By William Baldwin
Publication Date: 2025-11-25 11:30:00
Investors are throwing money at quantum startups. Maybe they should be looking at a more venerable player that has a lot of practice building things.
Half a century ago, a factory in Poughkeepsie, New York, cranked out computer hardware. The profits from mainframes financed pampered employees, scientific research and a dividend that made International Business Machines the most valuable company on the planet.
Now, a diminished IBM gets most of its revenue from soft things: computer programs and business services. But it’s at work on a new kind of machine that could return Poughkeepsie to its glory days. This is where it will assemble quantum computers, the magical devices designed to tackle mathematical challenges that would overwhelm an ordinary computer.
If quantum delivers on its promises, engineers will use it to make giant strides in the design of drugs, vaccines, batteries and chemicals. Last year Boston Consulting Group predicted that come 2040, quantum hardware and software…
