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.
- Encryption commonly used today, including RSA and ECC (two types of asymmetric encryption that use a public and private key pair), is considered vulnerable to future quantum computers.
- Criminals and state-sponsored groups are already stealing encrypted data today to decrypt it later 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, meaning mathematical scrambling of data, 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, medical records, and private messages safe.
Why does this matter right now?
Because 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 happening.
"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.
Anand Pashupathy, Intel's vice president for product assurance and security, put it more bluntly at April's Google Cloud Next conference: "The time is now."
What are chip makers actually doing?
Intel has started adding PQC support to Xeon 6 chips, which are 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 the new quantum-resistant algorithms alongside existing encryption. Intel says it will cover its full chip range by 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, the same technology that protects most internet traffic today, in 2001. 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, not with you. But there is a practical reality here, flagged by J. Gold Associates analyst Jack Gold: a lot of older networking equipment has encryption baked in that simply cannot be updated. It will need replacing. Businesses and public-sector organisations carrying legacy hardware (equipment that is old and no longer receives security updates) should treat quantum readiness as a hardware audit problem, not just a software one.
The failure mode here is assuming a software patch will solve this. For older kit, it will not.
Start the hardware inventory before the quantum deadline arrives, not after.
