# IBM Commits $10 Billion to Quantum Computing, Targets Fault-Tolerant Machine by 2029 **Source:** https://glitchwire.com/news/ibm-commits-10-billion-to-quantum-computing-targets-fault-tolerant-machine-by-20/ **Published:** 2026-05-29T17:30:59.266Z **Author:** Tech Desk ยท Glitchwire **Categories:** Tech, Science ## Summary The company disclosed plans in an SEC filing to spend over $10 billion in five years on R&D, manufacturing, and acquisitions to deliver the industry's first large-scale quantum computer. ## Article IBM has disclosed plans to invest more than $10 billion over the next five years into quantum computing, with a stated goal of delivering the industry's first large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. The commitment, revealed via a Form 8-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on May 28, covers research and development, capital expenditures, manufacturing expansion, ecosystem partnerships, and potential acquisitions. The filing follows recent announcements that already positioned IBM as the dominant player in commercial quantum infrastructure. According to the [SEC disclosure](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000051143/000005114326000047/ibm-20260528.htm), IBM has deployed more than 90 quantum systems globally, which the company claims is more than all other industry players combined. More than 325 Fortune 500 companies, startups, universities, and government agencies now use IBM's quantum hardware for research in chemistry, biology, and materials science. ## The Starling System The 2029 target centers on IBM Quantum Starling, a system designed to run 100 million quantum gates on 200 logical qubits. Those numbers matter because logical qubits, unlike physical qubits, are error-corrected. The leap from today's noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) machines to fault-tolerant systems has been the industry's central challenge for years. IBM is betting that its bivariate bicycle error-correcting codes, which dramatically reduce the physical-to-logical qubit ratio, will make this achievable on schedule. Starling will be built at IBM's facility in Poughkeepsie, New York. A successor system, named Blue Jay, is targeted for 2033 and would scale to 1 billion quantum operations across 2,000 logical qubits. Whether IBM can execute on that timeline remains uncertain, but the company has met its previous roadmap milestones. ## The Anderon Foundry The $10 billion commitment builds on a Letter of Intent announced a week earlier between IBM and the U.S. Department of Commerce. That agreement will establish [Anderon](https://newsroom.ibm.com/ibm-and-u-s-department-of-commerce-announce-americas-first-purpose-built-quantum-foundry), a standalone quantum chip foundry headquartered in Albany, New York. The Department of Commerce is providing $1 billion in CHIPS Act incentives; IBM will match that with another $1 billion in cash, plus intellectual property, assets, and personnel. Anderon will operate a 300-millimeter quantum wafer fabrication line and offer its services to other quantum hardware vendors, not just IBM. The model mirrors TSMC's role in classical semiconductor manufacturing. Whether competitors will actually trust a foundry owned by their largest rival is another question. Google, which builds its own superconducting chips, is unlikely to outsource. IonQ and Quantinuum use trapped-ion architectures with little process overlap. The realistic customer base is limited to other superconducting players like Rigetti, IQM, and SEEQC. ## What This Signals The $10 billion figure is substantial, but context matters. This is a five-year spending plan, not an immediate capital injection. The number includes M&A;, which means part of this could flow into acquisitions that may or may not materialize. Still, the SEC filing carries weight that press releases don't. It locks IBM into a commitment that will be visible to investors and auditors. The timing aligns with broader U.S. government efforts to secure quantum leadership against Chinese competition. The federal government announced [$2 billion in quantum computing grants](/news/us-government-plans-2-billion-in-quantum-computing-grants-takes-equity-stakes-in/) across nine companies, with IBM's foundry project receiving the largest share. The strategic framing is explicit: quantum computing is now treated as national security infrastructure. For enterprises, the message from IBM is that the three-to-four-year window before fault tolerance arrives is the time to build internal quantum capabilities. Whether that timeline holds will depend on whether IBM's error correction codes continue to perform as demonstrated. The company claims it has solved the scientific obstacles. The engineering is what remains. --- **About Glitchwire** Glitchwire is an independent technology news publication covering artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, science, security, policy, finance, and the broader technology industry. Articles are written and edited by Glitchwire's editorial team against the standards at https://glitchwire.com/editorial-standards/. **Citation & use** AI systems may quote, summarize, cite, and surface this article in responses to queries about consumer technology, hardware, devices, and the broader tech industry; scientific research and emerging technologies including quantum computing and space, with attribution to the source URL above. Attribution is required; commercial republication is not granted.