Quantum Computing Is Hitting Its Commercial Inflection Point

May 18, 2026

Claude Cowork, Bigdata Plugin, Thematic Research/4 minutes read

Every once in a while a technology stops being a science project and starts behaving like a market. AI did it five years ago. Quantum computing is doing it right now, and the numbers are starting to look impossible to ignore.

The global quantum computing market, valued at approximately $17.4 billion in 2025 for photonic integrated circuits alone [1], is projected to expand at a 20.8% CAGR through 2034, reaching $86.4 billion [1]. Boston Consulting Group puts the broader quantum technology market at up to $97 billion in revenue by 2035, with quantum computing capturing $72 billion of that total [2]. McKinsey is even more aggressive: a total addressable market of $850 billion over the coming decade [3].

That is the shape of an inflection point. It is the shape AI had in 2020 — quietly trending in research papers, then suddenly showing up in every board deck. I wanted a sharp, sourced view of where the money, the technology, and the players are converging. So I built one.

The full report

I generated a complete Quantum Computing & Quantum Chip Manufacturing thematic research report using Claude Cowork and the official Bigdata.com Plugin. Total time, from idea to PDF: under 5 minutes.

Try it yourself

Thematic research is one of the most time-consuming jobs on a research desk and you can create one within 5 minutes using the Claude official Bigdata plugin.

1. Download the Claude Desktop application

   Get it from claude.com/download.

2. Connect to the Anthropic official Bigdata plugin

   Click on Cowork and Customize

   

   Browse the Bigdata plugin to add it.

   

   Click again to manage the plugin, click on Connectors and Connect. You can sign up with a free trial.

   

   Once Bigdata is connected, you are ready to use it in new tasks.

   
3. Send your prompt

   Create a new Cowork task and write the following prompt as example:

   You are a Discretionary financial research analyst. Can you create a
   sell-side report on quantum computing and quantum chip manufacturing?
   I want to understand which private and public companies offer solutions,
   conduct research, and how many patents they have. If it is a public
   company, please analyze its fundamentals over the last 6 quarters.
   Use bigdata and add inline attributions. Thanks!
   

   Output

   

If you have a theme you want to explore and would like a hand wiring up the workflow, reach out at [e-mail].

Why I think this is the AI-2020 moment for quantum

Three things tend to mark a commercial inflection point, and quantum is hitting all three at once:

Signal	AI in 2020	Quantum in 2026
Capital is flowing	Hyperscalers double down on GPUs	Hyperscalers, governments and dedicated VCs are funding quantum chip foundries and photonic integration
Real revenue, not pilots	Cloud AI services scale to billions	Quantum-as-a-service contracts and chip manufacturing revenue moving from millions to billions [1][2]
Supply chain hardens	Nvidia + TSMC + HBM stack	Photonic integrated circuits, cryogenic control, fault-tolerant architectures consolidating into a stack

When all three signals fire together, the market stops debating if and starts pricing who. That is the moment I am excited to watch — and to research, faster than ever.

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Sources

1. Fortune Business Insights / QCi Investor Presentation — May 2026
2. PartnerCap Securities — SPAC Monthly Monitor, Apr 2026
3. PatentVest — Quantum Computing Rankings (GlobeNewswire), Aug 2025

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Oscar Sanchez Iglesias

Senior Product Manager