Businesses Are Spending Big on Quantum

Exactly when quantum computing will start disrupting billion-dollar industries remains hazy. But many businesses—some still smarting from being late to the AI boom—are spending big on the technology today.

Enterprise users collectively spent $300 million on quantum in 2025, for the first time outranking the combined spending of research labs and governments, and signaling an inflection point in commercial interest in the technology, according to a report from Boston Consulting Group.

Businesses like HSBC, Allstate and EY all say now is the right time to invest so that they hit the ground running with the right talent, data infrastructure and use cases when the technology ultimately matures for commercialization. Some of their investments are also defensive: securing their systems and applications in preparation for the day quantum computing could break today’s encryption technology.

“If it’s going to be available, then I need to start thinking about it coming even before I know exactly when it’s going to get there,” said Tom Wilson, chair, president and chief executive of Allstate.

The fact that many companies weren’t ready to take advantage of cutting-edge artificial-intelligence models when they became available is driving some of the early preparation this time around, according to Matt Langione, managing director, partner and global lead of quantum technologies at BCG.

BCG surveyed the top 25 global companies by market cap across 11 major industries, including healthcare, financial services and energy, for a total sample of 275 companies. It found that 62% were spending at least $1 million a year on quantum and had a designated program.

Businesses divided spending between internal efforts like hiring quantum talent and external efforts such as developing use cases with vendors and paying to experiment with quantum computers in the cloud.

Quantum computers represent a fundamentally different type of computing that uses the principles of quantum physics to solve problems far beyond the capabilities of today’s best supercomputers. In the future, it promises to change business for everything from financial trading to shipping logistics, pharmaceuticals, scientific discovery, data encryption, insurance, internet delivery and more.

When that will happen remains to be seen, but Langione said recent factors, including public market interest in the technology and a hangover from their lack of AI readiness, are inciting enterprise investments this year.

So what are companies doing today to prepare for quantum? Here are some examples.

Allstate has a team of 10 people working on quantum with plans to increase that number in the next year, Wilson said. The researchers are exploring use cases for how the company could use quantum for competitive advantage. Those include using the technology to evaluate complex risk factors and relationships to determine more precise prices that reflect the underlying level of risk for certain policies.

Quantum computers could theoretically help by solving complex optimization problems that include huge numbers of variables, like the specific type and age of shingles on a homeowner’s roof, that could then help Allstate price some policies, he said.

“In our business, precision is what creates value,” he said.

HSBC has a quantum team “in the order of tens” of researchers and engineers, spread across hubs in London, Singapore and India, according to Philip Intallura, the company’s group head of quantum.

Last year, it made headlines when it demonstrated a promising bond optimization use case involving International Business Machines’ quantum computers, showing up to a 34% improvement in predicting how likely a trade would be filled at a quoted price, compared with commonly used classical techniques. Intallura said the company has since signed another deal with IBM aimed at investigating the practical and financial feasibility of scaling that use case into production.

But lately, most of the quantum team’s growth is on the defensive side, ensuring the bank’s systems and applications are protected in the event that a quantum computer is developed that can break today’s encryption technologies.

“There is urgency around it, because we’ve got to do the transition before a cryptographically relevant quantum computer is developed,” he said.

Most companies today are accessing quantum compute via the cloud from companies like IBM and Amazon Web Services, according to Langione. But a few are buying their own quantum computers. One of them is EY.

The professional services firm last month announced that it had purchased a quantum computer, now hosted in Toronto, and is creating use cases and learning tools with a dedicated team for advising clients on the technology. EY declined to name the quantum provider or how much it paid, but it confirmed the purchase was part of the firm’s $3 billion commitment to AI and other frontier technologies.

Raj Sharma, EY global managing partner, growth and innovation, said the purchase was spurred by more quantum-related inquiries from top-tier clientele.

“Nobody wants to fall behind,” Sharma said.