IBM Report Warns Quantum Computing Alone Won’t Win the Race
Governments that pour money into quantum computing but ignore everything around it are setting themselves up to lose a race they think they’re winning. That’s the core finding of a report published June 30, 2026, by the IBM Center for The Business of Government, produced with the Potomac Quantum Innovation Center.
The report says quantum leadership is bigger than computing
The report, titled Navigating the Global Quantum Landscape, compares how the United States, China, the European Union, India, and Australia are building their quantum programs. It was written by Paula Ganga, a visiting fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Her argument is that quantum computing gets the headlines, but quantum communications, sensing, and post-quantum cryptography will decide who leads.
According to the report, global public and private investment in quantum technologies passed 40 billion dollars in 2024. That money spans pharmaceuticals, finance, defense, and energy.
Ganga organizes the recommendations around five elements: sustained investment, innovation, education, security, and cooperation. Governments need to fund basic research, train workers who can build and deploy the technology, migrate to quantum-resistant encryption, harden domestic supply chains, and keep collaborating internationally even as they compete.
How the world’s biggest quantum programs compare
The country comparisons are where the report earns its keep. The U.S. combines federal research funding through the Department of Energy, NSF, NIST, and Department of Defense with a private sector that raised more than $1.5 billion in quantum venture funding during 2024.
China takes a different route, committing around $15.3 billion in state money, though the report cautions those figures are estimates given limited transparency. Several major Chinese firms have handed quantum research assets to government-linked bodies. The EU has put in about $10 billion through programs like the Quantum Flagship, with strong science but weak commercialization. India is still building foundational capacity. Australia has good institutions and a talent-retention problem.
Security drives much of the urgency. Cryptographically relevant quantum computers don’t exist yet, but “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks do. Adversaries collect encrypted data today, and plan to crack it once the hardware arrives. Two U.S. executive orders issued in June direct federal agencies to speed up post-quantum cryptography migration.
Ganga refuses to name a winner. She argues leadership will come down to which governments sustain funding, educate workers, and secure infrastructure over many years, not who hits the next scientific milestone first.
That’s a sobering thought. A country can build the best quantum computer on earth and still fall behind if its encryption stays breakable and its talent leaves. The narrow bet is the risky one.