International Business Machines Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced a collaboration to develop “quantum-centric supercomputing,” an architecture that links IBM’s quantum processors with AMD’s high-performance CPUs, GPUs and adaptive chips. The initiative, unveiled on 26 August, aims to merge quantum, artificial-intelligence and classical super-computing resources in a single platform. The partners plan to build scalable, open-source systems capable of tackling workloads that exceed the reach of conventional machines, such as complex materials modelling, drug discovery and large-scale optimisation. An initial technology demonstration is slated for later this year, after which the companies intend to refine the hybrid design toward fault-tolerant quantum computing. IBM will contribute its quantum hardware and Qiskit software stack, while AMD will supply components similar to those that power the Frontier and El Capitan exascale supercomputers at U.S. national laboratories. By coupling the two technologies, IBM and AMD say they expect to accelerate the development of new algorithms and improve error-correction techniques needed for practical quantum applications.