Biggish Blue is trying to turn quantum computing from lab jewellery into a wafer-churning business.
The outfit has spent a decade poking quantum computing into shape at its glass-panelled research complex in upstate New York.
Now it wants to turn the expensive science fair experiment into a proper business, assuming the physics behaves and the money keeps flowing.
Last month, IBM said it would form Anderon, an independent foundry to make silicon wafers for quantum-computing processors.
The venture will be seeded with $1bn from the Trump administration and another $1bn from IBM’s own wallet. Anderon gives IBM a fresh line of business in selling wafers to other quantum firms, while feeding into its own quantum roadmap.
Boston Consulting Group reckons quantum-computing providers could chase a $90bn to $170bn market by 2040. The first step is expanding IBM’s in-house New York facility, which already makes wafers for internal research.
IBM director of research Jay Gambetta told the Wall Street Journal that scaling it all was the next big challenge.
IBM plans to spend another $9bn over five years to chase fault tolerance, the point at which quantum kit becomes useful and reliable.
Its planned fault-tolerant machine, Starling, is targeted for 2029, with a more powerful box pencilled in for 2033.
IBM vice-president of quantum adoption Scott Crowder said: “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 uses quantum particles to crunch problems that would make classical machines cough up their fans.
The field has had a handy burst of hype, cash, and political attention, helped by the AI boom, which has made investors less scared of moonshot tech.
The Trump administration is putting another $1bn into quantum-computing firms through the Commerce Department.
Google and Microsoft have claimed quantum breakthroughs during the past year because nobody wants to be left selling yesterday’s buzzword.
President Donald Trump signed executive orders setting a 2028 goal for a quantum computer capable of performing scientific research. The orders told agencies to prepare for quantum machines breaking standard encryption faster than expected.
IBM says the foundry will be walled off from the rest of the company, which should reassure quantum rivals only up to a point.
Gambetta said several firms have already shown interest in buying wafers from the new outfit.
For now, Anderon will serve quantum companies using the same approach as IBM, superconducting silicon circuits acting as qubits.
