G7 Summit: IBM To Invest $100 Mn To Build 100,000-Qubit Supercomputer

IBM on Sunday said it will invest USD 100 million in an initiative with the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago to develop a quantum-centric supercomputer powered by 100,000 qubits.

The 10-year initiative was announced by the tech giant at the G7 Summit in Japan. Over the next decade, IBM plans to work with university partners and its worldwide quantum ecosystem to evolve how its quantum processors can be connected via quantum interconnects. This work will aim to enable high-efficiency, high-fidelity inter-processor quantum operations and a reliable, flexible, and affordable system component infrastructure to allow scaling to 100,000 qubits.

The University of Tokyo will lead efforts to identify, scale, and run end-to-end demonstrations of quantum algorithms. They will also begin to develop and build the supply chain around new components required for such a large system including cryogenics, control electronics, and more. 

Meanwhile, the University of Chicago will be leading efforts in bringing quantum communication to quantum computation, with classical and quantum parallelisation plus quantum networks.

The plans for this quantum-centric supercomputer are expected to involve innovations at all levels of the computing stack, and encompass the convergence of the fields of quantum computing and quantum communication, as well as the seamless integration of quantum and classical workflows via the hybrid cloud.

“We think that together with the University of Chicago and the University of Tokyo, 100,000 connected qubits is an achievable goal by 2033,” IBM said in its blog.

According to a McKinsey report, the size of quantum technology market will be USD 106 billion by 2040.

Quantum-centric supercomputing is an entirely new, and as of now, unrealised, era of high-performance computing. A 100,000-qubit system would serve as a foundation to address some of the world’s most pressing problems that even the most advanced supercomputers of today may never be able to solve.

For example, such a powerful quantum system could unlock entirely new understandings of chemical reactions and the dynamics of molecular processes. In turn, this could enable researchers to help study climate change through modeling better methods to capture carbon; discover materials to build batteries for electric vehicles and energy grids towards the goal of being cleaner and more sustainable; and uncover more effective and energy-efficient fertilizers, IBM explained.