PsiQuantum’s Chicago leap turns Illinois quantum into stakes

PsiQuantum builds – On Chicago’s South Side, a 128-acre innovation campus is taking shape on the former U.S. Steel site—bankrolled by $500 million in state funding—and PsiQuantum is building what it calls a potential utility-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The project, ti

For months, construction crews have been pushing into a former industrial footprint on Chicago’s South Side—an Illinois bet on quantum that’s already producing visible signs of momentum.

The Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) is a 128-acre parcel being developed on the former site of the U.S. Steel plant. Plans for the sprawling innovation campus were announced in July 2024. and builders broke ground just over a year later. last September. Today, the work is active: crews are digging and building, and a 300,000-square-foot (almost 7-acre) warehouse is nearing completion. It will house what could be the world’s first utility-scale fault-tolerant computer—an effort led by the park’s anchor tenant. the quantum computing startup PsiQuantum.

This is not just a site move for a company that has already spent years chasing milestones. Since emerging from stealth in 2021. PsiQuantum has advanced through multiple rounds of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA’s) Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. Last November, it raised $1 billion in a funding round that valued the company at $7 billion. This May. PsiQuantum was one of nine companies involved in quantum computing to receive funding under the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. It received $100 million, and the government took a minority stake.

In Chicago, PsiQuantum’s aim is straightforward in ambition and brutal in execution: build a massive machine that will use quantum mechanics to tackle problems too hard for today’s classical computers, including the simulation of complex chemistry, biology, physics, and financial markets.

The problem is that “first” is a moving target. At least a dozen credible competitors are also racing to build commercially useful quantum computers, meaning PsiQuantum’s victory—and even the success of its technology—is far from guaranteed.

That pressure is felt in the way the project is being paced. PsiQuantum’s interim CEO, Victor Peng, spoke from the perspective of a semiconductor veteran. He is a semiconductor industry veteran who most recently ran the adaptive and embedded computing group at Advanced Micro Devices. Peng says he wasn’t looking for another opportunity when PsiQuantum came calling earlier this year. But quantum. he believes. represents “a massive transformation in human history. ” second only to the emergence of artificial intelligence. because it can solve “profound” real-world problems.

In Illinois, the stakes carry a political charge as well. JB Pritzker. the Democratic governor of Illinois running for a third term amid speculation of a presidential run. frames PsiQuantum as both a technological opportunity and a state-level wager. PsiQuantum. he tells MISRYOUM. represents a chance for Illinois to win the quantum computing race and claim a technological edge over both Silicon Valley and the formidable Chinese quantum research establishment.

Pritzker, describing himself as “a competitive sort,” points back to the early 1990s: an era when tech talent drained away. He recalls how Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina developed the Mosaic web browser while students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. before the founders of Netscape “got up and went to Silicon Valley.” He also references cofounders of YouTube and several members of the “PayPal Mafia” who were alumni. In his telling. they didn’t come to Chicago or stay in the state—and the state did nothing to keep them there.

“They didn’t come to Chicago or stay in the state,” Pritzker says. “And the state did nothing really to put a ring around it, to make sure that there was a reason why an entrepreneur and scientist and technologist would stay.”

This time, with PsiQuantum as the centerpiece of Illinois’s quantum effort, Pritzker is planning for a different future.

The equipment and engineering behind that plan are being assembled well before the Chicago warehouse begins operating at full scale.

While Chicago is the planned site for the first computer. PsiQuantum is building a prototype Alpha system at a facility in Milpitas. California. In February, teams were still retrofitting the 127,000-square-foot former home of the chip maker Analog Devices for the quantum era. Inside. construction showed up in practical details: workers were moving through a maze of fresh sheetrock. clear plastic curtains. and surprise dead ends as parts came together.

A cryogenic plant from the Swiss manufacturer Linde—including cold boxes. pumps. and enormous helium tanks—was being assembled to provide high-power cooling for photon sensors. In a clean room, workers were attaching fiber connectors to chips. Several “cabinets”—massive steel boxes. like huge bank safes—were being stuffed with photonics chips and networked together for full-systems testing.

PsiQuantum’s approach also leans on the semiconductor industry in a way that is meant to scale beyond the first machine. The company is collaborating with the semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries to develop silicon chips etched with fine channels for funneling light rather than wires. integrating barium titanite. a ceramic compound. for faster optical switching. Peng says GlobalFoundries has the ability to mass manufacture these chips. and PsiQuantum will need hundreds of thousands of them for its first full-scale quantum computer.

Because PsiQuantum is choosing photonics, Peng says the company can leverage existing fiber optics and communication infrastructure. He also argues the collaboration with GlobalFoundries creates an edge beyond quantum itself. As traditional data centers move away from copper to optical components. PsiQuantum’s intellectual property in optical technology is something it can monetize. “Stay tuned,” Peng says.

Timing remains a key tension inside the story. PsiQuantum has previously said it would have a useful quantum computer ready as soon as 2027. Now the company says it will only begin moving its hardware into the Chicago facility next year. suggesting a longer timeline. The company is also building a quantum computing facility of a similar size in Brisbane, Australia, which just broke ground.

