IBM buys HRL Laboratories, betting on a second quantum computing approach alongside its superconducting chips

[ProperJobs89]

IBM has agreed to buy HRL Laboratories, a private quantum computing research lab jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors, giving IBM a second pillar for its quantum computing efforts. IBM has spent years refining superconducting qubit technology, the same broad approach used by Google, but HRL specializes in a fundamentally different method, electron spin qubits fabricated on silicon platforms

Both technologies can be manufactured using the same equipment already used for conventional computer chips, but electron spin circuits can be made considerably smaller than superconducting ones. IBM Research director Jay Gambetta said that size advantage will start to matter once IBM's superconducting Blue Jay system, capable of a billion quantum operations, arrives in the mid 2030s, with the smaller HRL made circuits becoming useful for whatever comes after that

Financial terms were not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2026 pending regulatory approval. HRL's Malibu based research team is set to relocate to IBM's New York facility to begin chip fabrication there, while Boeing and General Motors plan to keep partnering with IBM on quantum technology after the deal closes. The move follows a $1 billion award IBM received from the Trump administration in May to build a chip factory called Anderon for US quantum computing firms, and mirrors a similar diversification move Google made earlier this year

IBM buys HRL Laboratories in shift to two-track quantum computing strategyfinance.yahoo.com

[Analog Jay]

Gambetta saying the future is spins, or superconducting, or possibly a combination of both is a refreshingly honest admission that nobody has settled this yet

[Saka31]

Smart move to hedge across two hardware approaches rather than betting the whole quantum program on superconducting circuits alone