The investment decision follows last week’s agreement between IBM and the US department of commerce to build an American quantum chip foundry named Anderon.
Computing giant IBM is to invest more than $10bn in the quantum field over the next five years, according to a US government securities filing by the company.
IBM’s goal is “to advance our leadership position in quantum” – including in research and development, capital expenditure, ecosystem partnerships, manufacturing scaling, and mergers and acquisitions – towards delivering “the first large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029”, it said in the submission.
The investment decision follows last week’s agreement between IBM and the US department of commerce to build an American quantum chip foundry named Anderon as one part of a $2bn government strategy to accelerate American quantum innovation.
IBM said it has already deployed more than 90 quantum systems to date in partnership with 325 companies, start-ups, universities and government agencies to “tackle scientific challenges across chemistry, biology, materials science and more”.
Under its quantum deal with the US government, IBM will use a $1bn legislative award to launch Anderon, a standalone company that IBM said will be the first pure-play US quantum chip foundry. It will be headquartered in Albany, New York and operate as a 300mm quantum wafer foundry serving multiple quantum hardware vendors.
IBM will match the government’s contribution with $1bn of its own cash, along with significant intellectual property, assets and its skilled workforce, with additional investors expected as Anderon grows.
“These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities,” said US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick last week of the overall strategy that aims to benefit two domestic quantum foundries and seven quantum computing companies in the country.
Separately, IBM said it will also invest a share of $5bn in ‘Project Lightwell’, a “commitment backed by new frontier AI capabilities and a global force of more than 20,000 engineers to help enterprises secure open source software”.
Alongside cloud tech company Red Hat, IBM aims to “establish a trusted enterprise clearinghouse combined with a global force of engineers to identify and fix vulnerabilities at scale”.
“Open source is the backbone of today’s digital economy and the foundation of modern AI, and we are at an inflection point in how it is built, secured and scaled,” said Arvind Krishna, the chair and CEO of IBM.
“With Project Lightwell, IBM and Red Hat are helping define a new industry model, one that brings together AI, engineering expertise, and trusted collaboration to secure open source software at its source and across the entire supply chain.”
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login