IBM and Cisco announce plans to build a network of distributed, fault-tolerant quantum computers
On 2025-11-20 IBM and Cisco announced plans to collaborate on networked distributed quantum computing, targeting a first proof-of-concept within five years that links individual large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers to run computations across tens to hundreds of thousands of qubits, as groundwork for a 'quantum internet' by the late 2030s. IBM plans a quantum networking unit (QNU) to convert stationary qubits into 'flying' quantum information; Cisco contributes a quantum-data-center networking architecture, with optical-photon and microwave-optical transducers to extend links over distance. Disclosed via both companies' newsrooms.
A strategic alliance between the leading fault-tolerant-quantum roadmap holder (IBM) and a networking incumbent (Cisco) to define distributed quantum computing is a landscape-relevant networking-domain announcement; it is a multi-year plan rather than a delivered system, but the players and scope make it materially directional for the quantum-networking field.
Standardizing interconnect between fault-tolerant machines reframes the scaling race from single-system qubit counts toward networked clusters, and pulls classical-networking vendors into the quantum stack; the transducer and entanglement-distribution challenges make the five-year PoC the key proof point.