“Quantum computing is not a beast, it is just a technology that can solve certain problems much more efficiently.” That was Abhishek Chopra, founder and chief executive of BosonQ Psi, speaking at the Mint Digital Mint Summit on 9 June.
Chopra put the total market at about $866 million in 2023. The applications industry, which includes Boeing, Accenture, Samsung and Deloitte, has already made several investments, he said.
He listed simulation, machine learning, optimization, data search and cryptography as the main tasks. Aerospace, healthcare and life sciences, retail, telecom and government are the industries where he sees the strongest fit.
“Huge investment is coming both from private and government, especially in biotech, finance, cybersecurity, supply chain, aviation, and automotive,” he said.
Governments and early projects
India has put money behind the field. In April, its government approved a National Quantum Computing Mission worth ₹6003.65 crore, running eight years from 2023-24 to 2030-31.
Chopra pointed to two collaborations as examples. Accenture Labs, Biogen and 1QBit have teamed up on drug discovery. Volkswagen and D-Wave have worked on quantum-powered traffic management for buses.
His own company’s numbers came with a caveat: they are Chopra’s claims. BosonQ Psi, which builds cloud simulation software on quantum methods, ran a proof of concept on airline route optimization covering 100 flights over Europe. “Compared to classical simulation software, we can reduce the carbon footprint by 18%, fuel consumption by 4%, and flight time by 1%,” he claimed.
The firm also worked with Maruti Suzuki on engineering optimization. Using quantum simulation, Chopra said, the carmaker reached yearly material savings of $500k and a further $29k off high-performance computing costs.
