Quantum Is Now a Procurement Problem, Not a Research Problem

The decisive question in quantum technology is no longer “Who has the cleverest physics?” It is “Who can deliver, integrate, secure and support a system that somebody can actually buy?”

For much of the past decade, quantum has been sold as a research race.

The scoreboard was familiar: qubit counts, coherence times, error rates, funding rounds, landmark papers and increasingly cinematic promises about machines that would one day change chemistry, logistics, finance and national security. Nothing wrong with that narrative, really, and re…