IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced the launch of the MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab, expanding their collaboration to include quantum computing alongside artificial intelligence research. The new lab evolves from the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, which began in 2017.

The lab will focus on three areas: AI, algorithms, and quantum computing, with the goal of developing computational approaches that combine quantum hardware with classical systems and AI methods. Research will include small language model architectures, AI computing paradigms, and enterprise AI systems designed for real-world deployment.

The facility will investigate quantum algorithms for complex problems in materials science, chemistry, and biology. Additional research areas include machine learning foundations, optimization, Hamiltonian simulations, and partial differential equations for dynamical systems modeling.

Jay Gambetta, director of IBM Research and IBM chair of the lab, stated the facility aims to "emerge as one of the world's premier academic and industrial hubs accelerating the future of computing." Anantha Chandrakasan, MIT's provost, noted the collaboration has produced research over the past decade and "set the bar high for our work together over the next 10 years."

The lab will be co-directed by Aude Oliva from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and David Cox, vice president of AI Foundations at IBM Research. Each focus area has appointed co-leads from both institutions.

Since 2017, the previous lab funded over 210 research projects involving more than 150 MIT faculty members and over 200 IBM researchers, resulting in over 1,500 peer-reviewed articles. The collaboration supported more than 500 students and postdoctoral scholars.

IBM has outlined plans to deliver a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029 as part of its quantum computing roadmap, according to the press release statement.