IBM sends signals with its $10 billion quantum pledge

“The quantum era is no longer ahead of us, it has started,” said IBM CEO Arvind Krishna in . “And it’s sending signals out that in order to actually move the technology forward at a significant pace and get to these larger systems, there has to be a bigger investment in the technology itself. If the US wants to be ahead of the game, and keep leadership, there has to be this level of funding, either on the public or private side, or a combination of the two.”

IBM’s $10 billion investment news came on the heels of a $2 billion investment in a new quantum wafer foundry, Anderon — $1 billion of that funding is coming from IBM, and the other $1 billion is from the US government.

When news of the quantum investment was released late last month, IBM’s stock price rallied, and analysts expect it to continue to climb. Barclays analyst Raimo Lenschow predicted that IBM’s stock price would go up to $350, and that quantum computing has the potential to be IBM’s “next chapter,” .

The new announcements aren’t changing IBM’s stated quantum timeline, said West. IBM had already said it is targeting 2029 for fault-tolerant quantum computing. (Pictured above is a rendering of . The $10 billion is a significant investment, he said. “This is, overall, a significant step towards both advancing their technology base and bringing their quantum computers into mainstream status.”

Anderon foundry

IBM already has quantum computing manufacturing facilities. They will become the basis of a new company, a pure-play quantum foundry called Anderon, which will provide 300mm wafers to multiple quantum technology vendors. There is no announcement yet of when the foundry will be officially open, but the website is already up, at . According to Gartner’s Horvath, superconducting qubits have been the most reliable quantum computing platform so far, but other platforms — like photonics, trapped ions, and neutral atoms — also show strong promise.

It’s not clear whether IBM’s $10 billion plan includes the $1 billion Anderon investment or is in addition to it. As of press time, IBM did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, the US government is also partnering with other quantum computing firms as well.

The U.S. government will invest a little over $2 billion in nine quantum-related companies, the Department of Commerce announced in late May. The biggest portion of this investment, $1 billion, will go to IBM, for establishing the new quantum foundry. Another $375 million will go to GlobalFoundries to build a quantum foundry for different kinds of quantum computers, including superconducting, trapped ion, photonic, topological, and silicon spin.

Six other quantum companies will receive $100 million each — Atom Computing, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti. And a seventh, Diraq, will receive up to $38 million. In return, the Commerce Department will receive a minority, non-controlling equity stake in these companies, the announcement said.

IBM can afford to invest billions in quantum computing, said IDC’s West. “But with startups, it’s a little challenging to be able to do so — they’re very much dependent on outside funding.”