Experts at the Q2B Silicon Valley conference in December hailed significant advances in quantum computing hardware, describing the progress as spectacular despite remaining challenges. Leaders from science and industry expressed optimism about achieving industrially useful, fault-tolerant devices in the coming years. Applications for health, energy, and scientific discovery are also gaining traction.
The Q2B Silicon Valley conference, which gathers quantum computing experts from business and science, concluded on an optimistic note in December. Attendees agreed that the field is advancing rapidly toward practical quantum computers, though hurdles persist.
Joe Altepeter, programme manager for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI), shared during a presentation: “On balance, we think it is more likely than not that someone, or maybe multiple someones, are going to be able to make a really industrially useful quantum computer, which is not something I’d be concluding at the end of 2025.” The QBI aims to evaluate competing approaches to build fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of error correction. After its first six months, the multi-year program involving hundreds of evaluators identified major obstacles in each method but found none disqualifying.
Scott Aaronson from the University of Texas at Austin echoed this sentiment: “In late 2025, it feels to me like all of the key hardware building blocks seem to be more or less in place, at roughly the required fidelity, maybe for the first time, leaving only these enormous questions about… the engineering challenges.” He called the hardware progress “spectacular,” while noting the need for new algorithms to unlock practical uses.
Google’s Ryan Babbush highlighted that applications trail hardware developments. At the conference, Google Quantum AI and partners revealed finalists for the XPRIZE competition, focusing on biomolecule simulations for health, material candidates for clean energy, and computations for complex disease diagnosis and treatment.
John Preskill of the California Institute of Technology remarked: “A few years ago, I wasn’t that excited about running applications on quantum computers. I am getting more interested now.” He advocated for near-term scientific discovery applications. Over the past year, quantum systems have performed computations in materials physics and high-energy particles, potentially rivaling classical methods.
Pranav Gokhale from Infleqtion demonstrated a version of Shor’s algorithm on logical qubits, a step toward breaking encryption, but emphasized it falls short of real-world capabilities. Dutch start-up QuantWare unveiled an architecture for 10,000-qubit processors using superconducting circuits, with Matt Rijlaarsdam stating initial devices could operate within two-and-a-half years. Competitors like IBM, Quantinuum, and QuEra target similar scales soon, with QuEra aiming for 10,000 ultracold-atom qubits in a year.
The sector’s growth is projected to rise from $1.07 billion in global investments in 2024 to $2.2 billion by 2027, per Hyperion Research. IBM’s Jamie Garcia noted: “More people are getting access to quantum computers than ever before, and I have a suspicion that they’ll do things with them that we could never even think of.”
