IBM just took a 'significant' step toward useful quantum computing
IBM (IBM) on Tuesday said it is building the world's first large-scale quantum computer capable of operating without errors. The computer, called Starling, is set to launch by 2029.
The quantum computer will reside in IBM's new quantum data center in upstate New York and is expected to perform 20,000 more operations than today's quantum computers, the company said in its announcement Tuesday.
Starling will be 'fault tolerant,' IBM said, meaning it would be able to perform quantum operations for things like drug discovery, supply chain optimization, semiconductor design, and financial risk analyses without the errors that plague quantum computers today and make them less useful than traditional computers.
The news comes a day after IBM stock hit an all-time high of $273.27 on Monday. Shares are up more than 60% over the past year, more than the S&P 500's (^GSPC) roughly 12% gain.
While IBM has been involved in the quantum computing space since 1981, Big Tech companies such as Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), and Microsoft (MSFT) have been working to gain a foothold in the burgeoning market, as well as a plethora of smaller quantum companies like D-Wave (QBTS) and IonQ (IONQ).
Microsoft and Amazon unveiled new quantum computing chips in February. Google released a quantum computing chip called Willow in December, saying the technology "paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer." The announcement sent shares of its parent company, Alphabet, up 5% the same day.
Once developed, useful quantum computers such as Starling would solve problems that would take 'classical' computers billions of years.
Both AI and traditional computers are 'classical' computers that rely on linear algebra, whereas quantum computers rely on quantum mechanics and advanced mathematics, making them more useful for solving certain problems in fields such as cybersecurity, cryptography, and chemistry.
IDC quantum analyst Heather West said IBM's Starling is a 'significant' development for the industry, which she expects to grow to $8.6 billion by 2028.
'We've seen these incremental steps towards being able to deliver a scaled quantum computing system,' West told Yahoo Finance in an interview. 'We're finally moving from just small steps — [a] small finding here, a small engineering breakthrough there — and now putting it all together to get this larger system, Starling.'
Unlike traditional computers that use bits or series of 1s and 0s, quantum machines use qubits. Qubits are a function of quantum mechanics and, rather than being expressed as a 1 or 0, can exist as both at the same time, allowing for far more processing capabilities. But qubits are fragile and prone to producing errors. Worse, the more qubits used in an equation, the more errors they introduce.
Quantum computers use error correction codes to detect and correct their errors.
Starling will have the ability to run large-scale quantum operations without error, IBM said, because the company has devised a new error correction code. The company says this will allow it to scale the computers significantly without making them less accurate.
Google also said it achieved this feat with its Willow chip in late 2024. Google uses an error correction code called 'surface code,' but it requires the company to use tons of qubits to perform quantum operations, taking up more physical space. IBM will use a code called qLDPC requiring its quantum computers to use fewer qubits.
'[Using qLDPC] allows error correction in a much faster, much more robust way so that you can scale the system … quite a bit better, actually, than you could before,' Gartner analyst Mark Horvath told Yahoo Finance.
'Surface code and qLDPC are kind of doing the same thing with error correction. It's just that qLDPC does it a lot more efficiently,' he explained.
'This will be a real advantage,' Horvath continued. 'Everybody else is going to have to license that technology if they want to use it or try to invent it on their own, which would be expensive."
Meanwhile, Horvath expects 'useful' quantum computers will arrive within the next five years.
Tech CEOs have previously projected longer timelines. Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang said in January that useful quantum computing was decades away, which sent quantum stocks tumbling. Huang later walked back his comments during Nvidia's 'Quantum Day" in March.
Laura Bratton is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Bluesky @laurabratton.bsky.social. Email her at laura.bratton@yahooinc.com.
