IBM Joins Genesis Mission Project with $50M in Quantum Access

IBM has been selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for Phase I of the Genesis Mission project, which aims to integrate AI, classical high-performance computing, and quantum computing. As part of this project, IBM will provide up to $50 million in access to its quantum systems over the next five years.

The Genesis Mission is building a national scientific-computing framework that brings together various technologies to accelerate discovery and improve predictive accuracy. IBM's contribution to the project includes examining a reversed workflow for identifying quantum computing applications, starting with known quantum algorithms and using AI research assistants to locate scientific problems in published literature that meet those algorithms' requirements.

IBM will make its 156-qubit IBM Quantum Heron and 120-qubit IBM Quantum Nighthawk systems available to DOE national labs and their partners. The company reports that it operates 15 quantum systems, with more than 97% uptime across the fleet.