Quantum update 4
Explore recent quantum computing breakthroughs at Caltech and Harvard, and how HSBC is exploiting quantum-powered trading to gain a competitive edge.
This quantum computing update explores major breakthroughs at Caltech and Harvard, and how HSBC is applying quantum technology in financial trading. These developments highlight the growing real-world impact of quantum computing and its future potential.
Caltech and Harvard
Breakthrough in Quantum Scale: Caltech’s 6,100 Qubits
On the 24 September 2025, Caltech announced that their work had successfully demonstrated a quantum system with 6,100 qubits for 13 seconds. Thirteen seconds does not sound long but it was 10 times longer than previous tests.
There are different approaches to creating quantum systems. Some are based on superconducting material, trapped ions, individual atoms, electrons and photons (light). The Caltech quantum system is based on neutral atoms (caesium) utilising lasers to control and manipulate them in a vacuum chamber.
Caltech’s 6,100-Qubit Announcement
This represents a major advancement in qubit count, significantly surpassing IBM’s 156-qubit Heron processor. Caltech’s system maintained quantum stability for 13 seconds—ten times longer than previous records—proving that large-scale quantum systems are now a reality. The challenge now is to make this into a commercially available system.
Quantum Stability Achieved: Harvard’s 2-Hour System
On the 25 September 2025, Harvard announced that their work had successfully demonstrated the continuous operation of a 3,000-qubit system. Compared to the 13 seconds of the Caltech system the Harvard system operated for more than two hours and could have been sustained for longer. It achieved this level of availability by overcoming quantum errors by replacing individual atoms in a way that preserved the quantum properties and integrity of the system.
These two announcements are significant on their own but when combined it is clear that the academic research is overcoming each of the hurdles that currently prevents scalable and reliable quantum computing.
Quantum Advantage in Finance: HSBC’s Trading Success
On the 25 September 2025, HSBC has unveiled the world’s first quantum-powered algorithmic trading system in collaboration with IBM. Their work showed a 34% improvement when predicting if a bond trade would be filled at a quoted price compared to common classical techniques used in the industry.
When it comes to bond trading HSBC participates in very large transactions. Even marginal gains in terms of price prediction can have major benefits in terms of profitability. This is a real-world example where quantum computing is impacting the business world and giving HSBC a competitive edge.
Conclusion
We are witnessing real-time advancements in the evolution and revolution of quantum computing from the laboratory to the real commercial world. Recent announcements have shown that the stability of qubits is steadily increasing and issues around scaling up and error correction are being overcome.
When you compare the improvements by Caltech and Harvard with the IBM Heron processor it’s important to appreciate that the Heron is commercially available and cloud accessible. This is important because there’s still a lot of work to get a lab experiment into a usable commercial product. Nonetheless, these achievements highlight the speed and direction of travel.
The consensus of opinion in the cyber security field appears to support cryptographic apocalypse, when RSA is cracked, in ten years. We believe it could be closer to five years. A major break through in quantum physics could leave commercial cyber security teams scrambling to implement post quantum cryptography urgently.
In terms of real-world impact, we have read about the competitive advantage HSBC enjoyed. From this we should expect the world of finance to join in the race and invest in quantum computing. This story will only add momentum to the growing excitement surrounding quantum computing.
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