What the C-Suite Needs to Know About Big Tech’s Quantum Push

Paradigm-shifting breakthroughs tend to take a while.

However, nearly three months into 2025, some of the world’s biggest technology companies have announced quantum computing advances that would have been unbelievable a few years ago.

Amazon introduced Thursday (Feb. 27) a prototype for its first quantum computing chip, Ocelot, following similar releases from Microsoft and Google.

“In the future, quantum chips built according to the Ocelot architecture could cost as little as one-fifth of current approaches…,” said Oskar Painter, director of quantum hardware for Amazon Web Services (AWS), in announcing the chip. “Concretely, we believe this will accelerate our timeline to a practical quantum computer by up to five years.”

Quantum computing, unlike classical computing, harnesses the properties of quantum mechanics, such as superposition and entanglement, to perform complex calculations at unprecedented speeds. This capability could be particularly valuable in the financial sector, where traditional process optimization can require massive computational power.

In payments, this could translate to faster transaction processing, better predictive analytics for fraud prevention, and highly efficient clearing and settlement processes.

But how close is this potential commercial quantum reality?

Read also: How the Math Powering Payments Adds Up in the Quantum Era

The Quantum Leap in Computational Capabilities

Commercial quantum computing technology is steadily advancing, but even the companies behind the most promising marketplace advances say the financial services landscape remains anywhere from a handful of years to more than two decades away from practical and cost-effective quantum computing.

The quantum ecosystem is in what insiders call the NISQ era (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum). Quantum computers have a fixed number of qubits — the quantum bits used to process information in quantum computers — and are prone to errors and require noise correction. Moving from hundreds of qubits to thousands or millions will ultimately be necessary for practical applications.

Still, tech giants are vying for leadership in the quantum computing arena, each taking distinct technological approaches. Microsoft unveiled Feb. 19 its Majorana 1 processor, which uses topological qubits — a groundbreaking technology believed to offer greater stability and error resistance. Microsoft’s topological qubits could address one of quantum computing’s biggest hurdles: error correction. By achieving more stable quantum states, Microsoft’s quantum processor could enable financial institutions to build highly reliable quantum applications for payments and beyond.

Google, which has been working on quantum computing since 2012, said Feb. 5 that it is confident it will unveil commercial quantum computing applications in the next five years. In December, Google debuted its new Willow chip that can “reduce errors exponentially” as it scales using more qubits, according to a company blog post. It was able to do a benchmark calculation in less than five minutes that would take today’s fastest supercomputer 10 septillion years to do.

See also: Preparing for a Quantum and Crypto-Ready Financial Landscape

What This Means for Innovation Today

While widespread adoption of quantum computing in payments may still be a few years away, the groundwork is being laid today.

For example, QuEra Computing announced Feb. 11 that it raised $230 million in a funding round to accelerate its development of quantum computers. New investors participating in the round included Google, SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Valor Equity Partners.

Last March, Google Quantum AI and Google.org joined XPRIZE and the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA) to launch XPRIZE Quantum Applications, a three-year, $5 million global competition to apply quantum computing to solve real-world challenges and prove quantum computing’s potential for practical utility.

In the payments industry, quantum algorithms could enhance encryption methods, making transactions virtually unhackable. This would not only safeguard consumer data but also build trust in digital payment systems.

Quantum computing could also enable real-time, cross-border payments with minimal fees. Traditional cross-border transactions often involve multiple intermediaries and currency conversions, which introduce latency and costs. Quantum-powered systems could streamline these processes, delivering near-instantaneous global transactions.

The quantum leap in payments innovation might not happen overnight, but when it does, it will transform the industry in ways that are hard to imagine today.

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