By Catherine Thorbecke
Publication Date: 2026-01-02 00:00:00
In June, International Business Machines, an industry pioneer, unveiled an impressively detailed framework for deploying a fault-tolerant (i.e., less error-prone) quantum computer by 2029. And in October, Google announced that it had run a “verifiable” algorithm on its Willow chip – that is, one that can be repeated on another quantum system. According to Google, the algorithm called “Quantum Echoes” ran 13,000 times faster on Willow than on the world’s most powerful supercomputer.
The sheer pace of quantum activity from Big Tech and startups in 2025 would have been unthinkable just five years ago. Investors are paying attention and capital is flowing. The momentum is unlikely to slow down in 2026.
The US is still leading, but China is rapidly closing the gap. I recently wrote about this, looking at a surge in patent filings – the same type of data analysts have previously used to predict the country’s leadership in other sectors, such as electric vehicles.
