IBM announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to acquire HRL Laboratories, a research and development institution working in the physical sciences and information sciences, including quantum technologies. IBM believes that HRL’s expertise in engineering silicon spin qubits could complement its long-term plan to scale quantum computers.
In a blog post published on July 23, 2026, IBM explained why it is interested in this technology, noting that spin qubits and superconducting qubits both benefit from silicon fabrication techniques and operate within a cooling architecture under the control of external signals that apply gates to interconnected qubits. However, the fundamental difference lies in how quantum information is stored and processed.
How Do Spin Qubits Work?
These qubits rely on the electron’s natural spin property, whose value can be positive or negative by one-half; the two states are commonly referred to as “up” and “down.” This property is used to represent the 0 and 1 states in quantum computing.
To control individual electrons, HRL uses what are known as quantum dots, small structures that allow electron properties to be confined and controlled. The company makes its quantum dots from SiGe, or layers of silicon and germanium.
Rather than directly linking a single spin state to the value 0 or 1, HRL uses a structure called exchange-only qubits. Each qubit consists of three electrons stored in three quantum dots. Two electrons determine the computational state: if the sum of the spins equals 0, the qubit is in state 0; if it equals 1, the qubit is in state 1. The third electron helps keep the system stable. Gates are applied as electrical pulses that bring the electrons closer together or move them farther apart.
Advantages and Current Results
According to IBM, spin qubits can be fabricated using existing semiconductor manufacturing tools, giving them the potential for large-scale manufacturing. They also feature long coherence times, low error rates, and relatively easy control, and once mature, they could enable large quantum circuits to operate efficiently and at low operating cost.
These qubits operate at a temperature of 1 kelvin, compared with approximately 0.015 kelvin in superconducting-qubit architectures. HRL recently demonstrated a digitally controlled silicon quantum computer that uses manufacturable CMOS for both the qubit array and the cryogenic control board. The device contains 54 quantum dots distributed across three tracks, enabling a chip with up to 18 qubits; demonstrations also showed the operation of single-qubit and two-qubit gates, along with small codes for error detection.
HRL’s Role in IBM’s Quantum Vision
Jay Gambetta, IBM’s vice president of research and an IBM Fellow, said that the HRL team would help the company advance quantum innovation, adding that the team’s portfolio would strengthen IBM’s long-term plans in quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum networking.
According to IBM, HRL’s technologies are not limited to computing. The institution is developing high-precision quantum sensors for detecting subtle physical phenomena and conducting advanced measurements for applications including healthcare, navigation, defense, and scientific research. It is also working on new quantum materials that could support more robust qubits, better semiconductors, and more sensitive sensors.