by Amara Graps
An Excursion through GQI’s Quantum Tech Investments Playbook
While writing the previous Quantum Sensing Articles (Atom Interferometry Part One, Part Two, Part Three), I wondered why I haven’t heard financial news lately about Quantum Sensors. So, I fired up GQI’s Quantum Tech Investments Playbook, and had an ‘Oh No!’ moment.
Quantum Sensors received only 0.6% ($9.12M) investments! What is Going On?
The time slice is too short: ten months. If one chooses two years from the Playbook calendar, starting on January 1, 2022, then the Quantum Sensing slice of the whole Quantum Technology pie is approximately ten times larger: 9.1%, with an intriguing $110M spike in November 2022.
What company received the $110M investment? GQI’s interactive Playbook provides a view under the ‘Organization’ drop-down menu to the company that received the $110M investment. The company is Infleqtion, which was called ColdQuanta, at the time. In the following month, December 2022, the company changed its name to Infleqtion.
Quantum Sensor Investment over Time
Upon selecting a larger time slice, January 2010 to now, that 9.1% barely changes:
Quantum Sensing = 9.7% of total Quantum Technology Investments.
Taking different time slices, two years at a time, one can see the variations: from 7% to 16% to 24%, back to 7% (C19 pandemic height), but generally the percentage of the total Quantum Technology investments is 10-15%.
We must ask ourselves: Is the Quantum Sensor field growing?
Quantum Sensor Research Over Time
A cursory view of the number of research papers at Arxiv, using only the ‘quantum sensor’ keyword phrase, says ‘Yes’.
Between 2012 and now, early October 2024, the growth of Quantum Sensor research papers is ~20%-50% per year. There were also three strong growth years: 2013, 2016, 2021 of a few-100s% growth over the previous year.
In addition, the growth in the Quantum Sensor research, as seen in the number of Arxiv papers is accelerating.
The growth between Jan 2022 and now (Oct 2024) is ~1000%. It is approximately the same growth rate as between 2017 and 2022.
Quantum Sensor Patents Over Time
A cursory view of the number of filed patents at Google Patents, using only the ‘quantum sensor’ keyword phrase, also says ‘Yes’.
Between 2012 and 2017, the number of Quantum Sensor filed patents was ~26.2K.
Between 2017 and 2022, the number of Quantum Sensor filed patents was ~37.5K.
Therefore, the Quantum Sensor research and patent indicators show good growth, even if the business Investments don’t reflect the same.
Suggestions For Industrial Adoption of Quantum Sensors
A helpful opinion piece by Bongs et al. was published in May 2023 in Nature with the title Quantum sensors will start a revolution—if we deploy them right. To hasten their adoption, the authors list five top priorities for the commercialization of quantum sensors.
- Make them more robust
- Work out where we need them
- Integrate them in current systems
- Establish data needs
- Collaborate to innovate
The Bongs et al., 2023 article dives into each of these five points, with practical suggestions for the development and integration of quantum sensors for a variety of applications, to enhance their industrial adoption. These suggestions should speed up the Investments and hopefully prevent more “Oh No!” moments. Take a look.
(*) The Investor Playbook is an interactive tool from GQI that encourages exploration into the quantum sub-domains from an investor point-of-view. If you are interested to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].
October 5, 2024
