(Reuters) Jeffrey Dastin and Paresh Dave reported on the interview Monday that IBM’s Chief Executive Arvind Krishna conducted before the company’s Think conference. IQT-News summarizes below.
Krishna said IBM would have a more-than-4,000 qubit quantum computer ready by 2025, a jump from its hardware with 127 qubits today. IBM has set a new goal for propelling the legacy technology company ahead of its rivals: a quantum computer ready for commercial use, three years from now.
Krishna said that he was avoiding claims that IBM cannot fulfill after what he called the company’s “error” predicting uses prematurely for its Watson artificial intelligence (AI) services, which delivered results in healthcare and other fields slower than expected. He said making quantum systems was more difficult than developing AI.
Krishna said that the machine expected in 2025 with thousands of qubits will at least begin to open practical and commercial opportunities.
IBM is not alone in its chase. Governments and companies globally will invest nearly $16.4 billion in quantum development by the end of 2027, according to market research company IDC.
Rival Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google has aimed to develop a computer with 1,000,000 qubits by the end of this decade. Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) has partnered with companies such as Rigetti Computing (RGTI.O), which expects to reach 4,000 qubits in 2026.
Sandra K. Helsel, Ph.D. has been researching and reporting on frontier technologies since 1990. She has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.