Switzerland Gets Its First On-Premises Quantum Computing System
IBM and Lockheed Martin have partnered with ETH Zurich to deploy Switzerland's first on-premises IBM Quantum System Two, scheduled for installation by late 2026 at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano.
The agreement, tied to Swiss defense procurement obligations, will deliver a national hub for quantum innovation anchored at ETH Zurich and operated on-site by IBM under an initial three-year operational agreement through 2029.
The facility will be powered by the IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2 processor, featuring 120 programmable qubits and high-speed qubit reset architecture. This will enable up to 25× the circuit throughput of previous IBM Heron generation QPUs, executing over 100,000 circuits per second.
ETH Zurich will coordinate compute allocation across the ETH Domain, Swiss academic institutions, national laboratories, and commercial enterprise partners. Prior to local system bring-up in Lugano, hub members receive immediate cloud access to IBM's global QPU fleet.