Private Funding For Quantum Continues Slide, According to TQI’s 2024 Q1 Report

Insider Brief

• Private investment in quantum technologies is down 7% compared to Q1 2023, according to The Quantum Insider’s first quarterly report for 2024.
• The number was comparable to the same period in Q1.
• Although investing in quantum slowed, the pace of research and development and intellectual property creation remained intense.

Private funding continues to be hesitant to invest in quantum technologies, according to the latest figures from The Quantum Insider’s first quarterly report for 2024.

The Q1 2024 report, built on data from TQI’s Market Intelligence Platform, shows that private investment in quantum technologies is down 7% compared to Q1 2023, but comparable to the same period in Q1 2023.

Q1 2024 saw about 13 quantum technology funding rounds and the investment was spread regionally.

The trends in quantum technology investing reflect a broader trend of diminished backing from investors, particularly from venture capital firms. Overall dealmaking dropped to a 7-year low in the first quarter of the year, which is the eighth straight quarter that equity deal volume has dropped, media outlets are reporting.

There was a bright spot in quantum funding. Quantinuum’s $300 million in funding stood out as one of the largest ever quantum technology investment rounds, according to the TQI report.

Research and IP Gains

In what might be a serious oversight, an ironic twist, or simply a coincidence, research and intellectual property — which arguably underpins the value of quantum tech — staged dramatic gains in Q1. TQI tracked about 2,500 quantum-oriented patents that were submitted by around 1,000 organizations during the quarter. China submitted more than 1,200 patents, as larger corporates signaled they were building patent “war chests,” the report states.

Similarly, quantum companies and startups made dramatic research advances, including a blockbuster Microsoft-Quantinuum research study that detailed the combined research teams ability to produce logical qubits. Quantinuum also released information that it had reached new levels of quantum fidelity. These advances are aimed at improved performance and, in particular, error correction, which remains a critical obstacle standing in the way of the use of quantum computers for practical computational challenges.

Aligned with this rapid research advances, several quantum companies — including IBM and QuEra — dropped new roadmaps during the quarter. These roadmaps seem to to forecast practical quantum computing in the next few years, rather than decades of many previous estimates.

In short, while funding for quantum remains hesitant, that hesitation is likely not the result of doubt about the technology — even though more challenges remain — but due to macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns and realities.

All the quarterly reports are available on The Quantum Insider’s Intelligence Platform. Subscribers to TQI’s platform not only have access to quarterly and annual reports but also receive special reports and access to the quantum industry’s most robust, most varied and most recent data and intelligence.