As nations and industries race to secure leadership in quantum, the outcomes will redefine global competitiveness, cybersecurity, and scientific capability.
www.eetimes.eu, Sept. 25, 2025 –
Quantum technologies are rapidly reshaping the frontiers of computing, communication, and sensing—areas with implications far beyond the laboratory. As nations and industries race to secure leadership in this highly dynamic field, the outcomes will redefine global competitiveness, cybersecurity, and scientific capability. In this high-stakes landscape, strategic investments and collaborations are no longer optional; they are imperative.
In 2024, nearly half of all global quantum investments flowed into European startups, with Europe standing out for its strong presence of startups in the critical seed and Series A stages, according to Amires. Still, Europe’s claim to leadership in the quantum race is increasingly being challenged on several fronts. The continent holds a strong position in quantum research, boasting top-tier universities, accessible foundries, and a robust ecosystem of component suppliers, but it significantly lags the U.S. and China in commercialization.
Europe’s missing piece is a powerful class of large system integrators and venture-backed companies capable of pushing technologies to market. “Basically, what Europe is missing are buyers of last resort,” as Ward Hendriks, co-founder and CTO of Aluvia Photonics, put it.
This gap results in lower private investment and an administrative burden inherent to public funding that slows product development and limits responsiveness to market needs. “We are shooting ourselves in the foot by making it too complicated,” Hendriks said.
While public investment supports R&D, it often lacks the directionality that customer-driven demand provides, making it harder for European innovators to scale up. Furthermore, the European quantum research landscape is fragmented, with many countries and institutions independently working on similar topics. Such fragmentation dilutes funding, focus, and impact.
“Probably, we should spend less time fighting for the piece of cake, but rather make the cake,” said Alexander Bachmann, senior director for R&D technology at Toptica Photonics. “I think there is a lot of potential in Europe, but we need to cooperate more than compete.”
Industry fragmentation hinders large-scale quantum computing efforts, which require massive, coordinated investment and infrastructure. On the other hand, it might be suited to quantum sensing, a domain that favors smaller, more focused projects and lower capital thresholds.
In any case, addressing Europe’s structural challenges—potentially through centralized hubs and collaborative industrial models like Airbus—will be essential for its transition from research excellence to global quantum leadership.
In fact, lessons on the benefits of the collaborative, coordinated approach are evident within the quantum field itself, where quantum computing hybridization with classical computing is already delivering value across several sectors through high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. Consider the Euro-Q-Exa initiative (EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, October 2024), which leverages the existing infrastructure of HPC clusters to help overcome part of the elevated upfront costs of quantum computers. Investing in completely new facilities comes with a high risk, along with the inflated cost set by the market potential of the technology. The hybridization approach is also essential from a practical standpoint, as problem simulations are first run on classical systems to assess requirements before being transferred to quantum processors.