

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 31

 Speed

For quantum computers, computation speed is which data is available. The larger the calculations
measured in the number of circuits (or algorithms) per second, the better. For actual computations,
executed in a given time. Therefore, “calculations there is likely the need to run a large number of
per second” for QC cannot be compared to circuits to improve accuracy. IBM has proposed
classical computers’ similarly sounding benchmark. circuit layer operations per second (CLOPS)48 as a
Figure 10 shows a general order of magnitude potentially more stringent metric for benchmarking
in the rate of execution for trapped ions, speed. So far, CLOPS has only been measured for
superconducting and neutral atom systems, for multiple superconducting qubit platforms.

BOX 3 There is a common speed bottleneck for most approaches

When looking at the quantum computer as a whole, a full stack, classical control
electronics is a speed limiting factor for most approaches in the current state. It
creates a bottleneck with a qubit measurement time, slowing the error-correction
cycle. Until control electronics improves, circuit speeds, demonstrated by different
platforms, does not translate into application speeds and can be misleading.

FIGURE 10 Quantum computing platforms speed comparison: number of circuits executed

in a given time

—
Calculations
per second
Trapped
ions 100
Superconducting
qubits

Neutral
atoms 1

1,000

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Future Council on Quantum Computing

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 32

 Quality

The quality of quantum computation is measured Figure 11). Note that for general performance
by the accuracy of the results for running quantum measures, there is the quantum volume (QV),49
circuits – looking at the error rates. Different which gives a single number based off of the
quantum circuits of different complexity will performance of the system across a set of
obviously have varying error performance (see randomized circuits.

FIGURE 11 Quantum computing platforms quality comparison: two-qubit gate error rates

—
Error rate Neutral
atoms
(smaller is better)

Superconducting
Photonic qubits
simulators
2.5 % 0.1%
NV
centres
Spin systems

1%
1.5%
Trapped
ions 0.1%
10%

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Future Council on Quantum Computing

Such a holistic measure attempts to throw out errors, connectivity, crosstalk and other unintended
hardware bias, and considers several features of the noise to give an overall better idea of the usefulness
underlying hardware, from gate and measurement of a quantum computer.

BOX 4 Necessary literacy to better understand QC quality challenges

Crosstalk: Occurs when an operation on one qubit Connectivity: Describes the connections
affects other qubits unintentionally. Crosstalk is a between qubits in the quantum architecture.
major source of noise in NISQ systems and is a These connections enable entanglement between
fundamental challenge for hardware design. different qubits.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 33

 Figure 12 shows the QV metric for trapped ions and superconducting
systems. The larger the QV, the better. Other hardware approaches
have not yet been benchmarked with quantum volume.

FIGURE 12 Quantum computing platforms holistic comparison: quantum volume

—
Quantum
volume

Trapped
ions
Superconduting
qubits

512
9x9

4,096
12 x 12

Source: World Economic Forum, Global Future Council on Quantum Computing

Other ways of benchmarking the performance developed a benchmark suite50 that can measure
of a system is an “application-driven” approach: the progress towards the performance of quantum
A combination of speed and quality, looking at computing on four specific algorithms and use
performing a specific algorithm to track progress cases. As new algorithms are developed they can
towards useful quantum advantage. QED-C has be added to the suite.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 34

3.4 What hardware is needed to run applications?

Today all quantum applications can be divided into As of today, quantum applications in use have
two types depending on the quantum computing yet to demonstrate their advantage in a real-life
hardware requirements: fault-tolerant (requiring scenario, and are not yet being used on a
hardware above level 3) and near-term applications day-to-day basis to power end user solutions
(can be run on level 2 and 3 hardware). at scale. Researchers and businesses are,
however, already experimenting with near-term
1. Fault-tolerant: Applications with provable quantum applications to evaluate the potential of
advantage over existing computational methods the technology – for their industry and to inform
that will likely require a more developed quantum further research efforts into new algorithms
computer capable of quantum error correction. and applications.

