Guest Post — Commercial Diplomacy: Building The Quantum Ecosystem

Guest Post by by Charlene B. Flick, Esq.

“Demonstrating that logical qubits can maintain coherence, we are paving the way toward fault-tolerant systems that can eventually scale to millions of qubits!”

The CEO paused, seemingly absorbing this revelation.  

“Congratulations, Professor. Forgive me, but what does it do?”

This is the question every startup in the quantum value chain should be able to answer. The quantum industry’s task, alongside its formidable technical challenges, is to clearly define that benefit, thereby creating demand for a market that has yet to mature. Quantum needs to continue to build its ecosystem. The approach to doing so, I would posit, is not unlike the work of a diplomat representing a government.   

Diplomats, or commercial diplomats in this instance who represent companies rather than governments, educate, listen, report back, and foster relationships. Diplomacy is ultimately an exercise in creating alignment amongst parties whose interests are not necessarily the same, but whose objectives may be sufficiently complementary to create a way forward for everyone. That is not selling, but it creates the catalyst for marketplaces to blossom.

And although the quantum community understands this next generation of compute will create incredible value in the years to come, the road to get there is one that we’ve been down before.

A History Lesson: When No One Wants What You’re Selling

Possibly misattributed to Henry Ford, the early automotive industrialist allegedly quipped, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”

Ford understood that conditions need to be present to support the development of the product. He anticipated the needs of his customers, built an efficient production method, and collaborated with infrastructure and suppliers to ensure his innovation’s adoption. The work he did to envision and build an ecosystem around the Model T resulted in the eventuality of its success.  

Often, another factor inhibiting mass adoption of any nascent technology is fear.  Edison encountered this while trying to create a market for the lightbulb and the infrastructure surrounding it, as electricity was viewed at the time as dangerous.

Quantum doesn’t elicit the exact same fear, but there is noticeable fear surrounding the complexity of the science as well as surrounding the reliability and maturity of the technology.

So how did Edison assuage these fears? He demonstrated the efficacy and safety of his product and proposed ecosystem by draping 400 men with working light bulbs and parading them down Madison Avenue.  He educated the public and he showed — rather than told — potential customers that their needs could be met safely and to great benefit. Again, that is why a diplomatic approach to ecosystem building can be so effective.

Additionally, the history of enterprise computing and the evolution of the mainframe computer can inform the quantum community.  In 1964, IBM introduced its System/ 360, a system of mainframes that established the first computer platform, enabling compatibility across a family of computers and allowing software to run across different models. A huge bet for IBM, it would require supplanting its existing mainframes so as to achieve a lower cost and more flexible ecosystem. And it worked, setting IBM on a path to dominate the computer industry for the next two decades.

Why was IBM willing to gamble its existing sales on a first-of-its-kind platform? The company explains, “Customers were frustrated with having to spend money every time their computers needed more memory or the ability to run a different application . . . The company’s multiple incompatible product lines were becoming increasingly difficult to maintain and update . . .” .

Unlike IBM, there is no one dominant quantum market player with similar influence.  Perhaps it will be quantum’s developing ecosystem, aligning hardware, software, and networking, along with the commercial realization that it has a place alongside classical computing, that will give quantum its “System/360” moment.

A Roadmap for Tomorrow’s Quantum Market

Ford, Edison, and IBM all understood that the challenge did not end with the innovation itself. Rather, the right conditions had to be created and fostered so that the technology could incubate and the demand grow.  Quantum technologies are no exception.

Like any good diplomat, one needs to identify the stakeholders who will form this ecosystem.  Five key groups are central to its development:

• Capital — investors, venture capital;
• Governments, national labs, standards bodies, and multilateral fora;
• Startups and established players;
• Universities and workforce development;
• End-users and customers.

Whether industrialist patrons of the past or venture capitalists of today, it begins with the vision and the money to bring it to fruition. Investing in quantum requires deep pockets and a deep appreciation of the promise of a still untested market. The commercialization horizon is longer and less predictable than in conventional technology markets.   

McKinsey reports $12.6 billion in investment in quantum technology startups in 2025. The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) estimates a global commercial market of approximately $1.9 billion for 2025, with quantum computing and sensing revenues projected to exceed $4 billion combined by 2028. As evidenced by the disparity between investment and current market revenues, capital alone cannot create a market.  

