IBM (NYSE: IBM) and researchers from the University of Chicago announced on July 30, 2026, a quantum computing demonstration they say meets the criteria for quantum advantage, completing a computation that leading classical simulation methods could not feasibly replicate.

The experiment, described in a paper titled "Sampling hard circuits with verifiably high fidelity," used a novel error correction method to encode 70 logical qubits, executing 2,415 logical two-qubit operations and 468 logical T gates. The IBM quantum computer completed the task in approximately 15 minutes, while classical approaches faced what the researchers described as prohibitive runtimes.

The team reported that logical error rates achieved were 10 times lower than physical error rates, enabling high circuit fidelity at large gate counts. The researchers said their approach also addressed a longstanding verification challenge by allowing errors to be detected during computation, providing statistical confidence that results were accurate.

"Verification remains one of the biggest challenges in firmly establishing experimental quantum advantage," said Bill Fefferman, Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. "This experiment develops techniques to better characterize the fidelity of hard quantum states under noise, increasing confidence that the quantum computer is solving a computationally hard problem."

"We are now firmly in the quantum advantage era," said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. "We have demonstrated a quantum computation beyond the practical reach of classical computers that establishes, with statistical confidence, a lower bound on how faithfully it was executed."

The circuits and results have been released publicly on the Quantum Advantage Tracker. IBM said additional quantum advantage demonstrations from partners across its ecosystem were also announced on the same date.