IT giant IBM is investing $20 billion in its Poughkeepsie facility, north of New York. The investment, spread over a decade, will be spent on research and development in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and manufacturing.
IBM wants to make the Poughkeepsie site its nerve centre for the development of quantum computing. The company released news of the investment ahead of US President Joe Biden, who is visiting IBM this week in Poughkeepsie.
Other technology companies have also made important announcements in recent days. For example, US tech giant Micron will invest up to $100 billion over more than 20 years in constructing the largest semiconductor factory in the US, while rival Intel will allocate $20 billion for a new facility in Ohio.
The US Congress this summer approved a $52.7 billion package to subsidize research and investment in semiconductors in the United States and in various advanced technologies. This includes quantum computing, which allows the next generation of computers to perform complex calculations at lightning speed.
The technology is intended to put into practice the discoveries of quantum mechanics, the science of uncertainty and simultaneous computation. This is in contrast to today’s computer science, which is based on the principle of binary certainty and on data series.