Quantum Computing Stats: Forecasts & Facts for 2026 & Beyond

Quantum computing is an emerging field that has the potential to fundamentally change computing and build smarter machines. To understand the potential of quantum computing (QC), feel free to read our research on QC and its applications.

We have compiled predictions & facts about the field:

Market size forecasts

• The UK government announced a £2 billion four-year quantum investment program in March 2026, covering computing, sensing, and networking technologies with projections of contributing up to £200 billion to the UK economy.¹ This represents one of the largest single national quantum commitments announced to date.
• The Quantum Economic Development Consortium measured the 2025 quantum computing market at $1.9 billion with an average annual growth rate of 30%, forecasting the market to exceed $3 billion by 2028.² The industry employed 16,482 pure-play quantum workers globally as of year-end 2025, with 8,261 new job openings posted during the year.
• McKinsey’s 2026 Quantum Technology Monitor revised the estimated economic value of quantum technologies to between $1.3 trillion and $2.7 trillion by 2035, significantly increasing previous projections.³ The report confirmed that the quantum industry crossed $1 billion in total revenue during 2025, with projections to reach $4.4 billion by 2028.
• The quantum computing market is projected to reach $3.52 billion in 2025 and expand to $20.20 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 41.8%.⁴
• The Quantum Insider projects quantum computing will contribute $1 trillion in economic value creation by 2035, with vendors capturing $50 billion in revenue.⁵
• The quantum technology market is projected to experience dramatic growth, with forecasts suggesting it could reach a valuation of $173 billion by 2040. This represents a significant potential market opportunity over the next several decades. (McKinsey)
• Public investment in quantum technology (QT) has reached approximately $42 billion globally, with several nations making substantial financial commitments. Three countries have emerged as leading investors: Germany, the UK, and South Korea, who are spearheading major new funding initiatives in this field. (McKinsey)
• Quantum computing is expected to make its first significant breakthroughs in four key industries: chemical, pharmaceutical/life sciences, financial services, and transportation/mobility. These sectors are positioned to be early beneficiaries of quantum technology, with potential economic gains reaching $2 trillion in value by 2035. (McKinsey)
• Automotive will be one of the primary value pools for quantum computing with a high impact noticeable by about 2025 and $2 billion to $3 billion economic impacts of related technologies for the automotive industry by 2030. (Mckinsey)
• There could be between 2,000 and 5,000 quantum computers worldwide by 2030. (Mckinsey, Consultancy.co)
• As of year-end 2025, the quantum industry employed 16,482 pure-play workers globally and posted 8,261 new job openings during the year, according to the Quantum Economic Development Consortium.⁶ While employment exceeded earlier projections, talent remains a critical constraint as the industry scales toward fault-tolerant systems.

Adoption

• IBM launched the Nighthawk processor in November 2025, featuring 120 qubits on a square-lattice architecture with 218 tunable couplers.⁷ The company received $1 billion in U.S. CHIPS Act funding in May 2026 for establishing a domestic quantum foundry.⁸ IBM targets verified quantum advantage by 2026 and fault-tolerant systems by 2029.
• Quantum computing companies raised $4.9 billion in private venture capital during full-year 2025, representing a 192% increase over the $1.3 billion raised in 2024 and nearly quadrupling the previous year’s total.⁹
• In May 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced $2.013 billion in CHIPS Act incentives awarded to nine quantum companies: IBM, GlobalFoundries, Atom Computing, D-Wave, Diraq, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Rigetti.¹⁰ This represents the largest single U.S. government quantum investment program to date, with the government taking minority equity stakes in the recipients to establish domestic quantum manufacturing capabilities.
• Out of the players working on and innovating in quantum computing, the majority are startups (40%) and universities (33%) (PwC)
• IBM has achieved a quantum processor that surpasses 1000 qubits. (Scientific American)

Important developments

• In October 2025, Google demonstrated a 13,000-fold speedup over the Frontier supercomputer using a 65-qubit processor for physics simulations.¹¹ In April 2026, Google announced expansion into neutral atom computing architectures, diversifying beyond its superconducting qubit focus.
• Quantum computing as an alternative to classical computing was suggested by physicist Richard Feynman and mathematician Yuri Manin in early 1980s.¹²
• In 2011, the world’s first commercial quantum annealing machine, operating on a 128-qubit, was developed by D-Wave and its price was about US$10,000,000. (HandWiki)
• As of 2018, China leads in publications on quantum computing ~3000 scientific publications. The United States follows China with ~2500 publications. (BCG)
• Google Willow completed a benchmark computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers approximately 10 septillion years (10^25 years). Also, they managed to demonstrate exponential error reduction as more qubits were added to the system.¹³
• Microsoft unveiled the Majorana 2 quantum chip in June 2026, featuring topological qubits with coherence times lasting approximately 20 seconds, representing a 1,000-fold improvement over prior generations.¹⁴ This topological approach differs fundamentally from superconducting and ion-trap architectures by using Majorana zero modes to create inherently error-protected qubits, marking Microsoft’s significant entry into quantum hardware development.

