The Quantum Threat

 Managing Editor’s Note: By the end of this month, the government agency that invented the internet, DARPA, is set to make a critical quantum computing announcement. Jeff believes that it will send three quantum stocks skyrocketing higher.

This DARPA announcement will trigger “The Quantum Flashpoint.” That’s the moment when a technology enters an exponential phase of progress… creating an opportunity for exponential gains. That’s why Jeff released an important briefing last week to tell you all about it.

There’s not much time left to watch the replay before the DARPA announcement, so please don’t waste any time. Watch now, and Jeff will even give you the name of a quantum computing company that could be Warren Buffett’s favorite quantum stock.

Then be sure to read today’s issue, where Jeff explains the amazing advances of quantum technology… as well as a looming danger we need to address.

The quantum flashpoint is here.

After years of taking a back seat to incredible developments in artificial intelligence (AI) technology, quantum computing has reached a critical inflection point.

Quantum technology has taken off in the past 12 months. The catalyst for this dramatic shift has been rapid improvements in quantum error correction technology. This has enabled quantum computers to have the fidelity to perform extremely complex tasks that weren’t possible even a year ago.

Quantum computers are now solving real-world challenges that are impossible to solve by any classical supercomputer. While we aren’t yet at the stage of universal fault-tolerant quantum computers, we are living in a world of quantum supremacy.

The breakthroughs that are already happening due to the quantum flashpoint are starting to revolutionize industries by solving problems that classical computers simply cannot tackle.

We are going to see major advances in drug discovery, nuclear fusion, and materials science, and we will even see supercharged AI development.

Let’s look at each of these at a high level…

Drug Discovery

Quantum computers are revolutionizing drug discovery by making it possible to simulate and analyze the behavior of molecules and proteins at the quantum level – something classical computers cannot do efficiently. This allows researchers to:

• Model complex protein geometries and interactions with unprecedented precision, which is crucial for identifying new drug targets and optimizing therapies.
• Predict how drug candidates bind to their targets more accurately, thus speeding up the identification of promising leads and minimizing costly experimental failures.
• Simulate vast chemical spaces rapidly to enable the design and screening of millions of potential molecules in silico before synthesizing them in the lab.
• Reduce R&D time and costs for the development of innovative therapies for difficult-to-treat diseases.

A Quantum Computer Dedicated to Drug Discovery | Source: Scientific Reports

Nuclear Fusion

Quantum computing offers the potential to solve foundational challenges in nuclear fusion by precisely modeling and forecasting the behavior of plasma and atomic interactions inside reactors.

This enables advanced simulations of fusion reactions, which allows scientists to optimize reactor designs with fewer physical prototypes. This could lead to a deeper understanding of quantum processes in high-energy environments, which in turn would lead to breakthroughs in containment, stability, and scalability.

In short, quantum computing will produce computational breakthroughs in nuclear fusion design that would not be possible with classical computers. The goal is to create a design that will enable nuclear fusion reactions to create limitless, cheap, clean energy without interruption.

A Tokamak Nuclear Fusion Reactor | Source: MIT

Materials Science

In materials science, quantum computers empower researchers to:

• Simulate and design novel materials at the atomic level, predicting properties such as conductivity, magnetism, and strength with much higher fidelity than classical computing allows.
• Accelerate the discovery of advanced batteries, superconductors, and lightweight composites for use in vehicles, electronics, and infrastructure.
• Reduce the trial-and-error of lab-based materials development, thus leading to faster innovation cycles and more robust, efficient materials.

In this way, quantum computing will unlock new classes of materials and chemical processes that were previously beyond reach. This paves the way for some interesting breakthroughs that we cannot predict in advance.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Quantum computing is set to supercharge artificial intelligence by accelerating the training of complex machine learning models – making it feasible to process and extract insights from massive datasets in record time.

This will enable more powerful generative AI systems that can handle problems involving enormous search spaces or intricate optimization, such as drug discovery and logistics. These new generative AI systems will fundamentally broaden what AI can achieve in robotics, finance, medicine, and other key fields.

And these examples are just scratching the surface of how quantum computing will reshape our world. For investors, this quantum flashpoint is a rare opportunity to get ahead of a technology poised to rewrite the rules of computing and accelerate some of the most important technological transformations of our time.

Capitalizing on the Quantum Flashpoint

As with every technological revolution, the quantum era will not unfold evenly across the landscape.

