Chip Giants Are Racing to Build Quantum-Proof Encryption Into Hardware
Intel, Nvidia, and IBM are baking next-generation encryption into silicon before quantum computers can crack today's secrets. The window to act is already closing.
Key points
- Intel began adding post-quantum cryptography support to its Xeon 6 server chips in 2025 and expects full compliance across its product line by 2029.
- NIST, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, standardized post-quantum cryptography algorithms in 2024 to protect digital signatures and data sent over public networks.
- IBM was the first chip maker to include quantum-resistant encryption accelerators in hardware, shipping the z16 mainframe in 2022.
- RSA and ECC, two types of asymmetric encryption that use a public and private key pair, are considered vulnerable to future quantum computers.
- Criminals and state-sponsored groups are already stealing encrypted data today to decrypt it once quantum computers become powerful enough, an approach known as a harvest-now, decrypt-later attack.
The lock protecting most of your sensitive data online could be broken within a decade. That is not a fringe scenario anymore. It is why the world's biggest chip makers are quietly redesigning their silicon.
Post-quantum cryptography, or PQC, is a new category of encryption designed to resist attacks from quantum computers. A quantum computer is not just a faster regular computer. It uses the rules of physics at the atomic level to solve certain mathematical problems exponentially faster than any machine today, including the maths that underpins the encryption keeping your bank login and private messages safe.
Why does this matter right now?
Criminals do not need a quantum computer today to do damage. They can steal encrypted data now and sit on it until the technology catches up. This is the harvest-now, decrypt-later threat, and it is already in motion.
"Every sensitive bit and byte that you're sending over the wire that's not protected and not quantum-resistant can be stored now and decrypted when those computers will become available," said Nelly Porter, director of product management for Google Cloud Platform's confidential computing and encryption products, at the Google Cloud Next conference in April.
Anand Pashupathy, Intel's vice president and general manager for product assurance and security, was direct at the same event: "The time is now."
We covered Google's own quantum readiness timeline on 14 August in "Google Cloud Targets 2029 to Be Quantum-Safe, and Here Is What That Means for You", which showed that parts of that transition will run well into the 2030s. Intel's 2029 target sits inside that same window, which is not a coincidence.
What are chip makers actually doing?
Intel has started adding PQC support to Xeon 6 chips, the processors that power large business servers. The goal is to protect the handshake, the initial exchange where two computers verify each other's identity before sharing data, using new quantum-resistant algorithms alongside existing encryption. Full coverage across Intel's chip range is targeted for 2029.
Nvidia is weaving the new PQC standards into the security layers that underpin confidential computing, a technique where computers verify they can be trusted before exchanging sensitive information.
IBM got there first. Its z16 mainframe, released in 2022, was the first commercial chip with dedicated quantum-resistant encryption acceleration built in. IBM has since updated the firmware to stay aligned with NIST's 2024 standards.
| Maker | Product | PQC milestone | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBM | z16 mainframe | First hardware PQC accelerator | 2022 |
| Intel | Xeon 6 server chips | PQC-capable support begins | 2025 |
| Intel | Full chip portfolio | PQC compliance target | 2029 |
| NIST | Federal standards body | PQC algorithms standardized | 2024 |
For context on how long hardware transitions take: NIST published the AES encryption standard in 2001, and Intel and AMD did not build hardware acceleration for it into their chips until 2010. Nine years. The industry is trying hard not to repeat that gap.
Should ordinary people do anything?
If you use a service that handles sensitive data, the responsibility sits with the companies running that service. But Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates, flagged a practical problem: a lot of older networking equipment has encryption baked in that simply cannot be updated and will need replacing. Businesses carrying legacy hardware should treat quantum readiness as a hardware audit problem, not just a software one.
The failure mode is assuming a software patch will solve this. For older kit, it will not. Start the inventory before the deadline, not after.
