Why quantum scales on compute-per-watt, not qubit count
Quantum scales on economic metrics
by https://www.techradar.com/author/matt-rijlaarsdam · TechRadarOpinion By Matt Rijlaarsdam Published 18 September 2026
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The tech industry was not ready for what came after ChatGPT. Power grids, cooling systems and data centers are being rebuilt right now because none of them were designed for the demand that arrived.
UN researchers expect AI to double the power and water that data centers use by 2030.
Had the industry known that demand was coming, it would have designed for it.
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Quantum computing is early enough to do exactly that.
Matt Rijlaarsdam
CEO and co-founder of QuantWare.
AI hyperscalers care about one thing: how much useful computation they get for each dollar invested.
This total cost of ownership is dominated by depreciation and power usage. In the current infrastructure buildout, they have sufficient access to capital to fund the capital expenditure but insufficient access to power.
This constraint is so acute that data centers in space are becoming an economic possibility if growth continues at this pace. But even if the AI industry matures and growth slows, total cost of ownership will dominate.
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