Hardware Podcasts

When will quantum computing have its breakout moment?

Catalyst · 16 Jul 2026 · 40m

What this episode covers

Bob Sorensen, chief analyst for quantum computing at Hyperion Research, explains that while governments have committed over $50 billion and VC funding has surged, quantum computing remains in a pre-commercial 'noisy intermediate-scale' phase. He argues that current 'quantum advantage' claims, such as Google's Willow chip simulation, are often based on artificial benchmarks with no real-world relevance, and that the industry must overcome the significant hurdle of error correction to produce useful logical qubits. Sorensen predicts fault-tolerant systems in 3-4 years, noting that 85 hardware vendors is too many for the ecosystem and that market consolidation is inevitable to avoid an 'AI winter' style downturn.

Most relevant to

early-stage companies

Topics

Mentioned

Companies
Hyperion Research, Google, Periodic Labs, Rolls-Royce, FedEx, EnergyHub
Products
Willow chip

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