Could 2026 be the year we start using quantum computers for chemistry?

Lee quantum computers can actually solve practical problems—this is one of the biggest unanswered questions in this growing industry that industrial and medicinal chemistry researchers may be able to answer in 2026.

Calculating the structure, reactivity and other chemical properties of a molecule is essentially a quantum problem because it involves its electrons, which are quantum particles. But the more complex the molecule, the more difficult these calculations become, and in some cases they present a real challenge even for traditional supercomputers.

On the other hand, since quantum computers are also inherently quantum, they should have an advantage when it comes to performing chemical calculations. And how quantum computers have become larger and are easier to combine with traditional computers, we are increasingly seeing them used for this.

For example, in 2025, researchers from IBM and the Japanese scientific institute RIKEN used a quantum computer and a supercomputer to simulate multiple molecules. Researchers from Google developed and tested a quantum computing algorithm that helps determine the structure of molecules. RIKEN researchers have also teamed up with quantum computing firm Quantinuum to develop a workflow to calculate the energy of molecules in such a way that the quantum computer caught its own errors. Finally launching quantum software Kunova Computers is already proposing an algorithm that uses a quantum computer in part to calculate these energies, which it claims is about 10 times more efficient than more traditional methods.

We should expect to see many more of these phenomena in 2026, when larger quantum computers become available. “The upcoming larger machines will allow us to develop more powerful versions of this [existing] workflow, and ultimately we will be able to solve general problems in quantum chemistry,” says David Muñoz Ramo in Quantinuum. So far his team has only examined the hydrogen molecule, but he says more complex structures could be on the horizon, such as catalysts that speed up industrially important reactions.

Other research groups are preparing to do similar work. For example, in December Microsoft announced cooperation with quantum software startup Algorithmiq with the express goal of developing more quantum chemistry algorithms faster. Actually, survey Hyperion Research's survey of the quantum computer industry found that chemistry is the leading area in which both manufacturers and buyers of quantum computers expect to see progress and success in the coming year. In the last two annual surveys, quantum chemistry was the second and fourth most promising use case for quantum computing, respectively, so interest in and investment in this trend is constantly growing.

Ultimately, however, quantum chemical computing won't have much success until quantum computers become resistant to errors or failures—which is also holding back other applications for these exotic devices. “The ability of a quantum computer to solve problems faster than a classical computer depends on a fault-tolerant algorithm,” they wrote Philipp Schleich And Worship of Aspur-Guzik at the University of Toronto recently commentary on quantum computing and chemistry for Science magazine. Fortunately, achieving fault tolerance is the one goal that every quantum computer manufacturer around the world can agree on.