$1 million budgets show enterprises are getting serious about quantum
Results of a quantum computing study released last week contained plenty of good news for the sector, but perhaps none better than this: Companies that either are planning to adopt or already adopting quantum computing are quickly ramping up their spending budgets.
According to “The First Annual Report on Enterprise Quantum Computing Adoption,” a study commissioned by quantum software firm Zapata Computing, about 28% of enterprises who are either already working with quantum computing or are planning to have committed to budgets of more than $1 million for their projects. This is a far cry from the early days of assigning a small number of people to investigate quantum computing and allocating $100,000 or less for them to work with.
The sharp increase in budgets could be a direct reflection of how the 300 corporate executives surveyed for the study are feeling about the potential competitive value of quantum computing. Companies that identified themselves as early adopters were more than twice as likely to have $1 million-plus quantum computing budgets than others, and about half of those working with budgets of $1 million or more said they were motivated by the ability to gain a first-mover advantage. This is impressive especially at a time when error correction and other hurdles to practical, widespread usage of quantum computing continue to exist
A report on the study at Venture Beat highlighted that the study results suggest abut 69% of enterprises already have adopted the technology or plan to adopt it soon. About 29% identify themselves as belonging to the early adopter community, and about 93% of quantum early adopters said they expect the technology to provide them with a competitive advantage in their markets within five years. About 41% of the same group said it could happen within two years. Remarkably, 12% of the same group expects a competitive advantage from quantum computing within a year–or may believe that they already have such an advantage–which means at least a couple of market segments somewhere must be on the verge of a quantum-influenced shake-up.
Australia and the U.S. appear to be the countries most likely to be home to enterprises investing heavily in quantum computing. More than half of the quantum-active Australian firms and about 44% of the quantum-active U.S. firms that participated in the study have claimed budgets of more than $1 million. The study showed that many of the early adopters are spending their growing budgets in areas such as the hiring of more staff, quantum proof-of-concept projects and application development, among other areas.
There is much more to the report, including concerns that enterprises have about getting locked in to a single full-stack vendor, but these findings alone should be good to everyone in the quantum ecosystem because it appears a significant number of enterprises are advancing their quantum plans and spending a growing amount of money to do so. That makes it a good time for more discussion in the quantum sector about helping enterprises achieve their goals, and that’s just what IQT has in mind this May with IQT Spring May 10-12 in San Diego. The theme of that event will be the quantum enterprise. For more information contact info@3drholdings.com.
