PR Newswire·Nov 11, 2026, 7:00 AM ET

IBM Quantum Nighthawk Demonstrates New Levels of Speed and Quality, with Plans to Scale Beyond 1,000 Qubits in 2027

IBM announced the Nighthawk r3 processor, designed to execute 10,000 quantum operations across 520 programmable qubits & 2,034 total physical qubits.
The Nighthawk r3 introduces 10 chip-to-chip interconnects (l-couplers) to enable modular scaling of quantum systems.
Clients including E.ON, Algorithmiq, & Q-CTRL have executed over 34 billion circuits on the Nighthawk r2, reporting speedups of up to 19x.
E.ON achieved a 15x speedup in quantum machine learning for energy grid optimization, while IBM & Oak Ridge National Laboratory reported a 12x speedup in simulating magnetic materials.
IBM plans to link two Nighthawk r3 processors into a single system with over 1,000 qubits by 2027.
The enhanced IBM Quantum Platform unites high-performance classical computing with quantum computing in a single managed environment.
Integrated workflows on the new platform enabled IBM & RIKEN to execute quantum diagonalization workflows 5x faster with 100x more computations.
Cleveland Clinic & RIKEN processed 608 million samples 33x faster using automated workflow tools on the platform.
IBM launched a co-design platform with Oak Ridge National Laboratory & AMD to physically co-locate Nighthawk processors with the Umbra HPC system.