IBM Quantum Director Sees Industrial Boom From 2029

Baek Han-hee, an IBM scientist who solved some of the earliest problems in quantum computing, said industrial adoption of the technology will spread rapidly starting in 2029 — a more aggressive timeline than the market consensus that broad industrial use is about a decade away. Once fault-tolerant quantum computers (FTQC), widely seen as a game changer, arrive, competition will shift beyond hardware development toward using software and algorithms to solve real problems in biotech, finance and batteries, Baek said. With the government recently designating Seoul, Jeonnam-Gwangju and the Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam region as quantum clusters to build regional quantum ecosystems, Baek advised that "Korea, a latecomer in quantum, should stake its future on software and algorithms."

In an exclusive interview with The Seoul Economic Daily at IBM Korea's headquarters in Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul, on the 31st of last month, Baek, director of IBM's Quantum Algorithm Center, said commercialization of quantum computers "already began in 2016 and 2017, in my view." The next stage, Baek said, "is about who can build a business and generate revenue using quantum computers." IBM made a quantum computer available on the cloud in 2016 and began paid services for companies and research institutions in 2017. About 350 partners now take part in the IBM Quantum Network.

From Quantum Hardware to Algorithms and Software: Why an IBM Researcher Switched Focus

After joining IBM in 2014, Baek proposed a new design for superconducting qubits and led development of the company's first 16-qubit processor. In 2021, that work earned selection as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), an honor given to just 0.5% of its members. Baek later moved from hardware research into strategic partnerships and business development, and led IBM Quantum's Japan organization for about two years from 2024. Since March last year, as director of IBM's Quantum Algorithm Center, Baek has overseen work to identify quantum algorithms and industrial use cases through partnerships with universities, research institutions and companies worldwide. "Repeating projects to scale up the number of physical qubits, I kept asking myself, 'So what do we use this for?'" Baek said. "Once quantum hardware reaches a certain level, algorithms and software become what matters, and that thinking led me to change the direction of my career."

Baek's judgment has proved right. The quantum computing race among global tech giants including IBM and Google is now expanding beyond hardware into software and algorithms. Achieving quantum advantage — where calculations on quantum machines outperform classical computers — requires more than simply adding qubits; it depends on algorithms and software that can carry out complex operations efficiently and accurately. In July, IBM presented its first case of quantum advantage based on quantum-centric supercomputing (QCSC), in which quantum computers and high-performance computing (HPC) divide the workload — a development seen as an industrial turning point.

"Now that algorithms demonstrating quantum advantage have been proven academically, the question ahead is what problems we can actually solve by applying them," Baek said. "The next task is to connect this to problems across industries such as biotech, finance, energy and materials, and create economic value." Baek added: "That is my core job — working with global partners to develop quantum algorithms and software for each industry, accumulating real use cases and widening the quantum ecosystem."

Finding Industry-Specific Quantum Algorithms to Drive a Business Quantum Jump

Baek is leading a joint project by the state of Illinois and IBM to build a National Quantum Algorithm Center in Chicago. Illinois is developing the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) in a region left behind by the decline of the steel industry, and the national center is expected to serve as its core research hub. "The idea is to use quantum computing to revive it as the next advanced-technology city, like Silicon Valley," Baek said. "It will draw in quantum startups, prospective corporate users and research institutions, and hire large numbers of specialists in generative artificial intelligence and data, which have become essential tools for discovering quantum algorithms." Baek also stressed that "over the next three years, Korea should push its software and algorithm capabilities as far as possible, review concrete applications by industry and by company, and set its internal strategy."

Industrial use of quantum computing is expected to grow dramatically once IBM builds Starling, its fault-tolerant quantum computer and the first to implement quantum error correction, in 2029. "Compared with advanced countries such as the United States and Japan, which have backed research on core quantum technologies and hardware at the government level since the 1990s, Korea has almost no foundation," Baek said. "We can only compete by concentrating investment in quantum software and algorithms, which are still nascent worldwide, while pairing that with long-term government investment in education and research to raise a 'quantum native' generation that encounters and uses quantum computing naturally from an early age."