International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) and HSBC have confirmed a partnership to explore applications for quantum computing in financial services. Both the companies' partnership’s duration will be for three years. The new partnership aims to strengthen HSBC's quantum computing capabilities and assure the bank's organizational readiness to fully exploit the technology.
More than 175 clients use IBM Quantum technology to improve quantum computing and research practical applications, including Fortune 500 corporations, start-ups, academic institutions, and research labs. Quantum computing is being researched and explored by the IBM Quantum team and clients across a range of industries and fields, including finance, energy, chemistry, materials science, optimization, and machine learning, to name a few.
The Quantum Decade, a recent report from IBM's Institute for Business Value, outlines how quantum computing's exponential power could significantly reconfigure how financial institutions and other organizations confront their most significant problems in a post-pandemic world, with a breakthrough approach that could stimulate new hyper-automated and fully embedded business models.
HSBC will research the use of quantum computing for pricing and portfolio optimization, as well as risk mitigation, such as detecting and addressing fraudulent behavior, to achieve its net-zero goals. To develop a specialized competence within its innovation team, the bank will train and develop workers in quantum technology through internal training programs and actively attract quantum computing research scientists.
Furthermore, as per the agreement, the bank will enter the IBM Quantum Accelerator program, which will provide it with access to IBM's premium plan of quantum computing systems. It includes its newly unveiled 127-qubit processor, Eagle, as well as IBM's quantum expertise, to verify and advance potential quantum use cases.