IBM Acquires HRL Laboratories to Broaden Quantum Computing Bet

IBM Corp. is acquiring HRL Laboratories, the privately held quantum computing research lab jointly owned by Boeing Co. and General Motors Co., adding a second technology platform to its push toward commercially viable quantum computers.

Financial terms of the deal, announced Thursday, were not disclosed. Boeing and GM will remain partners with IBM on quantum technologies after the acquisition, the company said.

The move broadens IBM’s strategy as competition intensifies with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Microsoft Corp. and other companies seeking to build quantum systems capable of solving problems beyond the reach of conventional computers.

The acquisition follows a series of U.S. government efforts to bolster domestic quantum computing. In May, President Donald Trump’s administration said it would provide $1 billion to IBM to establish a new company, Anderon, in New Albany, New York, to operate a chip manufacturing facility for U.S. quantum computing firms.

While researchers broadly agree that quantum computing will eventually become commercially significant, the industry remains divided over which hardware approach will prove most effective. Companies are pursuing several competing architectures, and IBM’s acquisition of HRL gives it exposure to a second leading technology.

IBM and Google have focused on superconducting quantum circuits, while HRL, the former research arm of Hughes Aircraft based near Malibu, California, develops electron-spin quantum bits, or qubits.

Both approaches can be manufactured using conventional semiconductor fabrication equipment, but electron-spin qubits are significantly smaller than superconducting circuits, potentially allowing greater computing density.

Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research, said the technology would become increasingly important after the company’s planned “Blue Jay” superconducting quantum system is delivered in 2033.

“I and the team strongly believe that the future is going to be (electron) spins, or superconducting, or possibly a combination of them,” Gambetta said in an interview. “They (HRL) have a very strong spin qubit team, the strongest in the world. … I would not pursue a second path that was not built on a foundation that could be integrated together.”

Before then, HRL’s engineers will begin producing quantum chips at IBM’s advanced fabrication facility in New York, in addition to their existing operations in California.

Gambetta said IBM is also developing “a parallel path” based on spin qubits alongside its superconducting technology “that we’ll make available very soon.”

IBM’s decision to diversify its quantum hardware portfolio mirrors a broader shift in the industry. Earlier this year, Google expanded beyond superconducting circuits by investing in a second quantum computing approach based on neutral atoms, reflecting growing uncertainty over which architecture will ultimately scale to fault-tolerant systems.

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