IBM puts a Nighthawk-powered Quantum System Two in Chicago, its first in Illinois

IBM, the University of Chicago, the State of Illinois and the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) have unveiled an IBM Quantum System Two in Chicago. It is IBM’s first quantum computer in Illinois and is already operational.

A Nighthawk system at Hyde Park Labs, bound for the park

The machine sits at Hyde Park Labs, hosted by the University of Chicago, and is built around IBM Quantum Nighthawk, which IBM calls the most powerful quantum chip it has made. IBM describes the system as the most advanced it currently offers. IBM’s research blog adds that it uses a Nighthawk r2 processor and that the ribbon-cutting took place on November 6.

The computer is not staying put. It is the anchor system of the National Quantum Algorithm Center (NQAC), set up in 2024 by Governor JB Pritzker with IBM as a leading member, and it will move to IQMP once that campus is finished. IQMP is still under construction in Chicago.

IBM says organizations across Illinois are already working with it on problems that are hard for classical computers. Named participants include Deloitte and AbbVie, who are working with IBM and Northwestern University on quantum molecular simulation for drug discovery. EPRI and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign are testing quantum optimization for power grids, and Fermilab is working with IBM on high-energy physics and distributed quantum computing.

The release also ties the machine to jobs. Earlier this year IBM said it would open a FutureNow Chicago center at IQMP with City Colleges of Chicago, bringing 750 jobs across AI, cybersecurity, data science, quantum computing and other fields.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said the system “can deliver scientifically useful results to organizations across the state of Illinois and beyond.”

What the announcement leaves open

The release does not say how outside users get time on the machine, what it costs, or how many qubits Nighthawk r2 offers in this configuration. Access appears to run through NQAC members and partner institutions rather than a public sign-up, though the source does not spell this out. The claims of scientific usefulness are IBM’s own and have not been independently verified.

The release also points to a recent joint result from IBM and the University of Chicago, which the two describe as outperforming the best classical techniques with a method whose answers can be checked for correctness. According to IBM’s blog, that experiment used 70 logical qubits and finished a calculation in about 15 minutes, with a built-in verification step. Those figures come from IBM and are not in the press release itself.

A second Nighthawk deployment in two days

The Chicago system is the second Nighthawk story from IBM this week. On November 5 we reported that IBM is pairing Nighthawk with Oak Ridge’s AMD-powered Umbra system to test quantum error correction. In that announcement Nighthawk was described as a 120-qubit processor, and IBM pointed to Quantum Starling, its first fault-tolerant machine, planned for 2029.

Read together, the two announcements show IBM spreading the same chip across different goals. The Oak Ridge platform targets error-correction research, while Chicago targets applications and algorithms for regional industry and academia. The two sites are also tied to government money. IBM’s blog says Illinois is investing $500 million in IQMP, which will occupy a former U.S. Steel South Works pier on Chicago’s Southeast Side.

The blog also gives a sense of the science expected to run on the hardware. A University of Chicago team published a method called LASSQD that pairs a classical chemistry technique with sample-based quantum diagonalization. According to IBM, it modeled an iron porphyrin fragment with 26 electrons in 24 orbitals, where the classical method it builds on was practical only up to 18 electrons in 18 orbitals.

What the announcement does not establish is when the machine will move to IQMP, or when the park will be ready. The release gives no date for either, so the Hyde Park installation is best read as an interim home for NQAC’s work while construction continues.