Dive Brief:
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IBM Q Network, a collaboration of national research labs, academia and Fortune 500 companies, announced the first 12 clients of the IBM Q commercial quantum computing, including JPMorgan Chase, Oxford University, Honda, Barclays and Samsung.
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The array of clients will set the stage for quantum research and applications in finance, electronics, chemical production, automotive, and materials industries, among others. University partners will serve as locations for regional IBM Q Network Hubs for research and collaboration across continents.
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But big partnerships are not the only driving force expanding the quantum ecosystem. IBM Cloud's publicly available quantum platform allows users to run projects through the company's quantum processors, and this tool gave rise to 1.7 million experiments by 60,000 users and 35 third-party research publications.
Dive Insight:
Companies in the network will get access to the 20 qubit processor IBM announced last month. The company is working on its 50 qubit processor, the largest known to date, to turn it into a functioning prototype.
Microsoft also released tools for quantum developers, including a new programming language, Azure-hosted simulators and a resource library.
The race for quantum supremacy often takes the brunt of the focus. But companies such as IBM are taking steps to figure out ways to integrate quantum technology into various business applications and setting the stage for when supremacy hits.
