IBM and partners claim quantum advantage over classical supercomputers

IBM International Business Machines Corporation ↗ 0.86% and two software partners announced on Thursday what they described as breakthrough demonstrations of quantum advantage — instances in which quantum computers produced trusted results that leading classical methods, including those run on supercomputers, could not reliably replicate.

The announcements, from collaborations with Helsinki-based Algorithmiq and Tel Aviv-based Qedma Quantum Computing, represent the fulfillment of a prediction IBM CEO Arvind Krishna made earlier this year: that partners would achieve the first examples of quantum advantage in 2026 using IBM hardware.thequantuminsider

Simulating Quantum Materials

In the Algorithmiq collaboration, researchers modeled how information flows through a heterogeneous quantum material — a system designed to mimic the irregular structures found in catalysts and battery electrolytes. Executed on an IBM Quantum Heron processor, the simulation was first posted to IBM's Quantum Advantage Tracker eight months ago. According to the companies, no classical method has been able to reliably reproduce the results across the full problem regime studied.prnewswire+1

Separately, Qedma's error-mitigation software QESEM, running on IBM quantum hardware, resolved complex dynamics of a two-dimensional Floquet Ising model using up to 74 qubits. The quantum results were benchmarked against classical simulations run on Fugaku, one of the world's most powerful supercomputers, operated by Japan's RIKEN institute. None of the classical approaches could consistently agree at the scale reached by the quantum experiments.prnewswire

Establishing Trust Without Classical Verification

Both teams confronted the same core challenge: how to trust a quantum result when no classical computer can check it. Algorithmiq's approach involved deliberately manipulating noise across multiple IBM processors and showing results remained stable, while Qedma employed an extensive validation strategy that included cross-platform verification on Quantinuum's trapped-ion systems.prnewswire

"Quantum computers have reached the point at which they can show evidence of the fundamental criteria for advantage: they can outperform leading classical methods, and they can simultaneously produce results that we can trust," said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow.prnewswire

Opening the Door to Scrutiny

Algorithmiq also released an open-source package called monoprop, making its best classical simulation method available so other researchers can stress-test future quantum advantage claims. Qedma similarly published its quantum circuits and results to the Quantum Advantage Tracker for continued community benchmarking.prnewswire+1

IBM has set a further target of 2029 for fault-tolerant quantum computing — large-scale systems capable of correcting their own errors. Whether today's demonstrations hold up under continued classical challenge will determine how quickly the technology moves from laboratory milestone toward commercial application.youtube