Potential Energy Advantage of Quantum Economy

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum computing can offer energy efficiency advantages over classical computing in large-scale applications, potentially leading to more sustainable industry practices.

Contribution

It redefines quantum advantage in terms of energy efficiency and demonstrates its benefits through a Cournot competition model.

Findings

Quantum firms can outperform classical ones in profitability and energy use.

Energy benefits depend on large-scale quantum computation.

Real physical parameters indicate the scale needed for energy efficiency gains.

Abstract

Energy cost is increasingly crucial in the modern computing industry with the wide deployment of large-scale machine learning models and language models. For the firms that provide computing services, low energy consumption is important both from the perspective of their own market growth and the government's regulations. In this paper, we study the energy benefits of quantum computing vis-a-vis classical computing. Deviating from the conventional notion of quantum advantage based solely on computational complexity, we redefine advantage in an energy efficiency context. Through a Cournot competition model constrained by energy usage, we demonstrate quantum computing firms can outperform classical counterparts in both profitability and energy efficiency at Nash equilibrium. Therefore quantum computing may represent a more sustainable pathway for the computing industry. Moreover, we discover that the energy benefits of quantum computing economies are contingent on large-scale computation. Based on real physical parameters, we further illustrate the scale of operation necessary for realizing this energy efficiency advantage.