Quantum technology might feel like the future, but its origins go back almost a century. In 1927, some of the world’s greatest scientific minds gathered in Brussels for the fifth Solvay Conference on Physics, a meeting that would set the stage for a scientific revolution.

The photo above captures that legendary moment. Seated in the front row are figures whose names now define physics textbooks: Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Max Planck, and Erwin Schrödinger, among others. The discussions they held weren’t just academic debates; they were the sparks that lit an entirely new way of understanding the universe.

At the time, classical physics could no longer explain the strange behavior of particles at the smallest scales. Why did electrons sometimes act like waves? Why could particles exist in multiple states at once? The answers gave birth to quantum mechanics, a framework that defied common sense but has since become the foundation for technologies we rely on every day - from semiconductors to lasers, MRI machines, and now quantum computers.

What began as a gathering of brilliant minds, has evolved into a multibillion-dollar global race to harness quantum for medicine, energy, finance, and security. The questions raised in Brussels nearly 100 years ago are the same questions quantum entrepreneurs and investors are pushing forward today—except now, instead of chalkboards, we’re using superconducting qubits and AI to solve them.

In many ways, today’s quantum ventures are standing on the shoulders of those pioneers. The dialogue that began in that conference hall continues. Only now, it has moved from theory into real-world scale-ups with the potential to reshape industries and societies.