Insider Brief
- XPRIZE Quantum Applications named seven Finalist teams whose quantum algorithms show credible pathways to real-world impact in fields such as health, climate, energy, and materials science.
- The Finalists were selected from 20 Semifinalists through an evidence-based review assessing technical novelty, benchmarking, and plausible routes to quantum advantage.
- Finalist teams now advance to Phase II, where they must demonstrate measurable performance, resource estimates, and potential real-world impact as the competition moves toward a 2027 finish.
PRESS RELEASE — XPRIZE Quantum Applications, a 3-year, $5M global competition supported by Google Quantum AI, Google.org, and GESDA, has announced the selection of seven Finalist teams whose quantum algorithmic approaches demonstrate credible pathways toward potential real-world impact. Launched in March 2024, the competition is challenging teams to develop deployable quantum algorithms that can address high-impact problems in health, climate, energy, and materials science as hardware rapidly advances. Competing teams are developing novel algorithms, new real-world applications of existing algorithms, or major performance gains that sharply reduce the resources needed to achieve quantum advantage.
Announced during Q2B Silicon Valley, this milestone is the result of a deep, evidence-based review from a cross-sector panel of quantum experts. The seven Finalists – selected from 20 Semifinalists – reflect a field moving from conceptual promise toward clear use cases with the potential for meaningful societal benefit.
Meet the Finalists
- Calbee Quantum (USA), Team Lead: Garnet Chan, Calbee Quantum LLC, California Institute of Technology – Advancing a framework to speedup electronic structure simulations across industries, delivering practical speedups in materials simulation, especially for semiconductor applications such as optoelectronic simulations.
- Gibbs Samplers (Hungary), Team Lead: András Gilyén, HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics – Aim to enable accurate quantum simulations spanning superconductivity models including high-temperature systems, exotic magnetic materials, quantum chemical systems, and large-scale optimization, that can significantly narrow search spaces and accelerate the discovery of next-generation materials.
- Phasecraft – Materials Team (UK), Team Lead: Dr. Vishal Sharma, Phasecraft Ltd. – Leverages new quantum algorithms which offload the most difficult quantum-mechanical computations to quantum hardware, to deliver more accurate electronic-structure calculations than classical methods, enabling faster, more reliable discovery of clean-energy materials essential for technologies such as advanced batteries, efficient solar cells, hydrogen production, and carbon capture.
- Q4Proteins (Switzerland), Team Lead: Markus Reiher, ETH Zurich – Combining quantum-accurate, multilayer-embedded energy calculations with machine learning to create a first-principles simulation pipeline that generalizes across molecular classes and enables large-scale biochemical applications, from drug discovery to helping explain systems like biomolecular condensates.
- QuantumForGraphproblem (USA), Team Lead: Jianqiang Li, Rice University – A new quantum linear system algorithm that opens up possibilities for a wide range of applications with significant quantum advantage.
- The QuMIT (USA), Team Lead: Alexander Schmidhuber, MIT – Significantly speedup hypergraph community detection, enabling improved protein-protein interaction analysis to enhance risk stratification, early diagnosis, and targeted therapeutics, particularly for polygenic diseases.
- Xanadu (Canada), Team Lead: Juan Miguel Arrazola, Xanadu – Demonstrates how an efficient quantum algorithm can assist the discovery of higher-performing organic solar cells, with broad implications for photovoltaics, photodynamic therapies, and corrosion resistance.
Why this milestone matters
Launched in March 2024, XPRIZE Quantum Applications aims to develop quantum computing algorithms that can be put into practice on future quantum devices to help achieve societally beneficial goals, like those described by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Quantum computing continues to generate excitement for its potential to accelerate breakthroughs in areas like materials discovery, climate modeling, and complex optimization, yet the field still faces a core challenge: identifying the real-world applications that can be validated, benchmarked, and realistically implemented on future quantum hardware.
This Finalist announcement helps illuminate the path forward. Finalist teams were selected through a thorough evaluation of their submissions, which demonstrated plausible pathways to quantum advantage, clear technical novelty, and strong algorithmic rigor. Judges assessed whether teams addressed problem domains where quantum methods could make a difference if resources scale as projected, supported by early resource estimates and classical comparisons. Submissions were also evaluated for evidence beyond conceptual sketches, including quantifying assumptions, acknowledging limitations, and benchmark against classical methods rather than relying solely on theoretical asymptotic scaling arguments.
What’s next: A closer look at Phase II
Finalist teams now move to Phase II, which shifts the focus from promising ideas to evidence-driven performance assessments and real-world impact. In this next stage, teams will work toward demonstrating:
- Benchmarking against state-of-the-art classical methods
- Clear potential for quantum advantage at relevant scales
- Detailed resource estimates, including architectures, logical qubits, and error-correction assumptions
- Quantifiable anticipated real-world impact evaluated by domain experts
New teams and teams not selected as Finalists may enter and re-enter through the Phase II wildcard round, opening in early 2026.
What this means for the quantum ecosystem
The Finalist cohort reflects a maturing quantum ecosystem – one that is beginning to measure progress not just through theoretical innovation but through evidence, benchmarking, and real-world relevance. Independent evaluation, backed by strong partners across industry, academia, philanthropy, and diplomacy, is helping identify the strongest and most credible pathways toward quantum advantage and real-world impact.
This milestone also underscores the value of XPRIZE’s global competition model. With 817 expressions of interest from 82 countries and 376 registered teams, the prize is actively surfacing diverse ideas and widening participation to shape the future of quantum computing.
As the competition advances, it is helping pave the way for responsible innovation, ensuring that quantum computing progresses toward applications that can benefit society, from sustainability and energy to health, materials, and beyond.
Learn more and get involved
To learn more about the Finalist teams, the competition guidelines, or how to participate in the Phase II wildcard round, visit the XPRIZE Quantum Applications website.
