IBM Plans to Scale Up Quantum Computing

The WSJ reports:

International Business Machines has spent a decade building, testing and improving in the once-theoretical realm of quantum computing at its glass-paneled laboratory complex in upstate New York.

This year, the company is laying the groundwork to turn that technology into a fully-fledged, scalable business from an expensive science project.

IBM said last month it plans to form a new independent subsidiary called Anderon, a foundry to produce the silicon wafers needed to make quantum-computing processors. The venture is seeded by a $1 billion investment from the Trump administration and another $1 billion of IBM’s own cash.

Anderon will give the company a new line of business in selling wafers to other quantum-computing companies. It will also provide a steady stream of wafers to continue developing its own quantum technology, positioning IBM to capture part of what the Boston Consulting Group projects will be a $90 billion to $170 billion market for quantum-computing providers by 2040.

The venture will begin with an expansion of the company’s in-house facility in Albany, N.Y., which makes wafers for IBM’s internal research. “Now we have to scale it,” IBM Director of Research Jay Gambetta said in an interview.

The company also plans to spend an additional $9 billion over five years to advance the final stages of its quest to build a quantum-mechanics-powered computer capable and reliable enough for widespread use, a goal known as fault tolerance. That computer, named Starling, is being targeted for 2029.

With Anderon, IBM is thinking beyond Starling, or even a more powerful quantum computer planned for 2033.

I don't see how IBM can be scaling up, when they do not have a working technology, and do not have applications for the scale up.

Dr. Bee has a new video trashing the prospects for quantum computing, and in particular, IBM for quietly shifting goals. It is still committed, but cannot achieve its previous goals.