IBM HRL acquisition adds spin-qubit research to quantum roadmap

The IBM HRL acquisition puts one of the industry’s older research labs inside IBM’s quantum hardware operation, with the price not disclosed. IBM said it plans to buy HRL Laboratories LLC from General Motors Co. and Boeing Co. and expects the transaction to close by the end of the quarter.

HRL is based in Malibu and has operated for more than 80 years. Its researchers have contributed to optics, artificial intelligence and satellite propulsion, according to IBM. The buyer’s main interest is HRL’s work on quantum processor designs, especially spin-qubit technology, which differs from the superconducting-qubit approach IBM uses in its current roadmap.

Why did IBM buy HRL?

IBM is already a major vendor in quantum hardware, and the deal gives it another architecture to explore after its planned superconducting systems mature. IBM has said its roadmap includes a system called Blue Jay in 2033 with 200,000 times the processing capacity of current hardware, and it reportedly sees spin qubits as a possible route to further performance gains beyond that point.

The company did not disclose the acquisition price, HRL’s revenue, employee count or whether General Motors and Boeing will retain any commercial relationship with the lab after the sale. That leaves the strategic logic clearer than the transaction economics: IBM is buying research depth and fabrication capability rather than announcing a near-term commercial quantum product.

What does HRL add to IBM’s quantum work?

IBM’s current quantum chips use superconducting qubits. In 2025, IBM introduced Nighthawk, a 120-qubit chip that it said was 25,000 times faster than its previous-generation processors. HRL has been working on spin qubits, which use electrons to represent data inside quantum dots, the light-emitting nanocrystals also used in high-end displays.

Both superconducting and spin-qubit systems can be made from silicon with standard chipmaking equipment, and both require cryogenic cooling. The distinction is in how information is encoded. Superconducting qubits rely on Josephson junctions, specialized circuits made from two superconducting structures separated by an insulator. Spin qubits encode information in electrons.

The engineering bet is density. As with conventional chips, smaller circuit features can improve processor performance. Spin qubits are theoretically capable of shrinking below the size of superconducting circuits, which could matter if quantum systems have to scale far beyond today’s machines.

HRL earlier this year published a design for an 18-spin-qubit quantum chip. Its main change was a management module for programming qubits. Earlier management modules required bulky wiring between the control electronics and qubits, which made systems harder to design. HRL replaced that wiring with a superconducting interconnect that it described as more efficient.

HRL Chief Executive Officer Rob Vasquez said joining IBM was a “natural next chapter” for the lab, adding that its team had spent years studying how future quantum computers could be built at scales that now appear out of reach.

IBM also gets sensors and chipmaking capacity

The deal is not limited to quantum processors. HRL also works on quantum sensors, which use quantum mechanical effects to measure physical phenomena. It also operates a fab that makes gallium nitride chips, a class of semiconductors commonly used in power management applications such as controlling current in chargers.

The acquisition follows IBM’s announcement two months ago that it would build a quantum wafer fab. IBM said that facility would first support superconducting-qubit technology and later add other quantum architectures. Buying HRL gives IBM a research team already working outside its main architecture, but IBM has not said when, or whether, HRL’s spin-qubit designs will become part of a commercial system.

This story draws on original reporting from SiliconANGLE.