IQM states that SpaceX has demonstrated a route to profitability for quantum computing.

      It is often believed that quantum computing represents a long-term investment that could take at least a decade to yield profits. However, this is not necessarily true.

      At the TNW Conference in Amsterdam last week, Jan Goetz, co-founder and co-CEO of Finnish quantum startup IQM, disclosed that his company began generating revenue much sooner by adopting strategies similar to those used by SpaceX for funding.

      “When we launched, it was a conventional deep tech scenario, and many assumed it would take five to ten years to achieve revenue,” Goetz stated. “No, that’s foolish. You can already earn money with these early-stage machines.”

      Instead of waiting for a fully developed product, IQM has concentrated on selling quantum computers at their initial stages to state-supported research institutions. This strategy mirrors how SpaceX marketed early rockets to public sector clients, even when many of those rockets experienced failures shortly after launch. Goetz explained that the objective was to establish foundational partnerships that would finance future developments.

      Founded in 2018, IQM secured its first contract in 2020 and shortly thereafter sold its initial system. To date, the company has sold 13 quantum computers worldwide and has a bookings pipeline exceeding €90 million, positioning it as a leader in the industry. Additionally, it is the second most well-funded quantum hardware firm in Europe, having raised a total of $210 million (€181 million).

      Goetz remarked that the most significant obstacle for quantum computing is not technological but financial. Although he does not believe Europe has fallen behind in the tech race, he cautioned that without significant investment, the continent would struggle to compete with nations like the US or China.

      “Europe has outstanding universities and research initiatives, but can we translate these into competitive businesses and industries?” he queried. “We see the industry starting to engage, yet the level of investment remains relatively small.”

      Jan Goetz co-founded IQM with Mikko Möttönen, Kuan Yen Tan, and Juha Vartiainen in 2018.

      Goetz anticipates that the next significant transformation in the quantum computing sector will originate from the infrastructure layer, specifically from companies that develop and manage data centers. He expects these companies to increase their investments rapidly. “I believe that’s the next step we’ll see on the private side, and we hope to truly enable commercial applications so that all end users contribute to building the industry.”

      Goetz also spoke about the potential implications of artificial intelligence, noting that transmitting large amounts of data through quantum computers will remain technically challenging for the foreseeable future, which will restrict their utility in AI applications. However, he sees a developing role for quantum in AI, particularly in generating training data. IQM is working on this capacity through a partnership with Siemens focused on quantum-enhanced machine learning.

      “What quantum computers excel at is producing genuine randomness,” Goetz remarked. “[They] can indeed be utilized to generate synthetic data for training AI models more effectively... It’s akin to democratic voting. You group a set of qubits together, and if a few fail, the others can correct them. The majority provides the correct outcome, and the errors get adjusted.”