Guest Post by Matt Todd and Bryce Bailey
Quantum computing has long been discussed as a distant technical ambition. However, recent developments suggest it is closer as a legal issue than we may think. In late 2024, Google announced its “Willow” chip and described a significant error-correction advance. IBM continues to publicize its roadmap toward larger-scale systems and, more recently, proposed expanded quantum-manufacturing capacity in New York. And most recently, NVIDIA has announced the release of AI models specifically designed to help push the world toward practical quantum computing. Even if practical, fault-tolerant quantum computing is not fully here, the technology’s trajectory is concrete enough that legal departments should begin treating quantum readiness as a present governance issue, rather than a speculative one.
Quantum computing does not need to be commercially ubiquitous before it creates legal risk. For many companies, the near-term issues will arise from procurement, export controls, cloud-service dependency, cybersecurity representations, and post-quantum cryptography migration. Legal departments should therefore treat quantum readiness as a present governance issue, not a future technical exercise.
