Quantum is the next big thing for tech lawyers and 2027 will be the year we all talk about it

For the past couple of years, all of us in this field have been living inside AI. AI Act, AI literacy, AI governance, AI risk assessments, AI this, AI that. And before AI took over the whole conversation, we were all deep into personal data GDPR, transfers, DPIAs, cookies, one Schrems after another.

I love this field for exactly that reason. It moves. And as an author, as an expert, and — let me say it as someone who genuinely loves people and what people build, I really enjoy looking forward. Not just at what is on my desk today, but at what will be on my desk in two years.

So, as we are already entering the last several months of 2026, I think it is a good moment to look at the newest trend for lawyers working in tech and privacy. And the trend I see coming, the thing I believe we will all be discussing in 2027, is quantum technologies and the European Union’s future Quantum Act.

For the past two years I have given myself an obligation to publish one new post on LinkedIn every single day, sharing new documents as they appear. (By the way, if you are not following me yet, I do recommend it – that is where the documents land first.) Doing this daily has one real benefit: you start to feel where the ground is shifting before it shows up in the mainstream legal press. And over the past year I have watched quantum move from an occasional curiosity to a steady stream. We now have serious articles on it. We now have entire books on it. That does not happen by accident.

So what are quantum technologies, actually?

Before we go further, let’s make sure we are talking about the same thing — because “quantum” is one of those words everybody has heard and very few people can define.

Quantum technologies are technologies that deliberately exploit the behaviour of matter and energy at the atomic and subatomic scale in particular the quantum properties of superposition, entanglement and measurement in order to do things that classical technology simply cannot do.

The field is usually divided into four pillars:

• Quantum computing — using qubits, which exploit superposition and entanglement, to solve problems that are out of reach for classical computers;
• Quantum simulation — purpose-built devices that model quantum systems directly, for example molecular and chemical reactions;
• Quantum communication — using quantum phenomena to transmit information, including quantum key distribution (QKD) and, further ahead, a quantum internet;
• Quantum sensing and metrology — using the extreme sensitivity of quantum states to measure far more precisely than any classical sensor allows.

Here is the distinction I find most useful, and the one I would ask you to keep in mind. Specialists talk about a first and a second quantum revolution. The first one already happened, in the twentieth century, and you are living inside it: lasers, transistors, semiconductors, MRI, GPS. All of that exists because we understood quantum mechanics. The second quantum revolution, the one happening now, is different in kind — it is about engineering and manipulating individual quantum states on purpose, rather than merely benefiting from quantum effects in bulk.

That is why this is not a topic from a futuristic movie. The first revolution is already in your pocket. The second one is now the subject of industrial policy, procurement decisions and, as of this year, draft legislation.

And here is the part that should interest lawyers specifically, because the institutions have already been working on this for a while.

On 2 July 2025 the European Commission published the Quantum Europe Strategy its plan to make Europe a global leader in quantum by 2030. The Strategy builds on the European Declaration on Quantum Technologies signed by Member States back in December 2023, and it works across five areas: research and innovation; quantum infrastructures; strengthening the ecosystem; space and dual-use technologies; and quantum skills. It also identifies quantum computing, communication and sensing as transformative technologies with clear dual-use potential, civil and defence at the same time. Hold on to that phrase — dual-use — because it will shape everything that follows.

I would strongly recommend that you read the Strategy. Why is this essential? Because the Quantum Act is intended to be the legislative follow-up to it. The Strategy is the political ambition; the Act is the instrument that is supposed to turn that ambition into binding law and, crucially, into money. You cannot properly read the Act without the Strategy sitting next to it.

Then, at the end of October 2025, the Commission opened a call for evidence on the Quantum Act. For me, this is currently the single most important document for understanding what the Commission actually intends the Act to address, because it sets out the structural problems the Commission has identified and the concrete policy options it is weighing for each of them. The consultation was aimed squarely at specialists — Member State authorities, EU agencies, infrastructure operators, industry, academia, standards bodies, security experts — and the deadline was ultimately extended to 15 December 2025.

The call for evidence sets three main objectives for the Act: to boost research and innovation; to scale up industrial capacity, including pilot lines and a design facility; and to reinforce supply chain resilience and governance. It is also explicit that the Act will not stand alone — it is designed to complement the Chips Act, the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking and IRIS².

There is a timing point that I think most people have missed, and it is the reason I am saying 2027 rather than 2026.

The Commission’s 2026 Work Programme scheduled the Quantum Act proposal for Q2 2026, with Articles 173, 180 and 184 TFEU as the indicative legal basis. But on 24 April 2026, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission signed the “One Europe, One Market” Joint Roadmap — a political and operational commitment to deliver a list of key initiatives by the end of 2027. And in the annex to that Roadmap, the Quantum Act has a target of Q3 2027.

That is the moment the file is supposed to reach agreement. Which means the negotiation — the real one, the one where the text gets written and the definitions get fought over — happens across 2026 and 2027, right in front of us.

In the second part, I want to go into what the Act is actually likely to contain, why “dual-use” is the word that should worry you most, and what all of this means for those of us who spend our days on privacy, security and technology law. Because the part that nobody is talking about yet is the one that will land on our desks first.