Billions of dollars, pounds, euros, and yen are being poured into the development and productisation of quantum computing, with China hosting an estimated funding of £13,3bn, Europe at £7.2bn, the US at £2.1bn, Japan at £1.8 bn, and the UK at £1.3 bn in 2022.
With a significant proportion of that overall funding being pumped into the UK, in 2022, British quantum computing startup Universal Quantum was awarded, at the time, the largest government contract for quantum computing. Worth £67M, the deal sees the company create quantum chips for scalable quantum computers for the German Aerospace Centre in Hamburg. This was only recently surpassed by the £496M contract awarded by the Australian Government to PsiQuantum towards the end of 2024.
Quantum computers rely on a phenomenon known as quantum mechanics, using qubits (quantum bits) to process and relay information. Qubits, which can simultaneously take different forms, allow quantum computers to make simultaneous computations that classical computers and supercomputers can’t. This will revolutionise fields such as medical research, financial services, and machine learning, which all have processes which require the analysis of huge datasets.
£1.2bn was invested in quantum technology in 2024, with a further £40bn committed by governments over the next decade to support developments. Leading into 2025, some of Europe's top quantum startups saw increased investment, including Quantinuum, with £617 million, Alice & Bob, with £150 million, Pascal with £140 million and Riverlane, with £131 million.
Will Ashford-Brown, Director of Strategic Insights at Heligan Group, said: “Everyday we inch closer to realising commercial quantum usage for real applications. Size, cooling, price, speed, and impact are all part of the long tail of improvements, but it would seem we are at the point where commercial application, investment and opportunity are knocking at the door.
“The market for quantum computing is predicted to grow from £412M in 2020 to £8.6bn in 2027, but this feels instinctively like an under-estimation. Today’s limited offerings will soon be replaced by a new generation of quantum computing platforms, triggering a surge in customer demand.
“Presently, the market has been mostly limited to national research laboratories and supercomputing labs. But commercial adoption is getting started, beginning with the tech giants. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and IBM have all partnered with quantum computing startups to provide quantum-based Cloud services or are developing their own machines.
“By the end of 2025, IBM, for example, aims to have built its own quantum computer with 1,000 qubits, the point at which quantum computers are expected to challenge the performance of classical counterparts, whilst Google plans to have one by 2029.
“As we reach the end of this decade, it looks as though we really will have powerful quantum computers that are outstripping the best supercomputers we have today, but then again, this may be optimistic, and it could all still be another decade away.”