Instead, the value will accrue to the companies that control the infrastructure, hardware, and algorithms powering this new paradigm – and to those who understand how to integrate quantum systems with AI and classical computing environments. This fusion will drive exponential gains in productivity and capability, comparable to the advent of the internet or the rise of cloud computing.

The most promising quantum companies today are not the household names. They are small, specialized firms building the critical layers of the ecosystem – from quantum error correction software and cryogenic control systems to photonic processors, superconducting qubit architectures, and quantum-proof cryptography.

These are the “picks and shovels” of the quantum gold rush, enabling the massive leaps forward that larger tech players will eventually depend on.

In the same way that NVIDIA became indispensable to the AI boom by supplying the hardware backbone for deep learning, a new class of quantum infrastructure companies is quietly positioning itself to become the indispensable engine of the quantum economy.

This technology will redefine entire industries – from biotechnology to finance, from energy to logistics – by making previously intractable problems solvable.

The biggest gains won’t come from investing in companies like Google or IBM but from investing in the under-the-radar companies driving this revolution before the broader market catches on. And with how fast quantum innovation is moving, it won’t take the market long to catch on.

That’s why I dove into three of my top quantum investment targets – and why now is the time to move on them – at my Quantum Flashpoint strategy session last week. (If you missed it, you can still find the replay right here for a short while longer.)

One of the most ironic dynamics of the last 12 months is that most industry “experts” did not expect quantum computing to advance as fast as it has… and that’s a problem.

The Quantum Threat

Quantum computing is not an emerging technology. It’s here today, working, and already solving extremely complex problems.

We may not be at the stage where universal fault-tolerant quantum computers are widespread, but we are at the stage where quantum computers are already being used for a wide range of complex problem-solving.

As quantum computers become more fault-tolerant in the months ahead, we are going to see major advances across the board, all because quantum computers can tackle problems in ways that classic computers cannot.

But there is a downside…

Quantum computing represents an unprecedented threat to the encryption systems that safeguard nearly all digital information and infrastructure today.

Most of our data privacy and security – whether online banking, confidential emails, financial markets, healthcare, or national defense – relies on public-key cryptography protocols.

These protocols are considered secure because, for classical computers, breaking their security would take millions of years using classical computing systems.

However, quantum computers operate fundamentally differently from classical ones. Using quantum superposition and entanglement, they can run special algorithms to factor very large numbers or solve discrete logarithms exponentially faster.

In practice, an advanced quantum computer could potentially crack the encryption security that currently protects nearly all digital information in just hours or maybe even minutes. Here’s just a snapshot of what would be at risk in this scenario:

• Secure Communications: Private messages and emails, government transmissions, and business deals protected by today’s standards could all be decrypted and exposed.
• Authentication and Digital Identity: Digital signatures, certificates, and the infrastructure that proves who you are online could be forged, letting attackers impersonate trusted parties and conduct fraudulent transactions or software uploads.
• Financial Transactions & Critical Infrastructure: Banking networks, blockchains, and national security systems would be vulnerable to theft, manipulation, or sabotage.
• Long-Lived and Archived Data: Even encrypted data stored today can be stolen and held by attackers to be decrypted once quantum machines mature. Sensitive data thought to be safe for decades is at risk if it retains value in the quantum era.

The consequences are profound: digital trust, privacy, and the integrity of communications underpinning modern society could evaporate nearly overnight if we don’t move to quantum-resistant encryption.

Now we might ask – given the urgency of this problem, why haven’t we already implemented a solution for quantum-proof encryption?

The reason is that most people didn’t expect to see fault-tolerant quantum computers for another decade or so. That’s why the industry took its time in developing new standards for post-quantum cryptography.

However, we have seen massive advancements in quantum computing in just the last couple of years.

For example, regular Bleeding Edge readers will know that Google recently revealed its next-generation quantum computing semiconductor called Willow back in December. Willow can perform a computation in under five minutes that would take the world’s current fastest supercomputer 10 septillion years (10²⁵ years) to accomplish.

We have also seen major developments from quantum pure-plays like IonQ (IONQ) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI) recently as well. Both companies are making great strides toward far more powerful fault-tolerant quantum computers.

These developments are why the industry has been racing to employ the new post quantum cryptography standards that have now been published by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It’s become clear that advanced quantum computing is coming much faster than most believed.

More on that – and what the industry is going to do about it – tomorrow.

Jeff