“International Business Machines has spent a decade building, testing and improving in the once-theoretical realm of quantum computing at its glass-paneled laboratory complex in upstate New York.
This year, the company is laying the groundwork to turn that technology into a fully-fledged, scalable business from an expensive science project.
IBM said last month it plans to form a new independent subsidiary called Anderon, a foundry to produce the silicon wafers needed to make quantum-computing processors. The venture is seeded by a $1 billion investment from the Trump administration and $1 billion of IBM's own cash.
Anderon will give the company a new line of business in selling wafers to other quantum-computing companies. It will also provide a steady stream of wafers to continue developing its own quantum technology, positioning IBM to capture part of what the Boston Consulting Group projects will be a $90 billion to $170 billion market for quantum-computing providers by 2040.
The venture will begin with an expansion of the company's in-house facility in Albany, N.Y., which makes wafers for internal research. "Now we have to scale it," IBM Director of Research Jay Gambetta said.
The company also plans to spend an additional $9 billion over five years to advance the final stages of its quest to build a quantum-mechanics-powered computer capable and reliable enough for widespread use, a goal known as fault tolerance. That computer, named Starling, is being targeted for 2029.
With Anderon, IBM is thinking beyond Starling, or even a more powerful quantum computer planned for 2033.
"If you're serious about this, it's about manufacturing at scale," said IBM's vice president of quantum adoption, Scott Crowder. "Anderon is one of the pieces, from a supply-chain point of view, that we need to have to not just have the existence proof of one quantum computer, but to be able to build multiple quantum computers."
Quantum computing, which leverages the properties of quantum particles to perform calculations out of reach for a classical computer, has been on a hot streak recently.
In addition to its $1 billion investment in Anderon, the Trump administration is investing another billion across a range of quantum-computing firms through the Commerce Department. Alphabet's Google and Microsoft have both claimed quantum breakthroughs within the past year.
On Monday, President Trump signed executive orders setting a 2028 goal for a quantum computer that can perform scientific research and directing agencies to prepare for the possibility that quantum computers could quickly break standard encryption methods. IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna attended the signing ceremony.
The success of artificial intelligence has increased investors' appetite for technologies that once seemed futuristic, Citibank analyst Fatima Boolani said. The administration's support for the industry serves as an additional vote of confidence. "Immediately, our reaction was, 'This puts quantum on the map,'" she said.
Wafers from Anderon are expected to begin production later this year. The company is still ironing out details of the venture, including its board and leadership team. The Trump administration will have an equity stake in the venture but no governance over its operations, the company said.
The foundry will be a subsidiary of IBM, which will be an anchor customer and supply talent and intellectual property. Anderon will be walled off from the rest of IBM, and plans to raise additional investment and sell silicon wafers to other quantum-computing firms, many of whom have already expressed interest, Gambetta said.
For now, Anderon's client base will be limited to quantum-computing firms using the same quantum-computing modality as IBM, although it plans to eventually expand to other modalities based on demand.
The company opts for superconducting silicon circuits to act as "qubits" -- the quantum equivalent of "bits" in a classical computer. A handful of firms pursuing quantum computers use the same modality, such as Google, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum.
IBM's bet on superconducting qubits is a trade-off. They have to be cooled to near deep-space temperatures and are comparatively more error-prone than other quantum modalities, meaning IBM has to focus more on methods to correct those errors in real time.
Where superconducting qubits have an edge, however, is speed and scalability, Gambetta said. "Our view, and what we've always built our program on, is we're going to build it on a technology that scales," he said.” [1]
1. IBM Looks to Scale Quantum Computing --- Government-backed foundry prepares to advance the tech to a practical stage. Schisgall, Elias. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 24 June 2026: B4
Komentarų nėra:
Rašyti komentarą