The Chicago hub at Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park will add 750 full-time jobs, while IBM pledged to hire one-third of graduates from a 500-person City Colleges apprenticeship programme.
The Cambridge lab broadens a decade-long MIT partnership beyond AI into quantum algorithms and hybrid computing for materials science, chemistry, biology, weather forecasting and supply-chain optimisation.
IBM said the moves link commercial deployment with academic research, build on the Watson AI Lab's 210 projects and 1,500 papers, and support its goal of a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029.
Will IBM's quantum hub on a toxic site uplift Chicago's South Side or displace its residents with rising costs and health risks?
With immense error-correction hurdles, can IBM win the race to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer by its ambitious 2029 deadline?
Billions in public funds fuel Chicago's quantum dream. When will taxpayers see a real return on this high-risk technological investment?