Key Takeaways from QC Buyer/Users Study: Expectations for QC Performance Advantage are Broad but Modest

A recent survey revealed that HPC end users are looking to change the way they outfit their next HPCs, with many interested in exploring new types of processors, relying increasingly on GPUs and other accelerators to support computational gains, and preparing to increase their budgets to afford continued acquisition of more powerful HPCs. Insights into the critical factors driving these and other trends are detailed in the 2021 iteration of Hyperion Research's annual MCS end users' study, Processors, Coprocessors/Accelerators, and HPC budgets. Key Findings from the report are summarized in this document.

According to a recent Hyperion Research study of 135 US quantum computing (QC) technology developers across the academic, commercial, and government sectors, selected financial indicators in the QC commercial sector have yet to settle into any easily characterized profile. For example, Hyperion Research estimates that while more than one third of the reporting QC suppliers in the survey had revenues of five million dollars or more in 2019, almost half that supplied revenue figures had revenues of less than $500 thousand or no sales in 2019. Likewise, survey respondents indicated that the appropriateness of QC R&D funding differ greatly across the corporate, government, and VC spaces, citing a need for more government funding while expressing concern that current VC funding for the sector may be excessive. Finally, when asked about a potential quantum winter, QC suppliers were much more pessimistic than the base of current and potential QC users, with about half of QC suppliers believing a quantum winter is somewhat or highly likely in the next decade, twice that of counterpart QC end users.