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IBM is continuing its quantum computing push, establishing a new outpost in the Basque Country. The Spanish region is now home to the first IBM Quantum System Two in Europe.
The quantum computer is up and running on the main campus of the Ikerbasque Foundation – a research facility established by the Basque government to foster scientific research in the region – at the IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center, located in the Basque city of San Sebastián.
IBM has been working with the Basque regional government on quantum initiatives for several years. In 2023, the government and three of the region’s local councils launched BasQ (short for Basque quantum), an initiative to further quantum computing research. Through BasQ, organisations can access the Quantum System Two, which runs on Big Blue’s 156-qubit IBM Quantum Heron processor.
According to data from researchers Eustat, the Basque Country’s ICT market grew nearly 8% between 2023 and 2023. The data release last month showed that the market, worth around €5 billion, accounts for almost 3% of the region’s economy.
The region’s scientists have been using IBM quantum tech even before the launch of the System Two.
Examples include physics projects, such as modelling the forces that act between subatomic particles called quarks, as well as for material sciences work, such as research into “time crystals”. These quantum systems can be formed in materials including titanium and iron, where particles remain perpetually in motion.
Earlier this year, IBM announced the first Quantum System Two to go live outside of the US, when a quantum machine was deployed at the Japanese national research laboratory RIKEN. Prior to that, IBM’s quantum systems have all been on US soil and within Big Blue’s own data centres.
In June, IBM announced that it was working on what it described as the “world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer”, known as IBM Quantum Starling. The company said it’s building a new data centre to house the machine in Poughkeepsie, New York.
IBM Quantum Starling, which is expected to be operational in 2029, will be able to perform 20,000 times more operations than the current generation of quantum computers.
