Australia Turns Research Breakthroughs Into Industry Growth With Record Funding and Expanding Ecosystem
Delivering the National Quantum Update: Australia at Quantum World Congress 2025, Petra Andrén, CEO of Quantum Australia, outlined a transformative year for the country’s quantum ecosystem. After 25 years of pioneering research—from the world’s first single-atom transistor to Nobel-winning physics—Australia is now turning these breakthroughs into market-ready technologies and a rapidly growing national industry.
Quantum Australia, founded as the industry growth centre for quantum, serves as the delivery arm of Australia’s 2023 National Quantum Strategy. The mission: convert research momentum into economic impact, build an inclusive workforce, secure critical infrastructure, and strengthen Australia’s position as one of the world’s quantum leaders.
Australia’s national strategy is built on five interconnected pillars:
Thriving R&D and investment
A diverse, industry-aligned workforce
Standards and frameworks supporting national interests
Secure access to quantum infrastructure and materials
A trusted, ethical, and inclusive ecosystem
Andrén explained that Quantum Australia advances these national goals through three program pillars:
Ecosystem Development: connecting researchers, startups, investors, and end users; raising awareness; and promoting adoption.
Partnership Programs: building bridges between research and industry, identifying use cases, and supporting co-development.
Commercialisation: accelerating the growth and funding of quantum companies across the stack.
Australia’s ecosystem now resembles a dense web of universities, research labs, startups, multinationals, investors, and end users—with Quantum Australia acting as the “spider in the web” connecting the entire system.
Australia has already seen AU$2.3 billion invested into quantum research and commercialisation. The country hosts:
26 leading research organisations
24 universities engaged in quantum
53 world-class labs
A top-five global position for quantum industry workforce size
44+ quantum startups, with new companies emerging nearly every month
Andrén highlighted a series of major achievements across the ecosystem:
Funding and Venture Growth
Q-CTRL raised the world’s largest Series B in quantum to date—$113M—while partnering with IBM and demonstrating quantum advantage in sensing.
QuintessenceLabs secured funding from Australia’s $15B National Reconstruction Fund for quantum-secure cybersecurity technologies.
Quantum Brilliance launched construction on Australia’s first diamond-based quantum foundry, backed by AU$13M from the NRF and AU$10M in additional state funding.
Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC) and Diraq are contributing to the DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative and advancing fault-tolerant architectures.
Emergence Quantum, founded in May 2025, is advancing cryogenic electronics and is already attracting global interest.
PsiQuantum’s billion-dollar photonic quantum computing project near Brisbane Airport is now “well underway.”
Australia continues to produce world-leading scientific outcomes, including the Gordon Bell Prize-winning quantum-accurate biological simulation in partnership with the University of Maryland.
Looking ahead, Australia projects:
AU$5.9B in annual quantum industry revenue
AU$6.1B in GDP impact
AU$2.4B in productivity gains driven by quantum-enabled applications
35,000 quantum-related jobs nationwide
The focus is clear: ensure government and industry understand how quantum drives productivity and long-term competitiveness.
Australia is “open for business,” Andrén emphasized, with multiple pathways for international partners:
Federal Technology Challenges Program – Round 2 open now, with 14 quantum-related projects available for collaboration
Co-investment opportunities through Quantum Australia’s New Ventures Accelerator
Annual Quantum Australia Conference, returning April 28, 2026, with an expected 1,000 attendees and a strong focus on end-user engagement
Industry collaboration across Australia’s fast-growing network of computing, sensing, communications, and enabling-technology companies