2. Near-term: Applications that could be run on In summary, the jury is out as to whether a quantum
today’s noisy quantum computers, although it advantage can be reached on a non fault-tolerant
is not yet clear if or when these applications will quantum computer. What is certain is that error
provide any advantage over similar applications mitigation techniques with current noisy quantum
run by classical computers. Bridging these from computers allow the running of a handful of
what is likely achievable in the near term with applications, good enough for organizations to start
what is proven on large error-corrected quantum their inquiries and get prepared instead of waiting
computers is the subject of intense study and for general purpose (level 4) quantum hardware to
exploration throughout the industry. be fully developed.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 35

 4 Unlocking technology
potential
Realizing the benefits of quantum computing
will depend on key enablers: workforce
readiness, standardization and policy.

Quantum skills shortage is a

key constraint at the moment.

Standards have been developed

for cybersecurity in the policy area
but lack energy efficiency and
responsible technology development.

Standards on interoperability and

performance measurements of
quantum computers need attention.
 Progress in several “enabling” areas is needed for develop and apply the technology. The current
quantum computing technology to be applied to state of policies and regulations must be considered
real-world problems: 1) workforce availability and concerning access to quantum hardware, the ethics
development, 2) policies and regulations, and 3) of the technology and international collaborations.
standardization. With the stated strategic importance, a wide range
of policy interventions is evolving in various parts
Workforce availability and development: The of the world, including export controls, investment
current state of the quantum workforce includes screening and strategic partnerships.
jobs in academia, government, and public and
private companies. In addition to the existing Standardization: Standardization enables
workforce, it is important to note the state of the better collaboration and communication across
enabling content for the future workforce, which the quantum industry. Standardization can
includes university degrees, high school courses be implemented across different aspects of
and other educational content, such as books, the quantum industry, including standards
talks and online courses. Furthermore, the state of within quantum hardware, tools, software and
collaboration between industry, government and algorithms. Standards within the technology
academia must be considered. Without a current development enable faster development and better
workforce, the progress of the technology would benchmarking for researchers and engineers.
be stagnant, and without a potential workforce, Standardizing terminology in the quantum industry
future progress would halt. Therefore, workforce would lead to a common language that could
availability and development are crucial for quantum allow better communication within the industry
technology to develop and be applied. and with external stakeholders. Note also that,
standardization should be handled with exquisite
Policies and regulations: Policies inform the care, as, if wielded improperly, it can significantly
workforce and other stakeholders on how to hinder technology development.

4.1 Workforce availability and development/training

From a global perspective, every continent already is, at the doctoral level. Finding qualified individuals
has start-ups in quantum technologies, and this with previous work experience in the world of
number continues to grow. This business boom business or engineering in an already scarce talent
would require an exponential growth of jobs in pool is proving increasingly difficult.
quantum technologies over the next two decades.51
More importantly, an effort must be made to
There is a need for skilled labour in the field of ensure that there are enough people with the right
quantum technologies. More than half of quantum skills to fill this explosion of jobs in the next twenty
companies are currently hiring. These companies years. The only way to educate the workforce of
struggle to find people with the right skills for new the future is by introducing quantum concepts at
positions in the emerging quantum job market. the primary and secondary education levels and
Some have referred to this as the “quantum skills creating more opportunities and programmes
shortage”. The fact that quantum technologies specifically for quantum engineering. Educating
An effort must
are still in their infancy means that most current the future workforce is a long process, but there
be made to ensure
jobs are highly technical, especially with academic are already several higher education programmes
that there are specializations and PhDs. In the past year, however, worldwide focusing on quantum engineering52 (see
enough people more diverse profiles, such as marketing and sales Figure 13). The quantum workforce includes a
with the right skills roles requiring prior work experience, have begun wide range of skilled labourers, such as quantum
to fill this explosion to appear, showing that the market is maturing. physicists, computer scientists, engineers,
of jobs in the next Simultaneously, the only people trained in the field technicians and people with business, sales and
twenty years.. of quantum technologies are highly academic, that policy backgrounds.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 37

