Peter DeSantis, Amazon’s SVP of AI, Silicon Development, and Quantum Computing, has a message for anyone expecting quantum computers to transform industries anytime soon: slow down. The executive says fault-tolerant quantum systems, the kind that could actually solve meaningful problems, remain many years and possibly decades from becoming reality.
The timeline gap between Big Tech players is widening
Not everyone in Silicon Valley agrees on when quantum computing will matter. Google has projected practical quantum applications arriving in roughly five years. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has offered a range of 15 to 30 years for what he calls “very useful” quantum systems. And now DeSantis is essentially siding with the cautious camp, suggesting the technology needs decades of additional work before it delivers on its grand promises.
Oskar Painter, another key figure in Amazon’s quantum program, has echoed a similar view. He estimates that commercial quantum workloads are likely more than 10 years away. That’s a notably restrained position for a company that has invested heavily in the space since launching the AWS Center for Quantum Computing around 2019-2020.
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