For decades, “Nobody gets fired for buying IBM” was an immutable business maxim. The New York behemoth was so dominant that shopping elsewhere was admitting defeat. But IBM’s crown slipped as Asian competitors gobbled its lunch. No longer. The $120 billion firm is back at the vanguard of revolutionary technology, running more transformative quantum computers (60) than the rest of the world combined, while partnering with giants from Boeing to Sony. In just seconds, quantum computers can solve problems that would otherwise take years, from complex calculations about weather patterns to optimizing drug discovery, battery performance, and more. In November, IBM launched the most powerful quantum-processing chip ever produced—the 433-qubit Osprey—and in May set its sights even higher, announcing a 10-year plan to make a 100,000-qubit processor.
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