Australia's quiet quantum advantage and why we must not squander it

While public attention has been fixed on artificial intelligence, another technology revolution has been quietly gathering momentum.

Others have pointed out that the quantum era has arrived with much less fanfare than AI. That observation is correct, but it also misses a crucial point.

For Australia, quantum is not just another emerging technology. It is one of the rare areas where we are genuinely positioned to build a new, globally competitive industry, grounded in decades of publicly-funded research and supported by a maturing ecosystem of companies, skills and infrastructure.

This opportunity did not arrive overnight. It is the result of sustained investment by universities and CSIRO, beginning long before “quantum” became a policy buzzword. Australia’s strengths in quantum physics, materials science, photonics and precision measurement stretch back generations. What has changed in recent years is that these capabilities are now translating into real industrial activity.

Australia today hosts dozens of quantum-focused companies, spanning computing, sensing, communications and enabling technologies. Our researchers are embedded in global supply chains, our startups are exporting products and services, and Australian-developed technologies are being deployed in sectors as diverse as finance, defence, navigation and advanced manufacturing.

This is not speculative promise. It is already happening.

In finance, quantum-inspired optimisation and risk modelling tools are being trialled by major banks to improve portfolio management and resilience. In manufacturing, quantum sensing and control technologies are improving precision, yield and quality assurance. In navigation and timing, quantum technologies are providing alternatives to GPS in contested or degraded environments. These are early examples of productivity-enhancing applications — exactly what Australia needs as we confront stubbornly low productivity growth.

And quantum can supercharge AI by providing the immense computational power that AI needs to operate more efficiently and solve problems beyond classical limits. This is happening already in quantum/classical hybrid systems.

Crucially, Australia is not trying to do everything. Our advantage lies in playing to our strengths: deep research excellence, a collaborative culture, trusted international partnerships and leadership in standards and measurement. In quantum, standards matter. Without agreed benchmarks, performance metrics and validation protocols, markets cannot scale, and trust cannot form. Australia’s leadership in international quantum standards and metrology is therefore not bureaucratic housekeeping. It is a strategic economic asset.

Quantum also offers Australia something rarer still: a form of soft power in our region. Through engagement with partners in APEC, through collaborative research programs, and through initiatives such as Quantum Australia, we are helping shape how quantum technologies are developed, governed and applied across the Indo-Pacific. In an era of strategic competition, being a trusted partner in advanced technology matters.

But none of this will succeed if we assume that the market alone will do the heavy lifting.

Quantum is not like software. It is capital-intensive, infrastructure-heavy and long-horizon. It depends on cleanrooms, fabrication facilities, cryogenic systems, skilled technicians and sustained research pipelines. No country that is serious about quantum has left it to the “invisible hand” alone. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, Canada and China are all making large, coordinated public investments, not because markets have failed, but because markets cannot move this fast or this far on their own.

Australia has made important progress. The National Quantum Strategy, investments through multiple federal programs, state-based initiatives such as the Sydney Quantum Academy, and support for translation and scale-up have all helped bring coherence to the ecosystem. But coherence must now be matched with consistency.

We are winning in consistency with Quantum research funding, with the Australian Research Council’s recent announcement of $70 million for two new Quantum-based Centres of Excellence.

But Quantum cannot be treated as a temporary priority or a fashionable line item. It must remain embedded across government programs — in research funding, industry policy, infrastructure planning, skills development and international engagement. Stop-start funding, short-term pilot programs and fragmented responsibility will undermine the very momentum we have worked so hard to build.

The prize is substantial. Quantum technologies will not replace Australia’s traditional exports overnight, but they can become a significant new pillar of a more diversified, higher-value economy. They can lift productivity, create skilled jobs, strengthen sovereign capability and deepen international partnerships. Few countries get a chance to build a new industry where they start near the front of the pack. Australia has that chance now.

The quiet rise of quantum should be a source of confidence, but also of resolve. If we want Australia to be more than a clever laboratory at the edge of the world, we must continue to back the systems that turn discovery into industry. That means sustained public investment, coordinated policy and a clear national commitment to seeing this through.

The real question now is whether we will recognise what we have — and have the discipline to build on it and stay committed to it.

Dr Cathy Foley is the president of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and Australia’s former chief scientist. She recently joined Sydney Quantum Academy as the new Chair of the SQA Executive Board. This article was originally published on InnovationAus.com.