Confidential computing market to reach $54 billion in 2026

The confidential computing market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 90%-95% to reach $54 billion in 2026, according to findings from a market study by Everest Group.

Confidential computing protects data in use by performing computation in a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). These secure and isolated environments prevent unauthorized access or modification of applications and data while it is in use in memory, thereby increasing the security level of organizations that manage sensitive and regulated data, such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), health information or financial data.

Key findings of the confidential computing market study

• The confidential computing market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 90%-95% in the best case scenario, and 40%-45% even in the worst case scenario until 2026.
• Hardware and software segments of the market will drive the majority of adoption, while the service segment will also have a role to play.
• Regulated industries like banking, finance, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, public sector and defense will dominate the rollout.
• Adoption in different theaters will be driven by privacy regulations and incidences of cyber-threats.
• Emerging technology paradigms like multi-party computing and blockchain will constitute a large share of the market.

“Enterprises are rapidly moving data to the cloud which has dramatically altered their security needs to protect their sensitive data at rest, on the network, or in use in secure protected computation,” said Stephen Walli, governing board chair of the Confidential Computing Consortium.

“The needs of protecting and managing sensitive data throughout the life cycle, coupled with industry regulations, and the proliferation of cyber risks, positions confidential computing to become a de facto technology for computational security.”

The Everest Group leveraged multiple sources of data including proprietary datasets, consultations with key market stakeholders, and contributions from the members of the Confidential Computing Consortium to assess the market.

“While the adoption of confidential computing is in the relatively nascent stage, our research reveals growth potential not only for enterprises consuming it, but also for the technology and service providers enabling it,” said Abhishek Mundra, practice director, Everest Research.