Accompanied by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, senior European officials, and several European-based global companies, IBM today inaugurated the first IBM Quantum Data Center outside the United States. The center, which becomes the company's second quantum data center in the world, represents a major expansion of its fleet of advanced utility-scale quantum systems available to users worldwide via the cloud.
Already operational in Ehningen, Germany, Europe's first IBM Quantum Data Center has two new commercial-scale systems based on IBM Quantum Eagle, and will soon incorporate a new system based on IBM Quantum Heron. These systems are capable of performing calculations that go beyond the simulation capabilities of classical computers.
IBM Heron, which was introduced late last year, is the company's most powerful quantum chip to date, and marks a major advance in the company's mission to bring useful quantum computing to the world, enabling users to increase the complexity of the algorithms they are exploring on real quantum hardware.
Once the IBM Heron-based system is available at the IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe, it will become the third IBM Heron installed on the entire fleet of IBM quantum systems that can be accessed by the company's global quantum network of more than 250 companies, universities, research centers and organizations around the world. IBM Heron offers up to 16 times the performance and 25 times the speed of previous IBM quantum computers, according to measurements conducted two years ago.
Once deployed alongside the commercial-scale systems already installed in the new IBM Quantum Data Center, the IBM Heron-based system will expand the more than a dozen quantum computers that IBM currently offers through the cloud, the largest fleet of its kind in the world.
The inauguration of the new quantum data center took place during an event attended by senior government officials, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economics, Labor and Tourism of the State of Baden-Württemberg. IBM CEO and President Arvind Krishna delivered remarks alongside Chancellor Scholz, who also had an extensive dialogue with several IBM leaders, including Dario Gil, Senior Vice President and Director of IBM Research; Ana Paula Assis, General Manager and President of IBM EMEA; Jay Gambetta, Vice President of IBM Quantum; and the IBM Quantum team based in Germany. During the conversation, they discussed the importance of adoption and growth of quantum computing in the region.
Also in attendance at this historic moment were several senior leaders from global companies based in Europe, including Crédit Mutuel, Bosch, E.ON, and Volkswagen Group, as well as representatives from research institutions such as the University of the Basque Country, Spain, and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany. These organizations are among the more than 80 European institutions that make up the IBM Quantum Network, many of which now have the opportunity to access IBM Quantum Data Center systems in Europe to investigate quantum computing algorithms and applications that could help solve some of the most complex challenges in their industries.
"The opening of the IBM Quantum Data Center in Ehningen is excellent news for Germany. This center will serve as a location for innovation and business growth and is an expression of investor confidence in the German market. IBM enriches the German quantum computing landscape with this new data center. The German government is providing targeted support for the development of quantum technologies by fostering the creation of competencies and capabilities in this field to drive a robust ecosystem around the development of quantum computers," said Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
"The opening of our first IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe represents a crucial milestone for the technological advancement of the region. It reflects our commitment to Europe and underlines the importance of collaboration with industry, academia, and policymakers to build a pan-European quantum ecosystem. This state-of-the-art facility will foster innovation around quantum computing, creating new opportunities for talent attraction and ensuring that Europe remains at the forefront of global technological advances," said Ana Paula Assis, General Manager and President of IBM Europe, Middle East and Africa.
"Our collaboration with IBM on the scaling phase of quantum computing is progressing as planned. We are working to develop concrete applications that enhance the experience of our customers and affiliates, and create value for the Group's businesses," said Frantz Rublé, president of Euro-Information and deputy CEO of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale. "The availability of this quantum data center on European soil responds to our constraints in terms of processing proximity and to Crédit Mutuel's approach to regulatory compliance. It also means we can confidently tackle the next stages of the quantum project at Crédit Mutuel, CIC, and, subsequently, Targobank."
"We believe that empowering our scientists and engineers to tackle challenging problems in materials science, high-energy physics and biosciences through quantum computing, and providing access to state-of-the-art quantum computing will be key to achieving disruptive advances in all these disciplines," said Javier Aizpurua, professor at Ikerbasque, Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and director of BasQ. "The combined use of quantum computing, AI, and data science, if generalized, will lead to a scenario of new possibilities not only in fundamental research but also in industrial innovation."
"Bosch aims to drive innovation in the field of materials simulation using quantum computing. In collaboration with IBM Quantum, our team is developing scalable algorithms that aim to revolutionize product development. This includes the creation of new materials for sustainable, carbon-free mobility and the reduction of rare earth elements," said Dr. Thomas Kropf, president of Corporate Sector Research and Advance Engineering at Robert Bosch GmbH" IBM's European Quantum Data Center enables us to perform quantum calculations in close proximity, supporting Bosch's approach to compliance with European data protection regulations. This accelerates our research and development efforts and strengthens the European quantum ecosystem, paving the way for advances in mobility, healthcare, and sustainable technologies."
“E.ON is researching quantum computing to address the challenges of the energy transition, such as large-scale optimization, complex scenario modeling, and quantum machine learning. The location of IBM's first European Quantum Data Center is also useful for EU and German public funding opportunities, which may be available for local access to quantum computing resources and on-site expertise. This milestone underscores Europe's and Germany's leadership in quantum computing and is a significant step forward in driving businesses into the quantum era," said Chris d'Arcy, Managing Director of E.ON Digital Technology GmbH and Chief Data and AI Officer.
"Quantum computing may be the next big breakthrough for solving problems in materials science, traffic optimization, or deep learning, with the potential to change the world. IBM's Quantum Data Center in Europe provides access to its unique quantum infrastructure and thus represents another indispensable piece of the bridge between quantum computers and large-scale industrial applications. We are proud to be part of that journey to use quantum computing in the transformation towards sustainable and intelligent future mobility," said Dr. Nikolai Ardey, Executive Director of Volkswagen Group Innovation.
"Algorithmiq is pioneering the integration of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, and network science to solve the world's most complex problems in chemistry, healthcare, and life sciences. To achieve this, we need algorithms and scale. Our collaboration with IBM enables us to advance both: our innovative error mitigation algorithm, TEM, available through the Qiskit feature catalog, has proven optimal for scaling and accuracy of quantum simulations. And now, with more IBM quantum systems available in Europe, we are excited to further strengthen our ties in Europe and partner with an even larger ecosystem of industries, organizations, developers, and scientists to demonstrate the utility of TEM and move towards the quantum advantage," said Sabrina Maniscalco, CEO of Algorithmic.
IBM recently released evidence that Qiskit is the world's leading and highest-performing quantum software. With access to IBM's advanced quantum hardware, IBM's ecosystem of users across Europe and around the world can access tools and systems that help them more easily advance the discovery of algorithms that could open the door to useful quantum computing and achieve the quantum advantage - the point at which a quantum computer can solve a practical problem better than any classical method.
The IBM Quantum Data Center in Europe can be accessed through the IBM Quantum Platform, continuing IBM's mission to enable the development of use cases for quantum computing and support customers as they move forward in discovering algorithms in the era of quantum utility, and toward the quantum advantage.
