McKinsey’s “Quantum computing: An emerging ecosystem and industry use cases” analysis proposes an accurate study on the impacts that quantum computing use cases could generate at an economic level, starting from an estimate of an increase compared to the current value of the respective markets. The exam involved four of the most important business sectors: pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automotive and finance. Currently, the development of this technology has moved slowly due to the huge investments required and the impossibility, still present, of not being able to guarantee a return on business. However, the main players of the sector are assuming that commercial use will be possible by 2030.
According to the same report, quantum computing start-ups attracted $ 1.7 billion in private investments in 2021, more than double the amount raised in 2020.
Increasing faster than any other segment of the quantum computing value chain. Start-ups are focusing more on software applications, which are useful for generating value in the real world. While tech giants such as Google or IBM proceed in their respective quantum labs to correct error-tolerant quantum computing by 2030.
Pharmaceutical industry
Quantum simulation will improve research and development processes by optimizing their times. It will make drug production significantly more precise, starting with the trial, through drug design and testing throughout the process.
Considering that now it takes ten years to produce a mark starting from the first evidence in the laboratory and an investment of 2 billion dollars. The possible impact in economic terms, estimating a range of incidence from 1% to 5% on the increase in annual turnover would be between 15 and 75 billion dollars.
Chemical Industry
The same applies to the chemical industry sector. Quantum technology is certainly able to make all the research, development and production processes of the chemical industry more efficient. A special focus requires the design of the catalysts that quantum computing would make more capable of enabling energy savings. They alone account for 800 billion dollars a year for production; a realistic gain in efficiency of 5 to 10% would mean a gain of $ 20-40 billion in value.
An optimized design could help make chemical production much more sustainable, using processes that can efficiently decompose carbon, reducing CO2 emissions into the environment.
Automotive
Quantum computing can generate concrete progress especially with regard to systems related to mobility and urban traffic management. McKinsey estimates that a 2% increase in productivity, for an industry that, in production costs alone, commits 500 billion a year, could generate a useful value ranging from 10 to 25 billion dollars.
Finance
McKinsey predicts that quantum computing use cases in the world of finance will make their entrance later than the manufacturing industries. However, it is easy to understand how quantum is able to overturn the limits of classical computer science, in activities such as fund management or risk calculation. The investment market in 2021 was estimated at $ 6900 billion. It is not difficult to understand what repercussions on the world economy the intervention can have.
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