The Quantum Momentum: How Companies Stay Ready for a Computing Wave That Is Yet to Arrive - Christopher Trummer (EP 44)
The In-Between Tech and Trust PodcastShow Notes
🎙️with Christopher Trummer, MD Venture Lab Quantum / Semicon, TUM Venture Labs
Around 2019, quantum computing made its first big promise: machines with just a few noisy qubits would solve useful problems within two or three years, and many companies got ready for them. Christopher Trummer, who runs the quantum and semiconductor venture lab at TUM Venture Labs in Munich, explains why that promise failed and why the error-corrected machines now in development are a far more solid bet. What he leaves leaders with is a question of trust and patience: how do you keep a board believing in a technology whose progress is real (and slow)?
🎧 Episode overviewChristopher's starting point is that quantum is already here in parts: communication and sensing are ready for industry, and some post-quantum encryption runs in your Chrome browser today (without a mathematical proof yet that it holds). Quantum computing is the part still on its way, and he is candid about its first wave: the algorithms for the early, noisy machines never came, and the promise "fell out of the window completely." That shifts the risk to the companies waiting for them: keep the momentum and the board's support through slow progress, or miss the moment quantum starts to matter for the business. Eva asks how anyone prepares for this wave while still adopting AI, and his answer is sober: find the problems where quantum could help, then let a small team, or even a single person, keep watch.
💡 Key themes Which parts of quantum are ready today, and how far to trust encryption that is in use but not yet proven Why the first quantum promise failed, and what makes the second one more solid How companies keep momentum and board support while progress stays slow Whether quantum computing ends up with a few suppliers, the way AI did Why Europe founds so many deep tech startups and struggles to grow them past Series B
👤 About the guestChristopher Trummer is MD Venture Lab Quantum / Semicon at TUM Venture Labs in Munich, where his team works with quantum and semiconductor startups from the research lab to their first investment. Having spent much of his career between science and business, he sees quantum from both sides: what the physics can already do, and when it starts to matter for a company that has to decide where to put its money. ⏱ Chapters 00:00 Quantum beyond the computer 05:18 The algorithm that could break encryption 09:02 Why quantum won't have a ChatGPT moment 14:26 After the first promise fell through 24:31 Europe's missing growth capital 31:26 Drugs, fertilizer and superposition
🔗 Links Christopher Trummer on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-trummer-a58695108/ Eva Simone Lihotzky on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/evalihotzky/ raidiant, Eva's responsible AI advisory - https://www.raidiant.eu/ TUM Venture Labs, Venture Lab Quantum / Semicon - https://www.tum-venture-labs.de/labs/quantum/ Global Deep Tech Report 2026, TU Munich - https://www.htgf.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Global-Deep-Tech-Report-2026.pdf NIST post-quantum cryptography standards - https://csrc.nist.gov/projects/post-quantum-cryptography Related episode - Energy From Orbit: Can We Trust Power Beamed From Space? - Martin Soltau (EP 42) - [LINK: Eva adds]
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