Quantum Computing – capital markets and investor interest in the next data centre disruption

Any long term investment – such as power and data centre infrastructure - is always at risk of technology disruption. This is especially true in the digital realm where the pace of innovation is accelerating.

The Generative AI LLM disruption is a boon for the data centre space creating opportunities for investors from GPU M+E infrastructure to powered land and shells for GW+ size campuses.

But as AI evolves investors are tasked with forecasting who the outright infrastructure winners will be. Those with a view on the horizon see Quantum Computing both a disruptor to the traditional classical computing data centre market – and as a major use case for existing AI and cloud computing infrastructure.

A nascent market compared with the $5.7trillion ‘classical computing and communications’ sector, Quantum Computing and photonic networking are attracting serious investor interest amid rapid technical advances. According to McKinsey the Quantum market could account for nearly $1.3 trillion in value by 2035 which said in 2024, ‘QC companies began a shift toward revenue generation, earning an estimated $650 million to $750 million in 2024’.

Funding sources

Given its capital intensity it is not surprising that classical computing hardware, software and cloud companies such as IBM, Google, Microsoft and AWS have large R&D programs and are major Quantum investors.

Beyond the titans there is a rapidly growing start up and scale up ecosystem that is attracting institutional and corporate investor attention.

On August 5th 2025 Amazon disclosed a $36.7 million stake in quantum computing firm IonQ in its quarterly SEC filing as reported by the The Quantum Insider. It said the move ‘makes Amazon the largest publicly known tech company investor in a quantum hardware company and adds to its broader quantum strategy through AWS and Amazon Braket.’

Public investment accounts for a major tranche of Quantum financing. 

According to the State of Quantum 2024 Report ‘Over 30 governments have committed to more than $40 billion in public funding commitments to quantum technologies which will be deployed in the next 10 years.’

In the first quarter of 2025, the UK announced government investments in quantum computing of an additional $100 million, bringing its total investment since 2023 to $3.5 billion.

However, the same report presented a mixed picture on private investment over the last few years. ‘A 50% drop occurred in venture capital invested into quantum startups from $2.2 billion in 2022 to around $1.2 billion in 2023 globally,’ it said.

Where the money is going

The fourth annual McKinsey Technology Monitor was published in June 2025 

It lists three main areas of development – Quantum Computing (, Quantum Communication and Quantum Sensor (QS).

It said: ‘‘Funding for QT start-ups in 2024 nearly doubled year over year, to $2 billion’, with public funding increasing by 19 percentage points to 34% compared to 2023’s 15%. QC companies began a shift toward revenue generation, earning an estimated $650M–$750M in 2024, and are expected to surpass $1B by the end of 2025.’

With 8 of 19 newly founded quantum startups originating in the EU, McKinsey said this ‘reflected the EU’s continuing push to start new companies rather than focusing only on mature start-ups.’ 

‘Funding by start-up stage Funding is shifting away from scaling quantum start-ups as investors focus on early innovation and mature start-ups (~70% of total investment), driven by a desire to maximize return on innovation or reduce risk.’    

Currently the majority of investments are targeted at quantum equipment and component hardware companies but a shift to software and services is anticipated expected over the next decade.

‘Big announcements from key players In 2024, tech natives—including Google, IBM, and Microsoft— continued to progress in quantum innovation, announcing breakthroughs in processor performance and scalability.’ 

Conclusion - Step by step to fully functional quantum

A post from April 2025 the World Economic Forum titled ‘What is ‘quantum advantage’ and how can businesses benefit from it?’ Katia Moskvitch, mentions Microsoft’s Majorana chip, the first chip powered by “topological qubits [quantum bits]”: 

It says: ‘Several tech companies, including Google, IBM, Microsoft, Quantinuum, IonQ, PsiQuantum, as well as university labs around the world, have been making impressive progress in quantum hardware, software and algorithms over the past decade. If Microsoft’s Majorana announcement is the breakthrough the company says it is, it could accelerate the development timeline of fully functional quantum computers.’

Investors at the ready!