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IBM Announces Integration of Quantum Modules, Aiming for First Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer by 2029

Welcome to the latest edition of "Quantum Leap" where The Fly decodes news and activity in the quantum computing space.LEAP FORWARD:IBMannounced it has joined and cooled down two cryogenic modules into a single environment. The new architecture is designed to scale into the modular, shared, and ultra-cold system required to link hundreds of quantum chips into a more powerful quantum computer capable of solving large problems. The company said its deployment is a milestone on IBM's path to delivering IBM Quantum Starling in 2029, which is expected to be the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computer and will integrate advances across error correction, processor design, decoding, and systems engineering. Combined, the first two operational modules stand more than eight feet tall and eight feet wide, and initial tests demonstrated they can jointly cool down to four Kelvin in under five days, reaching a final temperature of below 15 millikelvin shortly after. Each module's vacuum enclosure offers up to 12 times more wiring space than the most widely used IBM quantum systems, enabling more chip-to-chip connections both within and between modules. IBM's new box-shaped design allows modules to connect in a tight row and use this larger space to directly link quantum processors with IBM's "L-coupler" technology. L-couplers connect separate quantum chips together to share information, communicate, and operate as part of a larger quantum computer. By 2027, IBM's quantum roadmap plans to use L-couplers to link multiple processors into a larger quantum computer with at least 1,000 programmable qubits, which are qubits that can be directly used to perform computations. Towards this goal, IBM will install IBM Quantum Nighthawk processors into the cryogenic modules later this year to expand operational performance testing. At the time Starling is delivered, IBM plans for each cryogenic module to house thousands of qubits. "Bringing fault-tolerant quantum computers to industries depends on several fundamental advances," said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. "The successful connection and operation of these cryogenic modules signals a leap forward in that direction and will accelerate our progress alongside continued innovation in quantum hardware, software, and algorithms."CLOUD QUANTUM COMPUTING:IonQannounced a collaboration with CMC Microsystems. This collaboration integrates IonQ's commercial trapped-ion quantum computing systems into Canada's FABrIC Quantum Computing Sandbox. The framework for this initiative is covered under a newly signed memorandum of understanding, which designates IonQ as a listed cloud quantum computing access provider for the QCS. The QCS is operated through FABrIC, an initiative backed by funding from the Government of Canada's Strategic Response Fund and managed by CMC Microsystems.QUANTUM SAFE CENTRE:IBM and the Singapore Institute of Technology, or SIT, are planning to establish the Quantum-Safe Centre, targeted for launch by the end of 2026, as a dedicated hub to accelerate Singapore's transition to quantum-safe cybersecurity. The Centre will help organizations assess risks, adopt new security approaches and develop the talent needed for the post-quantum era. The Quantum-Safe Centre, located in the SIT Punggol Campus within the Punggol Digital District, is designed to help organizations prepare for and transition to quantum-safe cryptograph. Siew San Tan, general manager and technology leader, IBM Singapore, said: "Singapore's critical infrastructure, enterprises, and government agencies are at a pivotal moment in their cybersecurity journey, and the time to prepare for the post-quantum risk is now. Through our collaboration with SIT and the establishment of the Quantum-Safe Centre, IBM is committed to supporting Singapore's organizations with the technology, expertise and capabilities they need to understand their cryptographic vulnerabilities and take decisive steps toward quantum-safe resilience. This initiative would help to ensure that Singapore's digital economy remains secure and trusted in the years ahead."INTEGRATION:Sealsqand PalmPay, a brand developed by Palm Technologies in India, announced a strategic partnership to collaborate on the integration of Sealsq's QS7001 hardware-security technology into Palm Technologies' existing and future PalmPay biometric-authentication products. Sealsq will provide its QS7001 technology and technical support for secure-element integration, while Palm Technologies will lead product architecture, biometric-system design, application development, firmware, system integration, local compliance and product deployment.PRODUCTION QUANTUM ADOPTION:D-Wave Quantumand NTT DOCOMO announced that DOCOMO has deployed a second D-Wave-powered quantum computing application in production. The new application reduced location registration signals generated when devices cross tracking area list boundaries by 65.3% at the daily peak while also reducing paging signals by 7.0%, lowering network signaling load and improving operational efficiency. "DOCOMO is showing telecom operators around the world what production quantum adoption looks like: move beyond a single use case and apply the technology to distinct, increasingly complex operational challenges," said Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. "Telecom networks are highly complex, resource-constrained environments, and these results demonstrate how D-Wave's annealing quantum computing technology can help operators improve network performance and efficiency today."COLLABORATION:Quanta Computerand Quantinuumannounced a collaborative development agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies plan to jointly develop critical hardware infrastructure supporting future generations of Quantinuum's quantum systems, combining Quantinuum's quantum technology with Quanta's expertise in scaling computing platforms. Quanta and Quantinuum aim to create a practical pathway from today's quantum systems to commercially deployable quantum computers capable of supporting broad enterprise and scientific adoption.QUANTUM DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM:Qtrex Quantumannounced that it is in discussions with a U.S. Department of Defense's research laboratory to establish a joint quantum development program. The parties are targeting the fourth quarter of 2026 to formalize the program. The laboratory already operates the company's AME system and is distinct from the U.S. government laboratory referenced in Qtrex's July 6, announcement, extending the company's disclosed footprint to a second U.S. government research institution. The program under discussion targets the layer where scaled quantum systems physically break: the interconnect.MOU:BTQ Technologieshas signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, with Itcenglobal, one of Korea's largest IT services groups, through its listed security platform subsidiary Itcen PNS. The signed MOU establishes a framework for collaboration between BTQ and Itcen PNS to integrate post-quantum cryptography, quantum-safe authentication, and next-generation security infrastructure for Korean and international markets.ANALYST COMMENTARY:Craig-Hallum initiated coverage of Horizon Quantumwith a Buy rating and $21 price target. The firm sees the company's Triple Alpha addressing more of the developer- and run-time stack than anywhere else in the world, and if it's successful in creating efficiencies at both points, Horizon Quantum will have a strategically important asset positioned at the crux of the new quantum world. This position in the hybrid quantum-classical dev-/run-time and applications mirrors the position that Microsoftbuilt in the classical client computing world nearly a half century ago, and this outcome could create very high returns, Craig-Hallum noted. As such, the firm believes Horizon Quantum deserves a place in any growth investor's portfolio.

