The race to build quantum computers gets the headlines, but a recent commentary argues that the market is overlooking a critical piece: the infrastructure that quantum machines will actually run on.
In a piece titled "Glass and Light: The Infrastructure Layer of the Quantum Market Is Missing," published via Advisor Perspectives, asset manager WisdomTree contends that the infrastructure layer of the quantum computing market remains a gap. The framing — "glass and light" — points to the physical and photonic foundations that sit beneath the headline-grabbing processors.
The core claim, according to WisdomTree, is that while attention and investment have concentrated on quantum computing itself, the supporting layer needed to make that computing usable and scalable is comparatively absent from the market today.
For readers, the distinction matters because it mirrors how other computing booms have played out. In classical computing and in the AI buildout, the companies supplying the underlying infrastructure — the chips, interconnects, and physical plumbing — have often captured durable value alongside the firms building the flashier end products. WisdomTree's argument suggests the same dynamic may be underdeveloped, and therefore underpriced, in quantum.
It's worth noting the source: this is investment commentary from an asset manager, not independent technical reporting or peer-reviewed research. WisdomTree builds and sells thematic investment products, so a piece identifying a "missing" market layer should be read with that commercial context in mind.
The brief does not provide specific figures, named companies, or timelines for when such an infrastructure layer might emerge.
Why it matters: if the analysis is right, the most consequential opportunities in quantum computing may lie not in the computers themselves but in the unglamorous infrastructure they depend on — a part of the market investors and builders are only beginning to map.