Daniel Howley contributed reporting.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
CoreWeave reportedly a key player in Google-OpenAI partnership
-- CoreWeave is set to provide computing capacity to Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Cloud as part of Google's newly formed partnership with OpenAI, according to a Reuters report on Wednesday. The arrangement involves CoreWeave supplying cloud computing services built on Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA)'s graphics processing units to Google's cloud unit. Google will then sell this computing capacity to OpenAI to help meet the growing demand for services such as ChatGPT. In addition to CoreWeave's resources, Google will also provide some of its own computing resources to OpenAI. The deal demonstrates how the high demand for AI computing resources is creating new business alliances, even among the industry's fiercest rivals. Related articles CoreWeave reportedly a key player in Google-OpenAI partnership Dana stock surges amid $2.7 billion Off-Highway business sale to Allison Oklo and Centrus Energy stocks jump after DoD nuclear reactor award Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's first term shows why markets are cautious on the China trade deal
The stock market was largely unmoved by the trade agreement the US struck with China. Market pros say investors expect the trade war to unfold much as it did during Trump's first term. The US and China made scant progress on key issues in their 2018-2019 trade dispute. The stock market has been encouraged by easing tensions between the US and China in recent weeks, but investors were largely unmoved by the announcement of a trade deal between the superpowers on Tuesday. US stock futures failed to climb on news of the deal late Tuesday evening. While markets are edging higher on Wednesday, that's largely because the consumer price index report for May showed inflation was tamer than expected at 2.4% year-over-year. Here's where major indexes stood at 10:20 a.m. ET: S&P 500: 6,055.26, up 0.28% Dow Jones Industrial Average: 42,997.65, up 0.31% (+130.78 points) Nasdaq Composite: 19,788.36, up 0.37% On the trade front, observers say it's looking more likely that the trade war will shake out like it did during President Donald Trump's first term, with talk of constructive deals even as tensions remain elevated. Simply put, investors see a long and winding path ahead, and knee-jerk reactions to trade announcements have largely subsided since the chaos of "Liberation Day" in April. The framework agreement announced on Tuesday outlines how the two nations will continue trade talks. Importantly, it involves China allowing exports of rare earth minerals, while the US eases up on restrictions for exports of advanced tech to China, like semiconductors. This embedded content is not available in your region. The reaction is far more muted than how the market reacted last month, when stocks popped after the US struck a rough framework deal with China that lowered tariffs between the nations for 90 days. Art Hogan, the chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, told Business Insider that markets are reacting to trade talks similarly to when the US-China trade war first kicked off in 2018. He pointed to regular pullbacks in stocks during Trump's first term as traders digested the lack of progress in US-China negotiations. "We still have that muscle memory from Trump 1.0, that dealing with China is difficult and there's a multitude of issues," Hogan said. "I don't think we're going to solve this in short order and likely never solve it in the longer term." He added that markets are likely waiting for a more positive catalyst, pointing to more than 100 nations that have yet to strike a trade deal with the US. Peter Berezin, the chief global strategist at BCA Research, said the framework made only small progress on negotiations with China. "I would say that the 'deal' in London simply restores things to how they were right after Geneva," he told BI in an email. He added that he expected tariffs on China to remain high "for the foreseeable future." Strategists at Deutsche Bank also said that tariff talks appear to mirror the 2018-2019 period, when the US and China didn't make much headway in resolving key issues. Back then, the US said that China had unfair trade practices related to industries like agriculture and manufacturing. It also said China had unfairly transferred technology and stolen intellectual property from the US. Deutsche Bank pointed out that the agreement announced Tuesday skipped over fentanyl-related tariffs that Trump implemented against China earlier this year. "So while the mood music has stayed positive, investors may be wary of the pattern that emerged during the previous US-China trade talks in 2018-19," strategists wrote. "So there's perhaps a little disappointment this morning that we haven't yet got a bigger announcement." The agreement also appeared to lack detail that markets were looking for, David Morrison, a senior market analyst at Trade Nation, wrote in a note. "The big question is what kind of trade deals can the US negotiate that will be good enough to get the indices to fresh records?" he said. US stocks have whipsawed this year amid the turmoil surrounding tariffs and incremental news of trade agreements between the US and other countries. Indexes have erased their steep losses since the April 2 tariff announcements, with major averages now positive year-to-date. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trading Day-Good vibrations turn sour
By Jamie McGeever ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - TRADING DAY Making sense of the forces driving global markets By Jamie McGeever, Markets Columnist I'm excited to announce that I'm now part of Reuters Open Interest (ROI), an essential new source for data-driven, expert commentary on market and economic trends. You can find ROI on the Reuters website, and you can follow us on LinkedIn and X. The US and China have reached a trade deal, or at least agreed on the framework of a deal, which together with surprisingly soft U.S. inflation data, gave markets a lift on Wednesday. But Wall Street's gains were mild, and they were later wiped out by rising tensions in the Middle East. In my column today I look at the 'equity risk premium' and other metrics that suggest relative U.S. equity and bond valuations are getting very stretched. More on that below, but first, a roundup of the main market moves. If you have more time to read, here are a few articles I recommend to help you make sense of what happened in markets today. 