IBM has this week announced the broad availability of its Nighthawk r2 quantum processor.. Available to users through the cloud, IBM said it is the most complex quantum processor ever put into production by the company and is capable of executing more than 100,000 quantum circuits per second..
First unveiled in November 2025, Nighthawk offers 120 qubits linked together with 218 next-generation tunable couplers in a square lattice formation. It also contains 120 reset elements for a total of 458 physical quantum elements, with the additional couplers and reset elements functioning as programmable qubits..
IBM added that the chip “maintains the scale of its r1 predecessor” while delivering “targeting improvements in quality [and] … speed.”. The processor can also deliver quantum computations 25x times faster than IBM Quantum Heron, the company claimed, and has “already demonstrated accurate observable estimation on circuits containing more than 7,500 gates,” a 2026 milestone achievement on IBM’s Quantum Roadmap..
IBM has previously stated that future iterations of its Nighthawk chip are expected to deliver up to 10,000 gates in 2027.. IBM said Nighthawk r2 is set to power the next generation of IBM quantum systems, including an upcoming deployment that the company has yet to publicly announce..
“IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2 addresses a longstanding bottleneck in quantum computing: the time spent waiting for qubits to reset between circuit executions,” read a blog post from IBM detailing the chip. “Every quantum circuit begins with qubits prepared in a known state and ends with qubit measurement.
Between executions, qubits must return to their ground state before the next shot can begin.”. IBM has long been at the forefront of quantum computing development and, in February 2025, claimed to have booked $1 billion in quantum business between Q1 2017 and Q4 2024. In June 2026, the company announced plans to invest more than $10bn in quantum computing over the next five years..
Last week, the company completed its acquisition of HRL Laboratories, a quantum R&D company that is jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors (GM), in an effort to further boost quantum computing R&D efforts.. More in HPC & Quantum. 27 May 2026.
22 Jul 2026. More in North America. 20 Apr 2026.
22 Jun 2026
