A data center meets an ice cream factory. Some 100 stainless-steel cabinets, six feet tall, each connected to liquid helium held just above absolute zero. That is the image of the quantum computer PsiQuantum has announced it will build. Not a lab experiment: a large-scale system based on photons, promising to be the first to achieve fault tolerance. The machine will exist. The real question is: who will control it?
This is not just a technical story. It is political. Quantum computing will rewrite encryption, pharmaceuticals, AI, materials science. The US and China are pouring billions into it. Europe has initiatives — the Quantum Flagship, national programs — but they are fragmented, lacking industrial cohesion. Italy has research excellence (CNR, universities) but near-zero scaling capability. While in the US companies like PsiQuantum raise hundreds of millions to build physical hardware, in Italy we are still debating whether the digital PNRR was well spent.
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And here's the rub. For an Italian SME, quantum computing may sound like science fiction. But cybersecurity is already a concrete problem: we see it every day in misconfigured servers, plaintext credentials, missing backups. When a quantum machine capable of breaking RSA arrives — and it will — anyone who hasn't migrated to post-quantum cryptography will be locked out. Without a European strategy, we will be forced to buy quantum technology from abroad, paying perpetual licenses and surrendering sovereignty. Exactly as we do today with American clouds.
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Our position is clear
We come from the trenches: accounting, the ERP of a clothing store, Linux servers with expired SSL certificates. We measure every technology by cost and return, not by hype. From that perspective, quantum is real — but it's a system-level challenge. Europe cannot just buy machines from PsiQuantum or Google. It must invest in applied research, train engineers, build supply chains. For Italy, that means stop chasing funding calls and start connecting universities, businesses, and government. The digital divide isn't just about broadband: it's about the capacity to produce the next technological leap. If we remain spectators, we will pay to use someone else's machine. And margins — for anyone running a business — will keep shrinking.
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For those reading us — developers, entrepreneurs, SMEs — the first step is understanding that quantum is not tomorrow: it's today for anyone designing critical systems. Start studying post-quantum cryptography, update your stacks, don't wait for mandates. For policymakers: stop funding pilots with no follow-through. Europe needs an independent quantum computing agency, with real budget and at least one hub in the South. We, in Sicily, know what it means to build Tier-1 technology far from power centers. It can be done. It takes will.
