IBM said that the company will invest more than US$10 billion in the field of quantum computing in the next five years, with the goal of building the first large-scale quantum computer that can operate stably and be used for complex calculations by 2029. This move highlights the rapidly rising role of quantum computing in global technology and industrial competition.
IBM's latest plan comes on the heels of a major recent U.S. government industrial policy move. Last week, U.S. President Trump’s administration announced that it would invest a total of $2 billion in nine quantum computing companies in the form of equity, half of which will flow to “Anderon,” a new company with IBM participation. The company will become the first facility in the United States dedicated to quantum chip manufacturing. The policy aims to strengthen the United States' leading position in this cutting-edge technology and offset competitive pressure from China.
According to IBM, the investment of more than US$10 billion will cover basic research and development, capital expenditures, ecological partnership expansion, manufacturing capacity expansion, and mergers and acquisitions. IBM plans to directly inject US$1 billion into Anderon, while opening its own chip manufacturing technology to external customers, and has already started contacting potential customers. The company also promises to inject relevant intellectual property, assets and employees into Anderon, and introduce more external investors as the new company grows.
Quantum computing is seen as expected to bring a qualitative leap to fields such as medical research and development, financial modeling and cryptography. A series of recent technological breakthroughs have also boosted the capital market's interest in this field. However, technical problems such as qubits' susceptibility to interference and high error rates remain severe, limiting their large-scale application in real-life scenarios. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said last year that quantum computers that would be "useful for practical applications" could be five to 10 years away.
Despite the challenges, IBM says it is at the forefront of the industry in deploying quantum systems. To date, the company has deployed more than 90 quantum systems, more than all other industry players combined. According to documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, more than 325 Fortune 500 companies, startups, universities and government agencies around the world have used IBM's quantum systems to explore complex problems in fields such as chemistry, biology and materials science.
Boosted by the good news, IBM's stock price rose about 1.7% in pre-market trading. The market generally expects that as U.S. policies and corporate investment continue to increase, quantum computing will accelerate from laboratories to industrial applications in the next few years, and IBM is trying to seize the opportunity with this large-scale investment.