 FIGURE 13 Master’s programmes around the world with a focus on quantum technologies

Netherlands
United Kingdom
1
4 Germany India
Ireland
4 1
Canada 1
Czechia
1 2
Sweden

United States

11

Australia
2

Spain

5
France Romania

3 1
Hungary
Switzerland
1 Italy
1
Source: QURECA, 2022
1

Globally, many individuals, both students and development of national quantum education
professionals, are looking for additional resources to programmes and addressing diversity issues.53
help them build their careers in the field of quantum
technologies. New companies specialized in There is also the dilemma of bringing quantum
quantum careers focus on supporting people seeking technologies closer to potential end users and
employment in quantum technologies, providing specific business sectors that are not yet part of the
them with professional guidance and placing quantum ecosystem. Fortunately, there is a very
them as ideal candidates in quantum companies. promising scenario in terms of educational resources
Opportunities to build and sustain a quantum-ready for both individuals and businesses at different
workforce are abundant, including public-private levels of specialization. Numerous global education
partnerships, industry-academia collaboration, initiatives include games, online courses and events.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 38

 4.2 Policies and regulations

It is never too Now, in 2022, is an ideal time to create policies developing regulations around emerging and critical
early to consider regarding quantum computing, as the technology technologies; many include quantum technologies.
and address any itself is approaching the sweet spot when it is
socioeconomic increasingly clear what technology will be able to These policies include issues around export
issues posed by a do, and what impact can be expected on different control that will likely be defined in a handful of
sectors of economy, while the actual applications national initiatives, and hopefully aligned through
new technology.
are currently limited, so any regulation will still be international agreements. Risk may lie in individual
proactive but informed.54 The lessons learned from AI countries acting to control specific hardware items
demonstrate that it is never too early to consider and relevant to building a quantum computer for both
address any socioeconomic issues posed by a new economic and national security reasons. Given the
technology. The World Economic Forum published a potential value of quantum computing to social
Quantum Computing Governance Principles report55 good and economic competitiveness, it can be
to help policy-makers and governments develop said that broad international agreements are the
policies and regulations on quantum computing. most ethical and fair process in moving forward.
Moreover, the supply chain for building a quantum
The types of policies and regulations needed in computer is likely to be global, as it is for most
quantum computing include those pertaining to high-technology industries. Although, given the
common good, accountability, inclusiveness, current geopolitical situation, political incentives
equitability, non-maleficence, accessibility and will likely localize supply chains and aim for
transparency.56 The threat of quantum computing strategic tech sovereignty via measures like foregin
to cybersecurity also requires policies to mitigate direct investment (FDI) screening.
this risk. Moreover, in a quickly progressing NISQ
era, security takes on a new and unique role as an There are currently no policies regarding quantum
enabler. In January in the US, an executive order computing and its energy usage. Introducing such
was passed that brought high-profile attention to policies should be considered to ensure future
the quantum cybersecurity ecosystem, presenting scalable technology that isn’t at the expense of
a roadmap to transition all federal agencies to enormous energy costs.58 Lessons can be learnt
post-quantum cryptography in 2035. This order from classical computing, which is currently
was shortly followed by a presidential memorandum struggling to decarbonize and is responsible for
regarding quantum security and quantum roughly 4% of global electricity consumption, and
ecosystem development.57 1.4% of global carbon emissions. There should
be no delay in promoting green quantum
Many countries, including those in Europe, North computing if technological choices are to be made
America, Asia and Australia, are increasingly during its development.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 39

 4.3 Standardization in developing algorithms and
performance measurements

As quantum computing continues to mature, some Right now, the most valuable activities are
level of standardization across several aspects not so much around formal standards but the
of its development could help enable better accumulation of benchmarks for characterizing the
communication, benchmarking and compatibility hardware’s overall performance and creating a set
across various products – while mitigating risks of of standards that can be the basis for comparing
hindering technology development. For example, various quantum hardware.
standards and ecosystem agreement could be
effective in the following areas: Standards play a foundational role in market
development, especially for emerging technologies
– Terminology for better communication such as quantum computing. By defining common
terminology, hand-offs between companies,
interfaces between devices, and best practices and
– Benchmarks and metrics for evaluating
benchmarks, standards are the glue that holds a
quantum algorithms and quantum hardware
supply chain together.

