Guest Post by Liam Wang COO, Logical Qubit Technology.
The World Economic Forum’s Quantum Economy Day 2026 was held in Geneva, Switzerland, on October 13–14. Logical Qubit Technology attended as the only quantum computing company representing China. The company’s Chief Operating Officer, Liam Wang, joined business executives, researchers, and representatives of international organizations from around the world to discuss the global development of quantum computing.
This June, I took part in a World Economic Forum discussion on global quantum science and technology development at the Summer Davos meeting in Dalian. Representing the company again at Quantum Economy Day 2026 in Geneva gave me a close-up view of how quantum computing is developing in other countries and regions.
What Is Everyone Talking About?
My first and most immediate impression: China and other countries share many of the same concerns about this industry — how to persuade policymakers, capital, and industry to commit more resources to quantum computing; which application scenarios will see the first breakthroughs; how geopolitics continues to shape the global industry (supply chain security, the setting of global quantum standards, and so on); how to broaden quantum computing’s social reach, steadily moving beyond academia into industry and the wider public; and how the convergence of quantum computing and AI will unfold, and what major opportunities that super-cycle will create.
Although the industry is still at an early stage, the overall mood among participants was optimistic. AI was the most common point of comparison: since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, the pace of progress in large AI models has exceeded almost everyone’s expectations. Quantum computing is likely to follow a similar logic.
Of course, at this stage, quantum computing still has to be viewed pragmatically. Two terms came up most frequently in the discussions: “use case” and “geopolitics.”
The first concerns what quantum computing can actually do. As at many conferences, its impact on classical cryptography was discussed first; PQC, QKD, and cybersecurity came up again and again. The consensus was clear: the world needs to prepare for Q-Day as soon as possible. Beyond that, drug discovery, chemical simulation, new energy and materials R&D, and financial applications were the most frequently cited use cases.
The geopolitics question is more complicated. Around the world, quantum computing depends on government policy support. Yet intensifying geopolitical competition is, to some extent, impeding global collaboration in the field — which helps explain why supply chain security was such a widespread concern in the room.
It is clear that the development of the global quantum computing industry — setting the technology itself aside — carries two overlapping spectra: competition among nations and competition among companies.
Competitive advantage will most likely come from:
(1) the capacity for action a country or company possesses, and the results it delivers — sustained policy support, for instance, or a company closing the loop on real-world applications faster.
(2) the depth of participation and voice in global competition and cooperation. Even though names like Google and IBM come up often, the quantum race has not consolidated into a handful of dominant players the way AI has. The more likely picture is one of regional competition between countries, interwoven with rivalry between companies.
Looking inward from these global gatherings: this year I had the honor of representing the company at VivaTech, Summer Davos, the Belt and Road Summit in Hong Kong, and now Quantum Economy Day 2026. Beyond the chance to observe how other countries and regions are developing quantum computing, these events have prompted reflections on the industry at home, framed around three questions:
(1) How should we view the current stage of China’s quantum computing development?
(2) What new narratives might emerge in quantum computing?
(3) Where does China stand in the global quantum computing competition?
How Should We View the Current Stage of China’s Quantum Computing Development?
A caveat first: my perspective is not that of an academic or researcher, but a business-oriented one.
In the second half of 2026, the phrase I have heard most often is that quantum computing has “cooled off.” The evidence cited is mostly about investment and capital: valuations are too expensive; quantum stocks on U.S. markets have pulled back; and expected policy support for the domestic capital market has fallen short. Together, these factors have created the feeling that the industry has turned cold.
I believe that judging the industry by the “hot” and “cold” defined by investment and capital is too one-dimensional — it oversimplifies how quantum computing is actually developing. My description of this stage, and of the next three to five years in China, is “compounding breakthroughs”: over the long cycle toward universal quantum computing, the intervals between milestone events, large and small, are getting shorter, and the cumulative effect compounds — accelerating the arrival of the universal quantum computing era.
This judgment rests on five observations:
1.On technology: Google and the team of Academician Pan Jianwei at the University of Science and Technology of China have demonstrated quantum error correction below the error-correction threshold. China’s quantum companies are now anchoring their strategies on fault tolerance and investing heavily in error correction R&D. I expect that within one to two years, a commercial quantum computing company will reach an error-correction milestone.
2.On policy: at home and abroad, quantum computing has become a strategic priority in frontier technology. Intensifying competition between nations requires sustained policy support — support that in turn gives commercial companies the resources they need for technical breakthroughs and the validation of application scenarios.
