IBM has been selected for Stage C, the third phase of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) led by DARPA – the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – which will advance it through DARPA’s verification process in which independent experts extensively test and measure quantum hardware, technology, systems engineering, and architectures to determine if a company can build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.
“Advancing to the third stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative validates the strength of IBM’s path to building a fault-tolerant quantum computer,” says Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. “IBM expects to deliver the first fault-tolerant system in 2029, and we plan to scale the value of quantum computing well beyond that timeline. We look forward to working with DARPA’s team of experts as they advance their review of approaches to fault-tolerant quantum computing into the testing phase.”
As an independent research and development arm of the US Department of Defense, DARPA launched the QBI in 2024 to determine whether an industrially useful fault-tolerant quantum computer can be built by 2033. The programme defines such a system as one whose computational value will exceed its cost. IBM has successfully progressed through the QBI’s assessment process, including the first two stages that analysed comprehensive R&D plans and risk mitigation approaches.
IBM says it has built the strongest quantum foundation in the industry, anchored by the largest fleet of quantum computers across the globe and Qiskit, the world’s most popular quantum software.
The company’s quantum computers are already being used today as scientific tools by a network of more than 340 organisations across financial services, healthcare, materials science, academia, and government as they build industrial applications and pursue algorithms to unlock the full potential of fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Last year, IBM laid out its plans to deliver the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer – IBM Quantum Starling. Starling will combine advances in error correction, processor design, systems engineering, and more. Since then, IBM’s progression has remained on course, including the demonstration of core hardware components for fault tolerance and breakthroughs in efficient error correction decoding.