Historically, governments have played an instrumental role in the development of transformative technologies. The internet, GPS, and early computing all benefited from substantial government involvement. In May 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced a forthcoming $2.013 billion in federal incentives to support domestic quantum manufacturing, strengthen supply-chain capacity, and accelerate the development of quantum computing. Globally as of 2026, government commitments to further quantum technologies have reached an estimated $201.5 billion.

Public-private partnerships are particularly prevalent in quantum, with initiatives bringing together national laboratories, universities, and private companies to advance research, develop infrastructure, and accelerate commercialization. The U.S. National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, for example, bring together more than 1,500 experts across 115 academic, industry and national science institutions in North America and Europe.

While partnering with government is a well-trodden path for emerging technology development, some paths are more well-trodden than others. The terms surrounding intellectual property ownership, commercialization rights, and equity participation should be carefully examined to ensure a truly advantageous relationship for all parties.

As government funds with one hand, it can often regulate with the other. Commercial diplomats need to understand the regulators’ perspective in safeguarding the interests of their constituencies, which does not have to be inconsistent with the interests of the innovator. A diplomat understands that educating lawmakers can result in narrowlytailored regulation that mitigates harm while enabling innovation.  

Startups and multinationals alike benefit from partnering with each other and with governments to build the ecosystem. Consider collaborating with standards bodies and creating consortia to ensure interoperability so that everyone rises with the developing ecosystem rather than competes for a slice of a market that has yet to exist.   

Industry and academia also need to partner to ensure that those who will be developing the technology in the future are given the tools to build upon the ecosystem of today.  The quantum workforce requires exposure not only to theory but also to usecase sandboxes that these partnerships provide.

An ecosystem with all the necessary components still needs to work together as a well-oiled machine. A government lab provides a testbed, a university provides talent, capital provides runway, two technology companies work together, an end-user identifies a problem and helps fund a trial, a standards group works towards interoperability, and a data center takes a pilot and runs with it. The commercial diplomat is the oil in the gears, facilitating communication, reducing friction, identifying common interests, and applying judgment in service of the nascent market.

But What Does It Do?

In 1981, Richard Feynman, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, famously proclaimed, “Nature isn’t classical, dammit, and if you want to make a simulation of nature, you’d better make it quantum mechanical. . . .” . Feynman was not a businessman and this observation does not scream “use-case.”  But it does give us some clues as to the utility of this emerging technology.

As Feynman hinted, quantum promises to simulate nature and potentially transform our approach to drug discovery, materials science, and the natural world.  Quantum computing can address complex optimization problems with potential applications in industries ranging from finance to cybersecurity to logistics.  Quantum sensing offers the potential to measure our world with unprecedented accuracy, accelerating breakthroughs in medicine, navigation, and materials research.

Many technological revolutions start with a problem to solve. With quantum, the promise is more abstract and future-facing, not unlike the development of the Internet. Static web pages hardly suggested a transformative business solution. Common protocols, shared infrastructure, public investment, private-sector participation, and an open environment for experimentation allowed an ecosystem of applications and businesses to develop over time, until its utility became undeniable.   

So perhaps we should distinguish between “what does it do today?” and “what will it ultimately do?” We know where to start, and the ecosystem helps shape what comes next. That is why it is imperative that, as an industry, we not wait for fully fault-tolerant quantum computers before ensuring that the ingredients feeding quantum’s adoption are robust, well-considered, and work together to create the optimal conditions for its promise to take shape.

About the Author

Charlene B. Flick, Esq. is a global technology policy strategist, attorney, and former U.S. policymaker. She was appointed by President Clinton to serve at the State Department as the first U.S. Special Advisor for Intellectual Property.  A “commercial diplomat,” she translates complex science and emerging regulatory frameworks for startups, multinationals, and policymakers as technologies move from the lab to commercial reality.

Image: Photo by Julia Taubitz on Unsplash

Guest posts reflect the views and opinions of their authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Quantum Insider, its staff or its affiliated organizations. Publication does not constitute an endorsement of any company, product, service or claim discussed.