Quantum Is Coming

When we look back on the 2020s, the dominant theme in technology will have been the explosion of platforms. The personal computer was the original tech platform, and mobile operating systems like Android an iOS were huge innovations. Fast forward to 2025, and we now have three new platforms,all fewer than five years old: LLMs, augmented/virtual reality, and quantum computing.

The last, quantum computing, is the least understood but also might be the most powerful. It is also the least advanced of the three, with no usable products to speak of. The sector is almost entirely theoretical in terms of what it can do, so it is difficult to grab hold of an innovation and write a remarkable headline. The promise, however, is there.

Some of the most interesting developments from where we sit relate to simulations. There is no calculation that a quantum computer can do that a classical computer cannot do . . . with unlimited time. That last part, though, is key: how long it takes a simulation run sets an upper bound on the maximum complexity of everything from financial models to weather calculations. Quantum systems seem especially well-suited to things like Monte Carlo simulations, which can be incredibly powerful when provided with enough data and variables.

To some extent, we expect the evolution of quantum systems to be similar to what we saw with LLMs. Since the 1970s, computer scientists have been exploring the idea of neural networks, and they had been used in a lot of technology (especially things like speech recognition and the much-reviled autocorrect) over the years. They simply lacked the data and processing power to do anything especially interesting. Once we crossed two hurdles (the intellectual one related to transformers and the practical one related to GPU horsepower), though, it clicked into place practically overnight. To outsiders, it seemed like a breakthrough; to the engineers close to it, just more progress.

That is the process I expect to see happen with quantum computation. As soon as the first practical implementation becomes public, it will generate a fantastic amount of attention, even though we have been slowly working on this problem for decades, and the engineers involved will be mostly un-surprised.

One of our goals as investors is to help the market get ready for these innovations so that companies with breakthrough technologies have a market ready to adopt the technology. To that end, we are excited to invest in companies like BlueQubit (which today announced their seed round). BlueQubit provides quantum simulation solutions,allowing customers to develop and test quantum algorithms on classical hardware before the real quantum hardware is ready. Their customers have a massive head-start in using this new technology, the benefits of which we are only starting to grasp.

It may not feel like it to those close to these new platform technologies, but we are living in a profoundly innovative period. It is an especially exciting time to be a seed investor.