– Standards for developing quantum software, Nevertheless, the areas for standardization should
algorithms and languages be chosen carefully. Due to the proliferation and
evolution of multiple hardware platforms for quantum
– Guidelines and best practices computing, it is too early to develop standards for
many aspects of this technology. For example,
– Certification and test protocols. photonic quantum computing will need optical
Some level of interconnect standards to connect photon sources
standardization to photonic processing chips to photon detectors.
across several Multiple international standards organizations have Since there are many different schemes under
become engaged and have begun to discuss the development using different wavelengths of light
aspects of
path forward for future standards. These include ITU and different ways to encode information, custom
[quantum
Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T), connections needed for one company’s system
computing] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers will not necessarily be relevant for other technical
development could (IEEE), European Committee for Electrotechnical approaches. This problem is not limited to photonic
help enable better Standardization (CEN-CENELEC), International computing, since different ion species are at the
communication, Organization for Standardization (ISO), Corporation heart of different trapped ion computing platforms,
benchmarking and for Education Network Initiatives in California the components they connect to will need to work at
compatibility. (CENIC), among others. different wavelengths, making standards premature.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 40

 TA B L E 5 Areas of standardization activity

Type of standard/
Organization/document Description
pre-standard

ISO/International
Terminology Electrotechnical Commission This joint ISO/IEC committee is developing a standard specifically
for quantum (IEC) for terminology and vocabulary for quantum computing. As of March
computing 2022, it was in the committee draft stage.
JTC1 WG14/4879

Terminology The IEEE quantum computing nomenclature working group has

for quantum IEEE P7130 an active and approved project authorization request to develop a
technologies standard for terminology specific for quantum technologies.59

Terminology for
A small team of experts is drafting proposed standard terminology
single photon
Under development by NIST for single photon sources and detectors, expected to be submitted
sources and
to a standards development organization in late 2022.
detectors

Practical The QED-C is actively exploring architectural concepts for an

Intermediate “intermediate representation” to facilitate running programs in a
Under development by the variety of languages on different quantum computing back-ends.
Representation for
QED-C The Standards and Performance Metrics Technical Advisory
Quantum (PIRQ) Committee held a workshop on the topic in July 2021 and published
2022 60 resulting recommendations.

This publication, dated 3 January 2022, introduces an open-source

Application- suite of quantum application-oriented performance benchmarks
Oriented (available at https://github.com/SRI-International/QC-App-Oriented-
Performance Benchmarks) that is designed to measure the effectiveness of
Publication by the QED-C
Benchmarks quantum computing hardware at executing quantum applications.
for Quantum The benchmarks probe a quantum computer’s performance on
Computing 61 various quantum computing algorithms and small applications, as a
candidate method for comparing performance across platforms.

The language was first described in a paper published in July 2017,

Programming and a code implementation was released as part of IBM’s software
Open Quantum Assembly development kit Qiskit. Several quantum computing software
language
Language (OpenQASM) development kits, including Google’s Cirq, Xanadu’s Pennylane,
for quantum
released by IBM and IBM’s Qiskit enable using OpenQASM for defining quantum
instructions instructions. This allows researchers and developers to use a
common language and use it for different quantum platforms.

