The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Quantum technology is moving from laboratories into firms that build hardware, software, components and services, supported by large public and private investment. Revenues are small relative to expectations, many products are prototypes, and supply chains for specialised components are thin. This page sets out how quantum industries are developing, how their activity is measured without hype, and what evidence serves investors, governments and buyers.
Quantum industries · Crypto inventory · Wave 4
| Archive signing | RSA-2048 | 28 | ML-DSA hybrid | Piloting |
| VPN gateway | ECDH | 10 | ML-KEM hybrid | Planned |
| Payments HSM | RSA-3072 | 10 | Vendor roadmap | Blocked |
| Web TLS | ECDHE | 3 | Hybrid key exchange | Done |
Fig.Post-quantum migration tracker. Design wireframe with placeholder names and illustrative values, not a record or a live system.
The quantum industry is the set of firms building quantum hardware, software, components and services, supported by large public and private investment. Funding precedes revenue, enabling components come from few suppliers, cloud access lets users experiment, and national policy shapes where firms locate and sell.
For quantum industries, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on night lights, true-colour imagery and population density with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on Japan and Korea; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.
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NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
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For quantum industries, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on night lights, true-colour imagery and population density with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on Japan and Korea; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
Potential supply chains and applications. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Public programmes and venture capital fund firms years before products earn significant revenue. Expectations can run ahead of technical progress.
Cryogenics, lasers, control electronics and photonic components are supplied by specialised firms, often few per component.
Most users access quantum hardware through cloud services, which lets them experiment without owning machines.
National strategies, procurement and export controls shape where firms locate and who they can sell to.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Enabling technology | A component or system, such as a laser or cryostat, that quantum devices depend on. |
| Quantum cloud service | Remote access to quantum hardware or simulators through the internet. |
| Patent family | A set of patent filings in different countries protecting the same invention. |
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public funding announced for quantum | currency units | annual | Government announcements | DECLARED |
| Private investment in quantum firms | currency units | annual | Investment databases | REPORTED |
| Quantum firms by segment | count | annual | Industry surveys | REPORTED |
| Quantum patents filed | count | annual | Patent databases | OBSERVED |
| Quantum hardware accessible via cloud | count of systems | annual | Provider documentation | DECLARED |
| Revenue of quantum firms | currency units | annual | Company reports | REPORTED |
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| OECD quantum technologies policy primer and related work | Policy, investment and industry overview | Public, OECD terms |
| Patent data from WIPO PATENTSCOPE and EPO Espacenet | Patent filings by technology and applicant | Free access, terms per office |
| Company filings of listed quantum firms | Revenue and risk disclosures | Public records |
| Government quantum strategy documents | Announced public funding | Public records, licence per government |
| Industry market reports | Firm counts and investment | Commercial; public summaries (to check) |
Quantum Technologies prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Governments and economic agencies | Which parts of the quantum industry to support | Industry maps; supply chain analyses |
| Investors | How to read industry claims and progress | Revenue and technical evidence |
| Buyers of quantum services | Which services are mature enough to use | Cloud access and benchmark evidence |
Industry questions separate near-term reality from long-term potential.
Quantum sensing and timing already have markets. Quantum computing is mainly sold as cloud access for research and exploration, and quantum key distribution serves niche uses. Many larger applications depend on capabilities that do not yet exist, so valuations rest heavily on expectation, which makes the industry sensitive to shifts in sentiment.
Supply chains rely on specialized inputs: dilution refrigerators, lasers, photonic chips, isotopically enriched materials and control electronics, often from few suppliers. Governments treat quantum as strategic, investing heavily and restricting exports of some equipment, which shapes where firms locate and who can access technology.
| Method or data | What it shows | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Supply-chain mapping | Concentration and single points of failure | Firm-level data is often confidential |
| Investment and funding data | Scale and direction of capital | Announcements may not reflect committed funds |
| Technology readiness assessment | How mature an application is | Readiness scales are subjective |
| Case studies of adoption | How organizations actually use quantum services | Few cases, often reported by vendors |
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.