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Total fundings of startups

• PsiQuantum $7 billion valuation, $1 billion Series E funding ¹⁵
• Quantinuum (NASDAQ: QNT) completed its initial public offering in June 2026, raising $1.68 billion at $60 per share and achieving an approximate market capitalization of $17.5 billion at listing.¹⁶ The company was formed in 2021 through the merger of Cambridge Quantum Computing and Honeywell Quantum Solutions, clarifying its corporate heritage.
• Xanadu Quantum Technologies (NASDAQ: XNDU) became the first publicly traded pure-play photonic quantum computing company in March 2026, debuting on Nasdaq via a SPAC merger.¹⁷ The company represents the photonic quantum computing modality, offering an alternative to superconducting and trapped-ion approaches.
• D-Wave $216M in 19 rounds (Crunchbase)
• Rigetti Computing: $198.5M in 9 rounds(Crunchbase)
• The University of Oxford (UK) is the entity that has gained the most public funding: $117.59 M for 62 grants (PwC)
• IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) became the first pure-play quantum computing company to exceed $100 million in annual revenue, reporting $130 million in 2025 GAAP revenue with over 60% derived from commercial customers.¹⁸ As of June 2026, IonQ maintains a market capitalization of approximately $26.2 billion, superseding its pre-IPO funding history.
• Silicon Quantum Computing: $66M (PwC)
• 1QBit: CA$45 in 4 rounds (Crunchbase)
• IQM: €29M in 3 rounds (Crunchbase)

For more on quantum computing

You may also like these articles if you want to learn more on quantum computing:

• Quantum Software: What it is & How it Works
• QC Companies: Guide Based on 4 Ecosystem Mapsting Ecosystem
• In-Depth Guide to Quantum Artificial Intelligence

Finally, if you believe your business would benefit from a quantum computing solution, we have a data-driven list of vendors prepared.

Cite this research

Pick the format that matches where you're publishing. Pasting the link version into your CMS preserves the backlink.

@misc{dilmegani2026,
  author = {Dilmegani, Cem},
  title  = {{Quantum Computing Stats: Forecasts & Facts for 2026 & Beyond}},
  year   = {2026},
  month  = jun,
  howpublished    = {\url{https://aimultiple.com/quantum-computing-stats}},
  note   = {AIMultiple. Retrieved June 24, 2026}
}

Reference Links

1.

UK’s "Quantum leap"  to help beat disease, deliver high-paid jobs, and strengthen national security, as first country in the world to roll out Quantum computers at scale  - GOV.UK

GOV.UK

2.

QED-C | State of the Global Quantum Industry 2026 | QED-C

3.

https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-technology/our-insights/mckinsey-quantum-technology-monitor-2026-a-commercial-tipping-point

4.

Quantum Computing Market Size, Share, Latest Trends & Growth Analysis, 2025-2030

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The Quantum Insider Projects $1 Trillion in Economic Impact From Quantum Computing by 2035

The Quantum Insider

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QED-C | State of the Global Quantum Industry 2026 | QED-C

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IBM Delivers New Quantum Processors, Software, and Algorithm Breakthroughs on Path to Advantage and Fault Tolerance

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Department of Commerce Announces Letters of Intent With 9 Companies for $2 Billion to Accelerate U.S. Leadership in Quantum Computing | NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology

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QED-C | State of the Global Quantum Industry 2026 | QED-C

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Department of Commerce Announces Letters of Intent With 9 Companies for $2 Billion to Accelerate U.S. Leadership in Quantum Computing | NIST

National Institute of Standards and Technology

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Google Quantum AI Shows 13,000× Speedup Over World’s Fastest Supercomputer in Physics Simulation

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Quantum computing - Wikipedia

Contributors to Wikimedia projects

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Meet Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip

Google

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Majorana 2, made more reliable with Microsoft Discovery agentic AI

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PsiQuantum Raises $1 Billion to Build Million-Qubit Scale, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers — PsiQuantum

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reuters.com

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Quantum Computing Stocks: Xanadu Set For Market Debut As Sector Struggles In 2026 | Investor's Business Daily

Investor's Business Daily

18.

IonQ Surpasses $100 Million in Annual Revenue, Reports Quantum Sales Accelerating

Cem Dilmegani

Principal Analyst

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Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 55% of Fortune 500 every month.

Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.

Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.

He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.

Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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