IBM has announced its ambitious plan to develop the largest quantum computer to date, targeting a groundbreaking new qubit record in 2025. By linking multiple smaller quantum processors into a single, modular system, the company aims to surpass its current technological milestones and revolutionize the field of quantum computing.
According to New Scientist, this innovation represents a significant leap forward for IBM, which unveiled its first commercial quantum computer only six years ago. That device, equipped with 20 quantum bits (qubits), was accessible to researchers via the internet. Today, IBM’s most advanced chip, Condor, boasts 1121 qubits. However, the typical user of IBM’s quantum computing services currently operates with around 100 qubits, highlighting the potential for growth and increased computational power.
While IBM no longer holds the record for the most qubits—a title claimed by start-up Atom Computing with its 1180-qubit device unveiled in 2023—it is determined to reclaim its position as a leader in the field. Jay Gambetta, IBM’s vice president of quantum computing, emphasized the need for new approaches to scaling up. “We know we can’t just make Condor but 10 times bigger,” Gambetta told New Scientist. “The only way to get quantum advantage is to combine different components.”
To achieve this, IBM is adopting a modular design strategy. By connecting several smaller quantum processors, the company plans to create a more powerful, parallelized machine. This approach addresses a critical engineering challenge: the difficulty of fitting an increasing number of qubits and their corresponding input and output wires onto a single chip.
As part of its modular strategy, IBM has already prototyped a new chip called Flamingo, which will play a central role in its plans for 2025. The company intends to connect three Flamingo chips into a 1386-qubit system, breaking current size records. Looking ahead to 2026, IBM plans to introduce another chip, named Kookaburra, as a foundational component for a 4158-qubit quantum computer. This system, comprising three interconnected Kookaburra chips, would create an unprecedented technological gap between IBM and its competitors in both commercial and academic quantum computing.
New Scientist notes that the success of IBM’s modular quantum computers depends on the development of specialized couplers, components that enable connections between chips and individual qubits at varying distances. IBM has already built and tested two types of couplers, but a third, essential for fully modular quantum systems, remains under development.
In a promising demonstration of its modular technology, IBM connected two of its 127-qubit chips in November 2023 to perform a calculation involving 142 qubits—a task that exceeded the capacity of either chip individually. The next challenge, as Gambetta explained, is scaling up the total number of qubits while minimizing the errors that occur when chips are interconnected.
