Commercialize quantum technologies in five years

Google's cryostats reach temperatures of 10 millikelvin to run its quantum processors.

Quantum-assisted optimization and inference techniques could empower new machine-learning and artificial-intelligence systems. These could improve the management of renewable power generators, and of remote-sensing and early-warning systems. The techniques would also aid dynamic pricing for online goods and services, as well as warehouse automation and self-driving cars.
On the supply side, companies will distinguish themselves through the quality of their technology and teams. Pioneering quantum academics and entrepreneurs will have to work together. This will be challenging because academic incentives are often inconsistent with those of start-up cultures and industry.
Strategic partnerships can help businesses to stand out. To attract venture capitalists, the winning quantum products should have business models that require few assets, are low on manufacturing costs and clearly help customers to increase their revenues. Through the cloud, a company could benefit from using existing data centres when applying classical solvers to simple problems, and invoke quantum processors when it matters.

The field of quantum computing will soon achieve a historic milestone — quantum supremacy. It is still unknown whether application-related algorithms will be able to deliver big increases in speed using the sorts of processors that will soon be available. But when quantum hardware becomes sufficiently powerful, it will become possible to test this and develop new types of algorithms.

Over the next decade, academia, industry and national labs should work together to develop quantum simulation and quantum machine-learning algorithms. We plan to support such research by offering access to Google's quantum processors through cloud services to others that lack the necessary capital, expertise or infrastructure.

Source: Nature