Sundar Pichai thinks commercially viable quantum computing is just 'a few years' away

""We believe in that kind of deep, fundamental R&D with a view of translating real problems," Pichai said."

""That same quantum computing team, no different from our TPU team, plans to have commercially-available, real, at scale quantum computers in a few years. And I think they will get there.""

""I think in three five years' time, we will have that moment where from a cryptographic standpoint we have to adapt to quantum, for sure," Pichai stated, adding that people will need to work together on establishing safeguards."

Google's quantum computing team aims to deliver commercially available, at-scale quantum computers within a few years, pursuing deep foundational R&D similar to TPU development. The Willow quantum chip demonstrated usable error reduction in 2024 and recently ran a test algorithm 13,000 times faster than the best equivalent classical algorithm on a top supercomputer. Anticipation of practical quantum advantage raises urgent cryptographic concerns, with expectations that within three to five years cryptographic systems will need adaptation and coordinated safeguards. Microsoft claims its Majorana 1 QPU supports a million qubits, while some industry leaders express skepticism about near-term quantum breakthroughs.

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