According to recent market research performed by Precedence Research and published in January 2023, the global quantum computing market size was approx. $10.13 billion in 2022 and is expected to surpass around $125 billion by 2030, poised to grow at a projected CAGR of 36.89% during the forecast period 2022 to 2030.
Because of the enormous expenditures being made by governments and commercial companies, the market for quantum computing is booming. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of government efforts supporting quantum information processing during the past several years. Additionally, a number of countries are heavily subsidizing research and development in the area of quantum computing, which is fostering industry expansion.
The market is keeping track of various significant changes happening mostly in North America but also elsewhere. In order to acquire a competitive edge in the quantum computing sector, private companies are also investing heavily in the technology. For instance, North American businesses like Microsoft Corporation, Google LLC, and International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation are working hard to create and market this technology.
In a similar way, China’s top online retailer, Alibaba Group Holding Limited, is constructing its own quantum computing center. Additionally, the Chinese government is constructing a $10 billion national facility for quantum research. A significant increase in simulation work for quantum computing is also being seen in the market for quantum computing solutions. Market participants are actively trying to create a numerical simulation of quantum systems since it is crucial for the advancement of scientific knowledge. But greater processing power is necessary for the development of these systems. In fields like quantum chemistry and superconducting materials, models that represent many important and crucial systems cannot be accurately solved numerically or analytically by conventional computers.
The following chart from Pitchbook shows the deals over time in the emerging quantum computing emerging space, where it can be easily seen that from 2020 onward there has been an immense growth in the number of deals and also in the size of the deals.
According to research performed by Polaris Market Research[1] The global quantum computing software market was valued at $111.2 million in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.9% during the forecast period, reaching around $1,105 million by 2030.
Following are short descriptions of companies participating in the Quantum Software market:
Zapata Computing (www.zapatacomputing.com) – Considered by the Company to be its closest competitor, Zapata was Founded in 2017 and with headquarters in Boston, Zapata Computing is one of the most innovative quantum computing companies in the space. Developing solutions for a whole gamut of industries that encompass chemistry, logistics, finance, oil and gas, aviation, pharmaceuticals, and materials, Zapata Computing’s platform Orquestra combines a powerful software platform and open-source quantum algorithm libraries which deliver real-world advances in computational power for applications. Composing workflows in the YAML-compatible Zapata Quantum Workflow Language (ZQWL), the platform’s “wrappers” exist for open-source algorithms (e.g., from Qiskit, Cirq, and Forest).
1Qbit (1qbit.com) – a Canadian quantum computing company founded in 2012 that seeks to apply computation to ML and optimization science via its hardware-agnostic software platform. And its 1Qloud™ platform — using novel quantum-inspired optimization solutions — is part of this.
This hardware-agnostic approach allows researchers, developers, and data scientists to exploit the amazing power of computers inspired by quantum mechanics and state-of-the-art quantum-based algorithms without prior knowledge of each individual hardware platform.
1QBit’s Graph-Based Molecular Similarity (GMS) tool will be adopted by pharmaceutical companies to perform virtual screening and assist in drug discovery while the company’s Quantum-Inspired Hierarchical Risk Parity (QHRP) method utilizes quantum-inspired technology and advanced hardware accelerator and is just the thing for optimizing portfolios.
QCware (www.qcware.com) – QCWare develops hardware-agnostic enterprise software solutions for quantum computers. The company’s quantum computing software solves problems in combinatorial optimization and machine learning with efficiency unmatched by traditional HPC solutions. This company’s software simplifies QC programming and provides access to QC machines while improving risk-adjusted returns and monitoring networks, enabling clients to integrate quantum computing power into any existing application and remove performance bottlenecks.
Horizon Quantum Computing (www.horizonquantum.com) – Horizon Quantum Computing is a Singapore-based company building software-development tools to enable the next revolution in computing. Horizon Quantum Computing is developing a new generation of programming tools to simplify and expedite the process of developing software for quantum computers. By removing the need for prior quantum computing experience, Horizon’s tools attempt to democratize the development of quantum-enhanced applications, making the power of quantum computing accessible to every software developer.
Companies like Zapata, 1QBit, and QCWare derive the bulk of their revenue from consulting services. They deploy their quantum engineers to help companies solve quantum problems. Customers have two issues with these solutions: 1) by outsourcing the work to a consultant, companies are failing to build their internal quantum expertise; 2) it appears that in many cases, the IP remains with the consulting company (with usage rights for the customer), which is a concern for a company that wishes to develop its own IP
Other than these Software companies, there are numerous others in the ecosystem. Other than them, IBM, Rigetti, and other hardware vendors offer gate-level development environments.
Xanadu is offering an open-source software package (PennyLane) that focuses on particular tasks – mostly quantum machine learning in their case. Our analysis is that this is to build a user base and then try to convert it to users of the Xanadu hardware once it’s ready in 2024.
Amazon, a cloud vendor, offers “Braket”, a software interface to AWS quantum cloud. Similarly, Microsoft offers Q# and Google offers Cirq. Not only do they not provide synthesis functionality, but customers might be worried that by adopting Braket, Q#, or Cirq, they are locking themselves into using a particular cloud vendor. This might be a risky strategy at the moment.
In 2022, the Israel Innovation Authority (“IIA”) announced the formation of the largest consortium in itshistory, with the aim of developing Israel’s quantum computing technologies with a three-year budget of NIS 115 million (approximately $32.5 million).
The consortium will promote two quantum processor technologies – trapped ions and superconductors – which are among the most advanced and mature technologies today, alongside deep layers of quantum software. The key developments that will be prioritized include quantum processors, system-building blocks, coherent control tools, noise characterization, and reduction software, and a fully automated software environment from the application level to physical implementation.
Five Israeli companies are members of the consortium: IAI Group’s Elta Systems division, Quantum Art, Classiq, Qedma, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
[1] Quantum Computing Software Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Component (Solutions, and Services); By Technology (Superconducting Qubits, Trapped Ions, Quantum Annealing, and Other Technologies); By Application; By End-Use, By Region; Segment Forecast, 2022 – 2030, Polaris Market research, January 2022