Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday announced that IBM will partner with the state to create a new national quantum algorithm center in Chicago — marking the first Fortune 500 company to join the soon-to-be-constructed Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park on the South Side.
It’s a huge win for Pritzker, who has for years sought to make Illinois a global leader in quantum computing and innovation. The announcement comes a day after the City Council gave the multibillion-dollar quantum computing campus final zoning approval.
The newly announced National Quantum Algorithm Center will be anchored by IBM’s modular quantum computer, called IBM Quantum System Two, which will try to advance quantum supercomputing across industries.
“We’re making Illinois the global quantum capital and the center for job growth in the quantum industry — a true center of innovation with the power to solve the world’s most pressing and complex challenges,” Pritzker said in a statement.
The governor called it a “transformative step forward, whose impact will reverberate throughout the tech industry and beyond.”
Beyond the potential advances in quantum technology, the center is expected to spur economic development — attracting scientists from across the world. Pritzker is also hoping IBM’s decision will continue to help advance federal research grants and private investments towards the quantum campus.
The new IBM center will operate temporarily out of Hyde Park Labs, a commercial science and tech hub affiliated with the University of Chicago. After the state’s quantum campus is built, the center will move to the 128-acre Illinois Quantum & Microelectronics Park. The 440-acre development will be completed in phases over the next four to six years.
Pritzker pushed to create the park, which will be financially backed by $500 million in state funding. Cook County is chipping in with about $175 million in tax breaks over the course of 30 years, and the city is kicking in $5 million.
California-based PsiQuantum plans to build the world’s first commercially useful quantum computer at the massive site, which has struggled to find development since U.S. Steel closed the South Works in 1992.
In July, Pritzker announced the U.S. Department of Defense’s research and development agency, or DARPA, will take residency on the state’s quantum campus to establish a program where quantum computing prototypes will be tested.
According to DARPA, the goal of the “Quantum Benchmarking Initiative,” or QBI, will be to evaluate and test quantum computing claims and “separate hype from reality.”
The quantum campus will feature a cryogenic facility, which is needed for research and development for microelectronics and quantum technologies. It’s expected to generate up to $60 billion in economic impact, according to estimates from the governor’s office. It’s also expected to create thousands of jobs, but the governor framed it as having the potential of creating “tens of thousands and perhaps more, jobs.”
Chicago is already home to the Chicago Quantum Exchange, first launched in 2017 with Argonne and Fermi national laboratories, which now has one of the largest teams of quantum researchers in the world.
When he was mayor, Rahm Emanuel helped jumpstart Chicago’s path to quantum development in 2018, announcing the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign would join the University of Chicago’s efforts in quantum technology with the Fermi and Argonne National Laboratories as part of the Chicago Quantum Exchange. In his more recent role as U.S. ambassador to Japan, Emanuel has helped secure multimillion dollar research deals between the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago.
