In July, IBM researchers also released a paper explaining why it is so difficult to accurately evaluate quantum advantage claims. According to IBM, real quantum advantage requires industry consensus — but that this will be achieved sometime before the end of 2026. The researchers also added that IBM itself has already surpassed classical computers in some respects.
“We have arrived already at a place where quantum computing is a useful scientific tool capable of performing computations that even the best exact classical algorithms can’t,” the researchers wrote. “We and our partners are already conducting a range of experiments on quantum computers that are competitive with the leading classical approximation methods.”
For example, in June, IBM partnered with RIKEN to use the IBM Quantum Heron processor alongside the Fugaku supercomputer to simulate molecules at a level beyond the ability of classical computers alone, and at “utility scale,” IBM said.
6. New hardware breakthroughs in size and qubit types
Many companies announced hardware breakthroughs this year, including Microsoft’s new Majorana 1 chip and Amazon’s new Ocelot chip. (Google announced their new Willow chip in December of last year.)
But the biggest announcement, in terms of the number of qubits involved, has to be Caltech’s record-breaking 6,100-qubit array.
In a September announcement, Caltech researchers said that they split a laser beam into 12,000 parts in order to trap 6,100 cesium atoms. These qubits stayed in superposition for 13 seconds, ten times longer than previous arrays, and were even able to move the atoms round. Being able to move qubits opens the door to more efficient error correction and is a key benefit of this neutral atom approach to quantum computers.
Caltech physicists create 6,100-qubit array. Kon H. Leung is seen working on the apparatus used to trap 6,100 atoms.
Caltech/Gyohei Nomura
7. Quantum-classical hybrids become all the rage
IBM wasn’t the only company combining quantum computers with classical ones for extra oomph.
Nvidia has leaned into this heavily. At the end of October, the company announced an open system architecture for coupling its GPUs with quantum processors to build quantum supercomputers. The new platform, called NVQLink, is also integrated with Nvidia’s CUDA-Q quantum software platform.
Partners include many of the top firms in the quantum computing industry, including Alice & Bob, Anyon Computing, Atom Computing, Diraq, Infleqtion, IonQ, IQM Quantum Computers, ORCA Computing, Oxford Quantum Circuits, Pasqal, Quandela, Quantinuum, Quantum Circuits Inc., Quantum Machines, Quantum Motion, QuEra, Rigetti, SEEQC and Silicon Quantum Computing — as well as quantum control system builders including Keysight Technologies, Quantum Machines, Qblox, QubiC and Zurich Instruments.
“If you think of the science and chemistry problems people anticipate solving with quantum computers, the way we solve them today is with high performance computing,” says Scott Buchholz, government and public services CTO and quantum computing lead at Deloitte. “So having them talk to each other, and having each one focus on the things it’s strongest on, is actually a good idea.”
8. Qubit types proliferate
If anyone was hoping that 2025 would help us see which approach to quantum computing was going to be the winner, they would be disappointed.
While superconducting circuits — the computers that look like giant chandeliers — were still big, there was a lot of progress on other approaches.
DARPA’s list of Quantum Benchmarking Initiative companies has two companies with neutral atom qubits (Atom Computing and Quera), four companies with silicon spin qubits (Diraq, Photonic, Quantum Motion, and Silicon Quantum Computing), two companies with superconducting qubits (IBM and Nord Quantique), two companies with trapped ion qubits (IonQ and Quantinuum), and one company with photonic qubits (Xanadu).
PsiQuantum unveiled its photonic quantum processor in February. And we even saw brand new types of qubits, such as Microsoft’s new Majorana 1 chip, which uses the topological qubit approach.
Amazon’s Ocelot chip uses a unique hybrid approach, combining cat qubits with transmon qubits. And Quantum Circuits also follows a new approach. It’s a superconducting circuit qubit, but with a “dual rail” control mechanism.
“With the dual-rail approach we’ve built a computer that’s very reliable,” says Andrei Petrenko, Quantum Circuits’ head of product. “It combines the reliability benchmarks of trapped ions and neutral atoms with the speed of the superconducting platform.” The dual-rail is like a check-engine light, he adds. “No other quantum computer tells you in real time if it encounters an error, but ours does.”
In October, Quantum Circuits announced a partnership with Nvidia and support for CUDA-Q, and, in February, a proof-of-concept project related to drug discovery.
9. Post-quantum cryptography becomes enterprise priority
In May, Google researchers combined advances in error correction and quantum operations with more efficient algorithms to make breaking RSA encryption 20 times easier. That means enterprises may have less time than they planned to move to the new quantum-safe encryption algorithms.
“Our post-quantum cryptography team is ringing the fire bell,” says Isabella Bello Martinez, senior quantum technologist at Booz Allen Hamilton.
With the industry advancing to fault-tolerant computers faster than expected, the deadline is approaching quickly. “That is a cause for concern for organizations who have not yet thought about post-quantum cryptography,” she says. “Or they think that someone else will take care of it, that Microsoft will take care of it — you have to think about how everything you use works together.”
And it’s more than just the fact that adversaries will be able to use quantum computers to decrypt today’s standard encryption someday. They can also vacuum up encrypted data now and save it to decrypt later.
Fortunately, we do now have five NIST-certified post-quantum algorithms.
10. Nobel Prize in Physics for superconducting quantum circuits
Finally, to cap off a groundbreaking year for quantum computing, three scientists received the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on superconducting quantum circuits. The work itself was done in the 1980s and showed that quantum effects can show up even in large-scale things — a super-cold superconducting circuit can effectively act as it was a single quantum object, as if it was a single atom or subatomic particle.
The fact that they got the award this year shows how important this work has become to today’s quantum computers and sensors. According to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prizes, these awards are given for “achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind.”
Superconducting circuits are the foundational technology for many of today’s most advanced quantum computers, including those built by Google and IBM, says University of Chicago’s Chong, as well as quantum sensors. “And they’re relatively large, much larger than an atom,” he adds. “Larger than you would expect to see quantum effects. This macroscale is what this Nobel Prize is recognizing.”
Who would have expected 2025 to turn out to be as big for quantum as it was? Well, the United Nations, for one. In mid-2024, the United Nations declared 2025 to be the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
And so far, it is.
