HRL Laboratories

Quantum Computing · Hardware · Enterprise Tech

Acquisition

IBM completes acquisition of HRL Laboratories to bolster quantum push

Owning silicon-spin qubit research alongside its superconducting bet lets IBM hedge on which quantum hardware approach ultimately scales.

• IBM completed its acquisition of HRL Laboratories, LLC, a research institution spanning quantum computing, sensing, materials science and advanced electronics, with financial terms undisclosed.
• HRL Laboratories was previously co-owned by Boeing and General Motors; both companies will continue partnering with IBM and HRL on quantum applications and advanced technology development.
• HRL brings expertise in silicon-spin qubits, which complements IBM's existing focus on superconducting-qubit architectures, plus capabilities in quantum sensing, cryogenics, control electronics, packaging and interconnect technologies.
• The deal creates potential collaboration between HRL's silicon-based quantum research and Anderon, IBM's pure-play quantum wafer foundry, to support scalable manufacturing across multiple quantum computing modalities.
• The acquisition was first announced roughly a month earlier and had been expected to close by the end of September, ahead of that schedule.
• IBM's roadmap targets its fault-tolerant Quantum Starling system by 2029, performing 100 million quantum operations, followed by the next-generation Blue Jay system in the mid-2030s.
• Quantum hardware's winning architecture remains unsettled, so absorbing a rival qubit approach lets IBM diversify its bet rather than commit solely to superconducting circuits reaching fault tolerance first.