Horizon Quantum Partners with Quantum Machines to Advance Quantum Programming

"During the second quarter of 2026, we reached important milestones with Beryllium, an object-oriented quantum programming language that we believe will allow developers to build increasingly sophisticated quantum applications and begin to abstract away the subtleties of quantum mechanics from the work necessary to realize quantum advantage. More recently, we also announced a strategic collaboration with Quantum Machines, which aims to further our technical capabilities in calibration," said Horizon Quantum CEO and Founder Dr. Joe Fitzsimons.

IonQ Receives Regulatory Approval to Complete Acquisition of SkyWater Technology

Welcome to the latest edition of "Quantum Leap" where The Fly decodes news and activity in the quantum computing space.QUANTUM SYSTEMS:Horizon Quantum Computing, a subsidiary of Horizon Quantum, and Q.M Technologies entered a strategic collaboration to support the development of quantum systems. Through the collaboration, Horizon Quantum will leverage QM's orchestration platform for quantum control, alongside QM's engineering, to develop embedded calibration technologies for Horizon Quantum's first in-house hardware testbed system Ember-1, a modular superconducting quantum computer.REGULATORY APPROVAL:IonQreceived final regulatory approval to complete its acquisition of SkyWater Technology. Following the close of the transaction, SkyWater will continue to serve a full range of customers as a U.S.-based semiconductor foundry, operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of IonQ under the SkyWater name. The companies anticipate that having secured all required regulatory approvals and satisfied other outstanding closing conditions, they will complete all necessary arrangements to close the transaction on Friday, July 31.VICE PRESIDENT:Infleqtionappointed Joseph Buck as senior vice president of quantum computing systems. Buck joined the company July 27, and will lead development of Sqale, Infleqtion's scalable neutral-atom quantum computer. Buck joined Infleqtion from Lockheed Martin, where he served as senior fellow at the Advanced Technology Center.TANGLELAB:Rigetti Computingannounced that it will partner with HPEand Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to build the TangleLab supercomputing testbed. The PSC-based testbed, which is being funded by a $5M National Science Foundation grant, will feature a supercomputer powered by a nine-qubit Novera quantum computing system integrated with a classical high-performance computing system. This project builds on Rigetti and HPE's collaboration to commercialize quantum-enabled high-performance computing systems. Construction of TangleLab is expected to begin at PSC's new data center on September 1 with full operations expected in 2027.RESEARCH PACT:Qtrex Quantumlaunched a research collaboration with Northeastern University in Massachusetts, focused on advanced micro-system structures for cryogenic quantum interconnects. Pursuant to the collaboration agreement, Northeastern University has agreed to provide Qtrex with a first option to negotiate a commercial license to Northeastern-owned or jointly developed intellectual property arising directly from the parties' joint research.APPLYING QUANTUM TECHNOLOGY:AT&Thas signed an agreement to expand its use of D-Wave'squantum computing technology and plans to use the technology to address optimization challenges across its network operations. AT&T's initial focus is on layering D-Wave's annealing quantum computing technology into the tools that are already powering AT&T's agentic AI solutions. New quantum capabilities could help increase the benefits of agents in AT&T's network operations. In an early application, AT&T used D-Wave's technology to reduce the processing time for a network optimization workload from approximately one hour to