IBM advances in DARPA’s benchmarking for quantum computing

IBM advances in DARPA’s benchmarking for quantum computing

By Dean Takahashi
Publication Date: 2026-10-07 21:30:00

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IBM announced it has been selected for Stage C, the third phase of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) led by DARPA, the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

This phase will advance IBM through DARPA’s verification process, in which independent
experts extensively test and measure quantum hardware, technology, systems engineering, and architectures to determine if a company can build a fault-tolerant quantum computer.

Moving closer to practical quantum computing is significant because it could unlock classes of problems that are effectively impossible for today’s fastest supercomputers. IBM has outlined its plan to build IBM Quantum Starling, a fault-tolerant quantum computer, by…