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IBM has scored another quantum win, with the announcement of an upcoming rollout in Spain’s Basque Country.
IBM and the Basque government said last week that they are planning to install an IBM Quantum System Two in the region before the end of this year.
The machine will be available to local students, researchers and companies, Javier Aizpurua, scientific director of the Basque government’s quantum computing initiative, known as BasQ, said.
“Having the IBM computer in the Basque Country is going to be a game changer in many senses. In science and technology, many research groups are going to be able to do calculations and simulations that they wouldn’t be able to do somewhere else,” he added.
The Quantum System Two will be installed in the main campus of the Ikerbasque foundation’s Euskadi Quantum Computational Center, located in San Sebastian.
Ikerbasque is the Basque region’s foundation for science, which currently hosts nearly 400 researchers working across fields including technology, climate change, physics, and human and animal biology.
The IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center was set up in 2023 to foster scientific research using quantum computing and increase quantum skills in the Basque Country. Prior to the arrival of the Quantum System Two, IBM and Basque researchers have been collaborating on projects such as algorithm development and the integration of quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
As well as rolling out the System Two, the pair are also setting up “workforce programs” to expand the quantum skills base in both the Basque Country and in Spain more widely. BasQ expects the arrival Quantum System Two will lead to the creation of hundreds of jobs in the Basque region.
Late last year, IBM announced the rollout of a System One quantum computer in Yonsei University in the Korean capital of Seoul. At the time, IBM said it was the first quantum system in the country, and the fifth IBM Quantum System One in the world, aside from IBM’s own.
According to a report by analysts Boston Consulting Group published last year, quantum computing is expected to generate $850 million of economic value by 2040. Researchers at Fortune Business Insights meanwhile have predicted that the quantum computing market will grow from $1.16 billion in 2024 to $12.6 billion in 2032.
