IBM and Cisco have outlined plans to develop a networked architecture capable of linking large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, claiming they can produce an initial demonstration within five years and potentially a full-fledged quantum Internet by the late 2030s.
The partnership unites the contrasting strengths of these two tech giants. IBM continues to push toward high-performance quantum processors with defined roadmaps through the decade. Cisco, meanwhile, has spent years pursuing quantum networking, developing prototypes that distribute entanglement (in which many qubits work together) across networked systems.
The greatest significance of this news: The joint effort reflects a growing view that scaling quantum systems can’t rely solely on packing more qubits into a single device.
The Power of Networking
By focusing on networking multiple quantum systems into a collaborative whole, the companies hope to circumvent the physical limitations that constrain today’s quantum systems. Quantum processors must operate inside cryogenic environments, where the slightest increase in heat or interference can disrupt operations. The sheer size and complexity of these systems makes it impractical to endlessly expand a single machine. Connecting modular systems offers a more durable path forward.
But even the first milestone in this ambitious plan is technically daunting: entangling qubits that reside in separate cryogenic containers. That requires new hardware capable of translating stationary qubit states into flying qubits, and then transmitting them over manageable distances.
To achieve this, IBM is developing a Quantum Networking Unit that sits alongside a quantum processor and converts a qubit’s information into signals that can travel. Cisco is building the network layer that distributes entanglement to these devices on demand and reroutes quantum pathways with the fluidity of an advanced classical routing system.
Bridging these systems will require microwave-optical transducers, which are components that can take delicate quantum states preserved as microwaves and shift them into optical signals suitable for fiber-based networks. The problem: this class of hardware barely exists today.
Still, both companies present this step as essential if quantum systems are ever to span data centers or link devices across geographic regions.
Prototypes in Progress
Cisco’s research labs have already demonstrated prototypes that generate high-fidelity entangled photon pairs at volumes suitable for experimental workloads. The company has also developed a distributed quantum compiler designed to coordinate computations across multiple machines.
The compiler partitions circuits, schedules operations and applies error-correction strategies matched to a multi-processor environment. The goal is to allow an algorithm to treat physically separate quantum systems as a unified resource.
IBM, for its part, is experimenting with modular processor designs, an approach reflected in recently announced hardware capable of deeper gate counts and increased coupling among qubits. The company is also working with research partners at the Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center to test multi-system connectivity, including microwave-linked cryogenic units operating under shared control.
Still in Planning Stages
If successful, distributed quantum computing could allow algorithms to run on tens or hundreds of thousands of qubits without requiring a single machine to host them all. That would open the door to simulations and optimization workloads that are not feasible with today’s quantum prototypes (or even the world’s fastest classical supercomputers). For instance, a quantum network could support advances in climate monitoring, seismic detection, and cryptography.
While all of this sounds promising, the reality is that the required hardware is not yet developed, the networking stack is years from maturity, and extensive physics research is needed to stabilize quantum states over distance. But IBM and Cisco argue that the only way to advance is to treat the problem as a system-level engineering effort, one that integrates hardware, software and network intelligence into a unified framework.
Their collaboration signals that the quantum sector is entering a new stage. The next breakthroughs will not come solely from qubit counts, but from the ability to connect machines into something larger, more flexible and ultimately more useful than any isolated processor could be.