Standardization
CEN-CENELEC Focus Group Motivation to start developing European quantum technology
roadmap
on Quantum Technolgies standards in the pillars: quantum computation, quantum
for quantum
(FGQT) communication, and quantum metrology, sensing and imaging.
technologies

Use case
Use case for quantum technologies, complementary to the
for quantum CEN-CENELEC FGQT
roadmap.
technologies

Source: World Economic A key area that deserves focus is the development differences in underlying performance, changes
Forum, Global Future of application and performance benchmarks that in connectivity and eventual changes in error
Council on Quantum enable the comparison and evaluation of different correcting codes.
Computing
technological implications of quantum computing,

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 41

Conclusion
Governments, businesses and research
organizations have the potential to
accelerate technology development for
common good – if they work together.
Much progress has been made during the attack and identifying the necessary steps to secure
pandemic, particularly in the past year, both in their organization is absolutely doable in 2022.
technology development and its accessibility More information on what companies need to know
through the cloud, which drove early real-world regarding cyber risks posed by quantum computers
application trials by businesses. and detailed actions are covered in the Transitioning
to a Quantum-Secure Economy white paper.62
While the jury is out on what technological approach
or approaches to building a quantum computers Further action is needed by governments and
at scale will prevail, and when quantum computers businesses to keep the momentum going:
will be ready, there’s no doubt that they will come. More public-private and pre-competitive
In addition to public funding, private investment has collaboration is needed to scale existing workforce
tipped the scales, marking the transition of quantum development and research programmes and find
technology from the lab to the real world. consensus on common language and performance
standards, combined with new policies and
A number of powerful forces are sparking regulations to secure an ethical and reliable
governments and businesses to move: development and use of technology. More details
Firstly, when quantum computers reach the level at on the recommended actions for stakeholders
which they can provide an advantage over classical to foster the responsible development of the
computers, they will likely be in short supply. technology are covered in the Quantum Computing
Given the groundbreaking potential of quantum Governance Principles paper.63
applications in certain industries, no one wants to
find themselves in a situation where their competitor More businesses need to understand the
is suddenly able to synthesize new compounds for implications of quantum computing on their
potential drugs in days rather than years. Investing industry and formulate a quantum computing
in or partnering with a company developing strategy. According to research carried out in
quantum computers is essentially buying priority March 2022,64 only 24% of companies in the
access to the technology when it’s ready – or the UK – the host country of one of the most vibrant
right to sell priority access, if you are an investor. quantum ecosystems – have put together a team
to explore the potential of quantum computing.
Secondly, quantum computing developers need Yet, 44% are planning to do this in the near term,
business partners to guide technology evolution. meaning that understanding the impact of quantum
They are experts in quantum physics but not in computing on organizations is becoming a staple in
modern industries. This is where companies are technology and business strategy.
coming in, getting early access and having an
opportunity to quantify the potential impact of In the end, this report will have achieved the desired
the technology on their industry, find the most impact if, upon finishing it, readers feel intrigued to
efficient use cases and help accelerate technology learn about how quantum computers work and how
understanding and development simultaneously. they will benefit them in daily life – and perhaps,
With cloud access to quantum computers, join the Forum’s Quantum Computing Network.
technology providers can look for partners well This instinct can prove invaluable, helping to ease
outside their geographical location. apprehension and begin making educated choices
in partnerships, technology development and use
Thirdly, if the promise of the technology does not cases. With more people applying their creativity
convince organizations or they are from the industry and collaborating on quantum technology, humanity
sectors that might be less affected and not explicitly can get into its golden age of innovation, growth
mentioned in the “Key sectors for high-impact and prosperity much sooner – as well as stand a
applications” section, they would still be subject to chance of fighting climate change with quantum-
cybersecurity concerns. Understanding the level powered decarbonization and other solutions. What
of exposure to the potential quantum computing else can one wish for?

