Taken from the December 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline "Setting the scene for a quantum marketplace".
As quantum computing makes its first forays from the lab to the real world, are the latest claims mere hype causing a bubble that will burst before the field finds its feet? Or are investors and researchers right to be enthusiastic about this burgeoning technological revolution? Philip Ball investigates the successes and pitfalls of commercializing quantum information technology