Quantum computing's monetary value is two numbers people mix up. One is the size of the quantum industry itself. The other is the value the technology would add inside other industries. The first number sits near one billion dollars. The second reaches into the trillions.
The market today
McKinsey puts quantum company revenue above $1 billion in 2025. BCG counts roughly $550 million of enterprise spending. MarketsandMarkets estimates a $3.52 billion market with a wider definition that includes services and adjacent hardware.
All three describe the same industry and land on different figures because they count different things.
The forecasts
Near term projections stay small. BCG sees $2.5 to 5 billion of enterprise spending by 2030. McKinsey sees $16 to 37 billion by 2030 when external funding joins revenue. MarketsandMarkets projects $20.2 billion by 2030.
Longer term the numbers widen further. McKinsey forecasts $28 to 72 billion of quantum revenue by 2035 and $45 to 131 billion by 2040. BCG projects a $90 to 170 billion hardware and software market by 2040.
The value number
McKinsey estimates quantum technology would create up to $2.7 trillion of worldwide value by 2035. The same firm put the figure at $1.3 trillion in 2023, then $0.9 to 2 trillion in 2024. The number keeps moving because it models cost savings and revenue gains inside chemicals, life sciences, finance, and mobility.
That trillion dollar figure is not revenue for quantum companies. It describes what end users in other industries would capture. Most of it sits in simulation and optimization workloads that need fault tolerant hardware, which does not exist yet.
Why the spread
Forecasts disagree by an order of magnitude because they define the market differently and assume different timing for fault tolerance. Vendor revenue, enterprise spending, and industry value creation are three separate things. A number that includes funding and services will always dwarf one that counts only hardware sales.
The timing assumption matters more. Value creation stays near zero until error corrected machines run useful workloads. Every forecast that pulls the date forward also pulls the number up.
Reading the numbers
The honest summary is a small market today and a large potential tomorrow. About $1 billion of quantum revenue exists now. The trillion dollar projections describe an industry still waiting on fault tolerant hardware.
For the use cases behind that value, see our quantum use cases guide. For what the machines cost, see how much a quantum computer costs.