Overview
- A joint announcement on Thursday, September 10, 2026, established a quantum innovation hub at ETH Zurich that will place Switzerland’s first on‑site IBM Quantum System Two at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Lugano.
- IBM will operate the System Two, which will run on its Nighthawk processor, and the partners say a dedicated on‑site deployment is scheduled by the end of 2026 while participating groups get immediate cloud access to IBM’s broader quantum fleet.
- The project is structured through an offset agreement with armasuisse and pairs Lockheed Martin’s work in quantum sensing and additive manufacturing with IBM’s quantum hardware and ETH Zurich’s research coordination.
- ETH Zurich will manage access for Swiss universities, startups and companies and lead education and workforce activities that include coursework, certifications, workshops and hackathons to grow local talent.
- The hub builds on decades of IBM activity in Switzerland and a recent 10‑year IBM–ETH algorithm collaboration, and it aims to speed applied research in chemistry, materials science, optimization and finance while tying defence‑adjacent R&D to industrial use cases.