Signal IBM Targets Quantum Advantage by End of 2026 with Nighthawk Processor

Summary

IBM's 120-qubit Nighthawk processor executed 7,500-gate circuits and delivered a tenfold improvement in error correction, arriving a year ahead of the roadmap. The company targets verified quantum advantage by the end of 2026. It also implemented an error correction decoder prototype, a key step toward real-time correction. Google is pursuing completed error correction by 2029, building on the Willow results from December 2024. Microsoft separately unveiled a topological qubit.