less than 15 seconds. Building on this initial work, AT&T plans to explore using D-Wave's quantum computing technology across a broader set of applications, such as outage detection and response, technician routing, network build planning, and traffic management. Through these applications, AT&T will explore how faster processing could translate into faster and more accurate planning, as AT&T scales its converged fiber and 5G network to meet AI-driven demand. AT&T is also evaluating D-Wave's forthcoming gate-model systems for potential applications in quantum security and quantum communications.ERROR CORRECTION PROGRAM:Quantum X Labsannounced progress on its technical roadmap for its AI-driven quantum error-correction program. The work is focused on reviewing QXL's milestone results and draws on Nvidiaaccelerated computing, the Nvidia CUDA-Q QEC software libraries and, as QXL progresses from simulation-based validation toward hardware-derived syndrome data and future real-time decoding. First, the company executed its deep quantum error correction workflow on an Nvidia GPU in an AWSenvironment and benchmarked its transformer-based QECCT decoder against the classical minimum-weight perfect matching decoder across controlled toric-code noise configurations. QECCT outperformed MWPM in selected simulated regimes. QXL also tested synthetic surface-code configurations modeled on Google'spublic surface-code geometry and experiment structure, spanning multiple code distances. Across these scenarios, the QECCT decoder showed stable logical and bit error rates under varying physical error conditions. These results are intended as an initial step in validating the approach within controlled simulation environments. Future work is expected to focus on extending these evaluations to publicly available experimental datasets and continuing to refine data pipelines and decoder workflows compatible with CUDA-Q QEC frameworks. The broader roadmap also includes QXL's planned work with IQCC to generate hardware-derived syndrome data on superconducting quantum processing hardware. QXL is also reviewing where AI-based pre-decoder workflows using Nvidia Ising, and low-latency optimization can add the greatest value across these stages of QXL's roadmap.C-SUITE APPOINTMENTS:Quantinuumannounced the recent appointments of Robin Schulman as chief legal officer and company secretary, effective July 13, and Rory O'Byrne as chief people officer, effective May 26. Schulman and O'Byrne both report to Quantinuum's president and CEO Rajeeb Hazra. Most recently, Schulman served as chief legal officer and head of corporate affairs at GitLab (GTLC). Most recently, O'Byrne served as chief people officer for Advanced Energy.ANALYST COMMENTARY:Benchmark reinstated coverage of the quantum computing sector, including reinstating coverage of IonQ with a Buy rating and $60 price target, D-Wave Quantum with a Buy rating and $30 price target and Rigetti Computing with a Buy rating and $25 price target. The firm is "bullish" on the quantum computing sector, sees the legitimacy of the technology further building on recent momentum and argues it is not a "winner-takes-all" situation. In these still early days of quantum computing, the best strategy for investors may be to take a portfolio approach to investing in the sector, the analyst contended.CIBC initiated coverage of Xanadu Quantumwith an Outperformer rating and $22 price target. Xanadu is one of the few public pure plays on utility scale photonic quantum computing, the analyst told investors in a research note. The firm said the company has a "catalyst-rich" 2026 through 2029 that can "materially de-risk" its path to commercialization. The bull case is that Xanadu's photonics platform can scale to "fault-tolerant" quantum computing, with speed, networkability, manufacturing compatibility, and PennyLane as differentiators, commented CIBC.