1. China's latest trade truce with US leaves investors nonethe wiser 2. Dollar keeps losing market share but euro slow tobenefit: ECB study 3. US importers turn to brokers to navigate Trump-eratariffs, at a cost 4. When it comes to a US debt default, never say never 5. No longer the big outlier, Italy sees bond renaissance:Mike Dolan Today's Key Market Moves * Wall Street ends in the red, having earlier hit highslast seen in February-March. The S&P 500 falls 0.3%, the Nasdaqloses 0.5%. Consumer cyclicals sector falls 1%, and energy isthe best-performing sector up 1.5%. * U.S. stock market volatility, as measured by the VIXindex, falls to its lowest in almost four months earlier in theday. * Treasuries rally, also boosted by soft inflation and astrong 10-year auction. Yields end down as much as 7 bps, curvebull steepens slightly. * Oil hits a two-month high, rising more than 4% aftersources say the US is preparing to evacuate its Iraqi embassydue to heightened security concerns in the region. Brent crudereaches $69.77/bbl, WTI rises above $68/bbl. * Precious metals rise, led by a surge in platinum to a4-year high above $1,280/oz. Platinum rose as much as 5% and isup over 20% in June, which would be its best month since 2008. Good vibrations turn sour It's a "done" deal, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, although the he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping still have to finalize the wording of the trade agreement between the two superpowers and sign off on it. The main points of the deal appear to be: China will remove export restrictions on rare earth minerals and other key industrial components; U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods will total 55%; Chinese tariffs on U.S. goods will total 10%. Trump could not have been more enthusiastic in his praise for the agreement on Wednesday, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said 'deal after deal' with other countries will follow in the weeks ahead. Yet, judging by the relatively muted market reaction, investors are less enthused. And given the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the Trump administration's tariff announcements thus far, the irony of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent calling on China to be a "reliable partner" in trade negotiations will not be lost on some observers. Especially, one suspects, in Beijing. Based on these proposed China levies, and with the US expected to conclude more trade deals in the coming weeks, the overall U.S. effective tariff rate will be lower than feared a couple of months ago. That's a relief. But the effective tariff rate of around 15% that many economists expect will still be significantly higher than the 2.5% rate at the end of last year, and would be the highest since the 1930s. Also, as the May inflation figures showed, tariffs have yet to be felt on prices. Investors - and Fed policymakers, who meet next week - are in a state of limbo. How will corporate profits and consumer spending be affected? What proportion of the tariffs will companies "swallow", and how much will they pass on to their customers? Zooming out, inflation appears to be cooling around the world, although this trend is expected to reverse once tariffs start to fuel higher goods price inflation. Figures on Wednesday showed that U.S. consumer inflation and Japanese wholesale inflation were lower than expected in May. These reports follow similar numbers from Europe recently, and China remains stuck in its battle against deflation. Next up is India, which releases consumer inflation figures on Thursday, which are expected to show annual inflation slowed to 3.0% in May, the lowest in more than six years. Another focus for investors on Thursday will be the auction of 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds. US stocks-bonds warnings flash amber again Calm has descended on U.S. markets following the 'Liberation Day' tariff turmoil of early April. But Wall Street's rally has revived questions about U.S. equity valuations, as stocks once again look super pricey compared to bonds. Since the chaotic days of early April, U.S. equities have rebounded fiercely, with the S&P 500 up 25%, putting the Shiller cyclically adjusted price-earnings (CAPE) ratio for the index in the 94th percentile going back to the 1950s, according to bond giant PIMCO. Stocks are looking expensive in absolute terms, and in relation to bonds. The equity risk premium (ERP), the difference between equity yields and bond yields, is near historically low levels. According to analysts at PIMCO, the ERP is now zero. The previous two times it fell to zero or below were in 1987 and 1996–2001. In both instances, the ultra-low ERP precipitated a steep equity drawdown and sharp fall in long-dated bond yields. "The U.S. equity risk premium ... is exceptionally low by historical standards," they wrote in their five-year outlook on Tuesday. "A mean reversion to a higher equity risk premium typically involves a bond rally, an equity sell-off, or both." But reversion to the mean doesn't just happen by magic. A catalyst is needed. Equities have recovered largely because they were oversold in April, trade tensions have been dialed down, and investors remain confident that Big Tech will drive solid AI-led earnings growth. So even though huge economic, trade, and policy risks continue to hang over markets, there is no sign of an imminent catalyst that would cause an equity market selloff. CHEAP FOR A REASON The flip side of equities looking expensive is that bonds look like a bargain. Indeed, the relative divergence between stocks and bonds is such that, by one measure, U.S. fixed income assets are the cheapest relative to equities in over half a century. Using national flow of funds data from the Federal Reserve, retired strategist Jim Paulsen calculates that the total market value of U.S. bonds as a percentage share of the total market value of U.S. equities is the lowest since the early 1970s. "Since the aggregate U.S. portfolio is currently aggressively positioned, investors may have far more capacity and desire to boost bond holdings in the coming years than most appreciate," Paulsen wrote last week. But bonds are 'cheap' for a reason. Washington's profligacy – the reason ratings agency Moody's recently stripped the U.S. of its triple-A credit rating – and inflation worries have kept yields stubbornly high. The term premium - the risk premium investors demand for holding long-term debt rather than rolling over short-dated loans - is the highest in over a decade, reflecting concerns about Uncle Sam's long-term fiscal health. And the diagnosis here shows no signs of improving. Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' is expected to add $2.4 trillion to the U.S. debt over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, likely putting more upward pressure on yields. Of course, equity investors do seem to be pricing in a very rosy scenario, and the past few months have shown how quickly the market landscape can change. The U.S. economy could weaken more than expected, the trade war could escalate, or there could be a geopolitical surprise that causes bond yields and equity prices to fall. Investors should therefore be mindful of the warnings being sent by ERPs and other absolute and relative valuation metrics. However, they should also remember that stretched valuations can get even more stretched. As the famous saying goes, markets can stay irrational longer than investors can remain solvent. What could move markets tomorrow? * India CPI inflation (May) * UK trade (April) * UK industrial production (April) * ECB's Jose Luis Escriva and Frank Elderson speak atseparate events * Brazil retail sales (May) * $22 billion U.S. 30-year Treasury note auction * U.S. weekly jobless claims * U.S. PPI inflation (May) Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias. (By Jamie McGeever; Editing by Deepa Babington) Sign in to access your portfolio
