HSBC just planted a flag in the quantum race. The bank says it’s the first to use real trades at scale with quantum computing — running European bond data through IBM’s cutting-edge Heron processor. The payoff? A 34% improvement in predicting bond prices, a leap likely big enough to make Wall Street rivals sit up straight.
HSBC’s head of quantum technologies Philip Intallura called it a “Sputnik moment,” and he may be right: JPMorgan, Goldman, and Citi are all chasing quantum breakthroughs, and consulting giants like McKinsey say the technology could add tens of billions of dollars in revenue across finance.