3.On the ecosystem: 2026 can fairly be called year one of China’s quantum computing ecosystem. Alongside a new wave of hardware companies, software and algorithm developers and critical component suppliers are springing up like bamboo shoots. What deserves note — and what many overlook — is that collaboration across the value chain, between software and hardware, and between hardware vendors, is accelerating overall.
4.On industry: leading companies in pharmaceuticals, materials, finance, and AI are accelerating their engagement with quantum computing — not just through investment, but with sustained commitment at the business level. I believe that within one to two years, China will see flagship cases achieve verified commercial closed loops in limited scopes or specific domains.
5.Finally, on AI + Quantum: I share the consensus at Quantum Economy Day 2026 — AI + Quantum will become a super-cycle. Talk to entrepreneurs in China’s quantum sector and you will find that combining AI with quantum computing is a natural ambition. That expectation is strong at home and abroad alike.
What New Narratives Might Emerge?
This is also why I believe the industry’s development may have only just begun. Looking back at the wave of enthusiasm across late 2025 and the first half of 2026, it is easy to agree on one thing: policy support has been the core narrative fuel. It lifted the rocket off the ground — but reaching orbit will take more fuel. Which new narratives could supply it?
1. Fault-tolerant quantum computing results. Strictly speaking, this may not be a “new” narrative: expectations are remarkably aligned, at home and abroad, that the field’s next milestone is fault tolerance. The U.S. Department of Energy and companies including IBM, QuEra, and IonQ have published roadmaps targeting fault-tolerant quantum computing in 2028 or 2029. Chinese companies have not announced specific dates, but they are equally anchored to the goal.
Logical qubits are indispensable to fault tolerance. Recently, Matthias Troyer and Chetan Nayak of Microsoft’s quantum team, along with last year’s Nobel laureate in Physics John Martinis, emphasized the importance of scalable logical qubits. However it is defined, logical qubits — in meaningful numbers and quality — will become the next concrete milestone. When that happens, I believe enthusiasm in the primary investment market will reignite.
2.Deep convergence of AI and quantum computing. This expectation is equally strong. Over the past year, virtually every industry event has featured dedicated discussions of AI for Quantum and Quantum for AI. Many quantum companies are already applying AI across their R&D: AI agents helping optimize quantum circuits, dynamic circuit compilation to improve gate fidelity, and optimization of quantum error correction decoders. It is fair to say that the “AI penetration rate” of a quantum company’s R&D will become an important measure of its competitive edge. A team that uses AI to accelerate R&D and deliver breakthrough results will also hold an advantaged position in fundraising.
3.Sustainable business models. How quantum computing makes money has been the most challenging question of the past year. Any investor evaluating a quantum team will ask: what is this year’s revenue, and where will next year’s orders come from? Behind these questions lies a concern about whether the field can generate sustained income.
At present, orders for quantum companies at home and abroad come mainly from full-system delivery, so judging the industry by a hardware business model fits today’s reality. But high hardware prices, steep barriers to use, and heavy operating and maintenance costs make mass adoption difficult.
Quantum computing is, in essence, computing power — and viewing it through a service business model better fits where the industry is heading. Traditional cloud computing has already validated that compute-as-a-service is sustainable. Whatever form it takes — quantum–AI convergence, or CPU/GPU + QPU hybrid architectures — the cloud platform will be the core carrier for hybrid compute scheduling. The performance of quantum cloud platforms, and the ability to deliver cloud quantum services sustainably, will become key indicators of a quantum company’s commercial strength.
Final Thoughts
In my day-to-day work I meet policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and journalists — people of different professions, backgrounds, and convictions, each with their own view of quantum computing. Ask the researchers, and their answers about the near and long term tend to be cautious: they work on the front lines and know how hard each specific technical problem is — raising coherence times in superconducting qubits, for instance. Ask the entrepreneurs, and they tend toward optimism: entrepreneurship is, by nature, about turning the seemingly impossible into the possible.
As a quantum computing professional, I am fascinated by the question of how it will change the world. Every technological leap in human history has followed the path of “discover the laws — apply the laws — create the laws.” We discovered quantum theory, and then, as Feynman said, we can use quantum computers to simulate how nature works.
We are already on the road to engineering the universe’s quantum scale into practical application. To describe our situation honestly, to solve every problem in front of us pragmatically, and to move toward the horizon with hope — that is my personal answer for this industry.
The views in this post are of the author only. They do not reflect the views or opinions of The Quantum Insider or it’s editorial staff.