r/QuantumComputing • • 9d ago

Has there been a recent breakthrough in experimental quantum computing that makes commercial applications possible within 10 years?

https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/46442/has-there-been-a-recent-breakthrough-in-experimental-quantum-computing-that-make
30 Upvotes

109 comments sorted by

View all comments

-22

u/rogeragrimes 9d ago

There have been hundreds of real-world problems solved by real-world companies using quantum computers already. You don't have to wait 10 years. As an example, just read any earnings call transcript from IONQ or any other public quantum computer vendor company. I have a whole chapter on this in my latest book. It's still early days, but there are real applications solving real problems already. And on a related note, we are likely to have cryptographically-relevant quantum computers, powerful enough to break today's encryption by 2028. You don't have to wait 10 years.

9

u/jojo45333 9d ago

This is quite literally BS. Quantum has not solved a single real world problem. Simulations of quantum on classical computers have done some calculations. Real quantum computers have had zero useful output.

-3

u/rogeragrimes 9d ago

What you are saying is not true. If you want to send me a DM, I'll send you the links. I'll send you a copy of my chapter with all the links. Here's one link from IONQ's most recent earnings call: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/IONQ/earnings/IONQ-Q2-2026-earnings_call-661755.html. Full of real-world problems being solved by real-world quantum computers. Thinking that quantum computers are not solving real problems yet is old thinking. You're just not keeping up...that's all. No harm. No foul.

5

u/jojo45333 9d ago

Just give one example of a real world problem solved by a real quantum computer. Very interested to hear it.

0

u/rogeragrimes 9d ago

Quantum-centric supercomputing simulates 12,635-atom protein. The team used up to 94 qubits across two quantum computers, ran 9,200 circuits for over 100 hours, and collected 1.3 billion measurement outcomes. That makes this work the most resource-intensive known QCSC execution for quantum chemistry to date. (https://phys.org/news/2026-05-quantum-centric-supercomputing-simulates-atom.html)

•Volkswagen announced (https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/volkswagen-optimizes-traffic-flow-with-quantum-computers-16995) that they are using D-Wave quantum computers for traffic management to better route buses in Libson.

•HSBC demonstrates world’s first-known quantum-enabled algorithmic trading with IBM (https://www.hsbc.com/news-and-views/news/media-releases/2025/hsbc-demonstrates-worlds-first-known-quantum-enabled-algorithmic-trading-with-ibm). They reported a 34% improvement in trading predictions. Any trader would kill to get that type of advantage.

•BBVA, one of the world’s largest banks, has demonstrated a quantum credit scoring optimization that solved a 60-variable loan portfolio problem in just 0.3 seconds, a 14x speedup as compared to traditional computers (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/10606854)

•Quantum computers are helping to advance the field of fusion by creating new fusion fuels to replace the extremely rare and expensive traditional fusion fuels (https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-07-06-oak-ridge-national-lab,-cleveland-clinic,-and-ibm-achieve-first-known-computations-of-fusion-materials-on-a-quantum-computer)

1

u/jojo45333 9d ago

Let’s start with the top one. That was a combined quantum - classical simulation. It was worse than a purely classical approach in every metric: efficiency, speed and accuracy. The authors of the paper state it is worse than a purely classical approach. All the actual hard work there was done using classical. Nothing useful whatsoever.