IBM buys HRL Laboratories to build a two-track quantum computing strategy

IBM just made its biggest quantum computing move in years. The tech giant announced a definitive agreement to acquire HRL Laboratories, a private R&D firm co-owned by Boeing and General Motors, in a deal designed to give IBM a second, parallel path to building large-scale quantum computers. IBM has spent years refining superconducting qubit technology. Now it’s adding HRL’s silicon-spin qubit expertise, effectively pursuing two parallel paths toward fault-tolerant quantum systems. What IBM is actually buying HRL Laboratories traces its lineage back to Hughes Aircraft, and the company has carved out a niche in solid-state quantum technologies. Its core specialty is electron spin qubits fabricated on silicon platforms, a fundamentally different approach from the superconducting qubits that IBM has championed for years. Superconducting qubits and silicon-spin qubits each have distinct advantages and drawbacks. Superconducting systems are further along in development but require extreme cooling and face scaling challenges. Silicon-spin qubits, by contrast, are built on the same foundational material as classical computer chips, which theoretically makes them easier to manufacture a...