IBM, Cisco to collaborate on networked distributed quantum computing groundwork

IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) announced an intention to collaborate on the groundwork for networked distributed quantum computing, to be realized as soon as the early 2030s. By combining IBM’s leadership in building useful quantum computers with Cisco’s quantum networking innovations, the companies plan to explore how to scale large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers beyond IBM’s roadmap. Additionally, they will work to solve fundamental challenges towards a quantum computing internet. Within five years, IBM and Cisco will aim to demonstrate the first proof-of-concept for a network that combines individual, large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, enabling them to work together to run computations over tens to hundreds of thousands of qubits. This network would allow problems to be run with potentially trillions of quantum gates, the fundamental entangling operations required for transformative quantum applications such as massive optimization problems, or the design of complex materials and medicines.