# IBM designs a 520-qubit chip and plans a 1,040-qubit system for 2027 > IBM said its next processor, Nighthawk r3, is designed for 10,000 operations on 520 qubits. It is a plan: the measured chip today has 120 qubits. - Published: 2026-11-11 - Publisher: Many Worlds, published by Many Worlds Capital (https://news.manyworlds.vc/) - Canonical: https://news.manyworlds.vc/news/ibm-nighthawk-r3-roadmap/ - Answers: IBM Nighthawk r3 520 qubits roadmap - Topics: hardware, superconducting, error-correction --- ## Main takeaways - IBM said on November 11 its next processor, Nighthawk r3, is designed to run 10,000 operations on 520 qubits. - IBM plans to link two r3 chips into one 1,040-qubit system in 2027. These are physical qubits, not error-corrected ones. - The chip IBM has measured is Nighthawk r2: more than 7,500 operations on 120 qubits, at up to 100,000 results a second. - IBM kept 2029 for Starling, its planned error-corrected machine, and says a redesign cuts a hard-to-make part from about 5,000 to 2,000 per module. - Next: the 1,040-qubit linked system, dated 2027. Rigetti's next target is a 300-plus-qubit system by mid-2028. IBM (NYSE: IBM) said on November 11 that its next quantum processor, Nighthawk r3, is designed to run 10,000 quantum operations on 520 programmable qubits, and that it plans to link two of them into a single 1,040-qubit system in 2027, according to its [press release](https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-11-11-ibm-quantum-nighthawk-demonstrates-new-levels-of-speed-and-quality,-with-plans-to-scale-beyond-1,000-qubits-in-2027). The r3 is a design: the processor IBM has measured, and that clients use today, is the 120-qubit Nighthawk r2. IBM made the announcements at its Quantum Developer Conference 2026, in the release and two blog posts the [same](https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/qdc-2026) [day](https://research.ibm.com/blog/path-to-starling). A [qubit](https://news.manyworlds.vc/learn/qubit/) is the basic unit a quantum computer computes with, and an operation is one step of a program. Each r3 chip will hold 2,034 physical qubits, of which 520 are programmable, the ones a user's program runs on, IBM said. None are error-corrected "logical" qubits, the more reliable units built from many physical ones. ## What has IBM measured so far? Nighthawk r2, introduced in September, runs accurate circuits of more than 7,500 operations on 120 programmable qubits (458 physical) and returns up to 100,000 samples, or results of one run, a second, 25 times the throughput of its earlier Heron processor, IBM said. Clients reported speedups of up to 19 times over earlier IBM processors, the release said. IBM also linked two Nighthawk processors with four chip-to-chip links, called l-couplers (the r3 will carry 10), at an average of 99% state transfer fidelity (the share of transfers that come out right) and a best of 99.3%, against a 99.9% target. The result is in a [preprint](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.29986v1) that has not been peer reviewed. ## Where does the fault-tolerant machine stand? Starling, planned for 2029, is meant to correct its own errors while it computes, running 100 million operations on 200 logical qubits. IBM said a new error-correcting code that needs five connections per qubit instead of six, along with new couplers, cuts the Josephson junctions per module from about 5,000 to 2,000. A junction is the [superconducting element](https://quantum.cloud.ibm.com/learning/en/courses/quantum-computing-in-practice/running-quantum-circuits) inside each qubit, and IBM calls it the hardest part to make reliably. Starling will need more than 100 l-couplers per module at a 0.1% error rate. ## How does this compare with the listed superconducting companies? Like [Rigetti Computing](https://news.manyworlds.vc/companies/rigetti/) (RGTI) and [IQM Quantum Computers](https://www.iqm.tech/) (IQMX), IBM builds superconducting quantum computers. Rigetti's 108-qubit Cepheus-1 reached 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity (the share of operations on a pair of qubits that come out right, about one error in 200), and its next target is a system of more than 300 qubits by mid-2028, it said in its [third-quarter release](https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/11/11/rigetti-q3-2026-results-quantum-computing-roadmap/) ([our report](https://news.manyworlds.vc/news/rigetti-q3-2026-results/)). For its later 1,000-qubit system, Rigetti plans to pack qubits into one refrigerator rather than link several, as IBM does. IBM reports operations and Rigetti gate fidelity, so the numbers do not line up one to one. ## Why it matters - Companies: IBM (NYSE: IBM), not in our index, and the listed superconducting companies Rigetti (RGTI) and IQM (IQMX). - IBM: the release gives no revenue figure for its quantum business, so the roadmap cannot be tied to IBM's results. - Rigetti and IQM: a much larger rival now has a dated target of 1,040 linked qubits in 2027, ahead of Rigetti's 300-plus by mid-2028, and takes a different route to scale, linking chips where Rigetti plans one refrigerator. The number that shows whether linking works is IBM's link fidelity: 99% on average today, against a 99.9% target. - Next dated events: the 1,040-qubit system in 2027, Rigetti's 300-plus-qubit system by mid-2028, Starling in 2029. **The Many Worlds Team** Last checked 2026-11-12 ## Sources - IBM, press release, "IBM Quantum Nighthawk Demonstrates New Levels of Speed and Quality, with Plans to Scale Beyond 1,000 Qubits in 2027", Yorktown Heights, November 11, 2026: https://newsroom.ibm.com/2026-11-11-ibm-quantum-nighthawk-demonstrates-new-levels-of-speed-and-quality,-with-plans-to-scale-beyond-1,000-qubits-in-2027 - IBM Quantum blog, "The year of advantage, and what comes next", November 11, 2026: https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/qdc-2026 - IBM Research blog, "Tracking progress on the path to IBM Quantum Starling", Matthias Steffen and Matthew Marwick, November 11, 2026: https://research.ibm.com/blog/path-to-starling - IBM researchers, l-coupler preprint on arXiv, linked from the IBM Research blog: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.29986v1 - IBM Quantum Learning, "Running quantum circuits": https://quantum.cloud.ibm.com/learning/en/courses/quantum-computing-in-practice/running-quantum-circuits - Rigetti Computing, third-quarter 2026 results release, November 10, 2026, as carried by The Quantum Insider: https://thequantuminsider.com/2026/11/11/rigetti-q3-2026-results-quantum-computing-roadmap/ - IQM Quantum Computers, home page: https://www.iqm.tech/ --- Many Worlds Capital invests in quantum companies and may hold positions in companies mentioned here. This is information, not investment advice. Prices can be delayed. Methodology: https://news.manyworlds.vc/methodology/