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 42

Contributors
Lead authors

Jerry Chow Derek O’Halloran

Fellow and Director of Quantum Infrastructure, IBM Head, Shaping the Future of Digital Economy
Quantum T. J. Watson Research Center and New Value Creation; Member, Executive
Committee, World Economic Forum
Eliška Greplová
Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology Jessica Pointing
Quantum Computing Researcher, Oxford University
Freeke Heijman
Co-founder and Director, Ecosystem Development, Grigory Shutko
Quantum Delta NL Platform Curator, IT Industry, World Economic Forum

Carlos Kuchkovsky Carl J Williams

Co-founder, QCentroid President and Founder, CJW Quantum Consulting

Acknowledgements
Achyut Chandra Naveen Kumar Malik
Lead, Open Innovations, HCL Technologies Director, Accelerator (Exploration and Incubation);
Chief of Staff at CTO Office, HCL Technologies
Antonio Córcoles
Research Staff Member, IBM Thomas J. Watson Justine Lacey
Research Center Research Director, Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organisation
Jan Ole Ernst
PhD Candidate, University of Oxford Ulrich Mans
Strategic Partnerships Lead, Quantum Delta NL,
Mrityunjay Ghosh Netherlands
Quantum Computing Principal, HCL Technologies
Thomas Monz
Koen Groenland CEO and Founder, Alpine Quantum Technologies
Quantum Innovation Officer, QuSoft GmbH

Stacey Jeffery Sarah Mostame

Senior Researcher, QuSoft Research Staff Member, IBM Thomas J. Watson
Research Center
Karen Hallberg
Principal Researcher and Associate Professor, Ana Predojevic
Balseiro Institute and Bariloche Atomic Center Assistant Professor, Stockholm University

Emily Haworth Araceli Venegas-Gomez

Research Scientist, Cambridge Quantum CEO and Founder, QURECA

Travis Humble
Deputy Director, Quantum Science Center, Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 43

Appendix
The World Economic Forum would like to express its gratitude to the members
of the Council, who, through their work and fierce discussions, have been an
inspiration and guided many of the concepts presented in the paper.

Members of the Global

Future Council on Quantum
Computing 2022
Jaya Baloo Carlos Kuchkovsky
Chief Information Security Officer, Avast Software Co-founder, QCentroid

Thierry Botter B Kalyan Kumar

Executive Director, European Quantum Industry Global Chief Technology Officer and Head
Consortium Ecosystems, HCL Technologies

Fernando Brandão Justine Lacey

Head of Quantum Algorithms, Amazon Web Research Director, Commonwealth Scientific and
Services Industrial Research Organisation

Jerry Chow Julie Love

Fellow and Director of Quantum Infrastructure, IBM Partner Director of Program Management, Quantum
Quantum T. J. Watson Research Center Computing, Microsoft

Andrew Fursman Thomas Monz

Chief Executive Officer, 1QB Information CEO and Founder, Alpine Quantum Technologies
Technologies GmbH

Eliška Greplová Jessica Pointing

Assistant Professor, Delft University of Technology Quantum Computing Researcher, Oxford University

Karen Hallberg Ana Predojevic

Principal Researcher and Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, Stockholm University
Balseiro Institute and Bariloche Atomic Center
Michelle Simmons
Freeke Heijman Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Silicon
Co-founder and Director, Ecosystem Development, Quantum Computing
Quantum Delta NL
Araceli Venegas-Gomez
Travis Humble CEO and Founder, QURECA
Deputy Director, Quantum Science Center, Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Christian Weedbrook
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Xanadu
Stacey Jeffery Quantum Technologies
Senior Researcher, QuSoft
Carl J Williams
Rebecca Krauthamer President and Founder, CJW Quantum Consulting
Co-founder, Quantum Thought, QuSecure
Ilana Wisby
Chief Executive Officer, Oxford Quantum Circuits

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 44

 Endnotes
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computings-potential-impact-on-chemicals.

State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 45

23. Swayne, Matt, “Quantinuum and TotalEnergies Investigate Using Quantum Computers to Study Carbon Capture”, The
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State of Quantum Computing: Building a Quantum Economy 47

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