Peng urges patience. “There is a lot of focus on when we are going to have that first utility-scale machine,” he says. “That’s going to be an amazing milestone, and hopefully we will be the first. But it’s the end of the beginning. We’re very much focused on our road map as a whole. not just the first machine.” He adds that the computer coming to Chicago will be a first-generation machine. and he anticipates building future generations as well as upgrading systems between generations by swapping in higher-performing components that it develops or sources.

For all the hardware talk, Peng is also working on what happens when the machine arrives. He compares the current quantum industry to the early days of artificial intelligence. when ImageNet “woke people up to neural networks.” He says fewer people understand quantum today. and the company is trying to change that by developing quantum algorithms with strategic collaborators—including Abbvie. Lockheed Martin. and Airbus—for a machine that isn’t here yet.

“This is an emerging market,” Peng says. “What really matters is to get the world ready for this kind of computing, because it’s really powerful and it would be a really unfortunate opportunity to miss for our customers, and for us.”

In Illinois, that readiness depends on public-private partnership, and IQMP is designed as that bridge.

Pritzker’s quantum bet didn’t appear out of nowhere. “Think Big” was the slogan for his first campaign for Illinois governor in 2018. He portrays quantum computing as an area where Illinois has “a right to win.” He cites resources including Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. both sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. He also points to world-leading research at Northwestern University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Chicago.

A recent report by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and partner organizations found that schools in the state awarded more than 33,000 “quantum-relevant” degrees and certificates in 2024.

Pritzker says he doesn’t want those graduates leaving for other ecosystems when they look for jobs or start companies. IQMP is his attempt to create an ecosystem centered on quantum and adjacent technologies—an effort built to capture innovation without forcing it to migrate.

When PsiQuantum first met with him while searching for a location to build its first U.S.-based utility scale computer. Pritzker says he was intrigued after “a lot of diligence.” Before becoming governor. he founded New World Ventures. a venture capital firm. and Pritzker Group. a private equity firm. He says he knew PsiQuantum wouldn’t go out of business soon because it had raised “a lot of money. ” had credible investors. and had leadership aligned with his vision—specifically citing cofounders Pete Shadbolt and Jeremy O’Brien. then the CEO.

“I wanted to win,” Pritzker says. “Thinking big around quantum. I thought we could win them [PsiQuantum]. and they could be the first of a number of companies that might move collectively to share space and be near each other. because that’s how you build an ecosystem. And they understand that, too.”.

The governor also draws a parallel to the Stanford Industrial Park, now known as Stanford Research Park—a partnership between the school and the city of Palo Alto that opened in 1951 and helped kickstart modern Silicon Valley.

During his first term as governor. Pritzker budgeted $200 million to support the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE). an “intellectual hub” launched in 2017 that works to advance quantum research. build the quantum workforce. and accelerate the quantum economy. The CQE, based at the University of Chicago, includes more than 40 corporate, international, nonprofit, and regional partners. Pritzker says its member institutions have received more than a billion dollars in corporate and government investment to date. including $280 million in federal funding through the National Quantum Initiative Act of 2018.

The $500 million state budget for IQMP. Pritzker says. includes $200 million for a cryogenic plant to support PsiQuantum and other users—an escalation meant to pull more companies in. Already, it’s acting as a magnet. IQMP has six publicly committed tenants: IBM, Pasqal, Diraq, Quantum Machines, Infleqtion, and PsiQuantum. Most of those tenants already have a presence at an “on-ramp” location at the University of Chicago Science Incubator at Hyde Park Lab. Bluefors. a global leader in cryogenic cooling systems for quantum technology. opened its second Chicago-based lab facility at the incubator late last year.

IQMP is also set to house DARPA’s Quantum Proving Ground program, which will test quantum computing prototypes, and the National Quantum Algorithm Center, a partnership between the state, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and IBM.

In April. IBM announced plans to create 750 jobs in quantum technologies. AI. cybersecurity. and data science tied to its IQMP presence. and the company is partnering with City Colleges of Chicago on apprenticeship programs. A program called Quantum Saturdays is connecting high school students in the economically struggling South Side to emerging technology opportunities in both AI and quantum.

“Great jobs are being created as a result of this,” Pritzker says. “Some of them are at the top of the stack: the quantum scientists and the people running the AI and quantum companies. But we [also] need quantum software developers. We need cryogenic systems engineers. We need fabrication technicians. And we need business development and technical marketing people who can not only understand quantum but also sell it.”.

At a time when tech workers are concerned about AI-related job losses and the growing inequality created by the AI boom, Pritzker argues quantum has a different urgency. He says he needs to raise awareness about where the careers will be.

“We have to make sure that we’re steering people into careers that will fit into the new AI and quantum industries, and letting them know what those careers look like, because it’s so new,” he says.

PsiQuantum remains one big part of the plan—and also one big unknown.

Peng acknowledges the risk that always sits inside cutting-edge manufacturing and hardware timelines. “There’s going to be bumps in the road,” he says. “This is state-of-the-art stuff. But so far. we’ve seen great partnership [in Illinois] and I think it bodes very well for the success of them building that hub. that ecosystem of technology and economic development.”.

He says incentives and breaks are helping, while PsiQuantum as a startup says capital is precious. Still, he points to commitment from both sides—an argument meant to land in a landscape where competitors are plentiful and timelines are shifting.

Whether PsiQuantum lands the world’s first utility-scale fault-tolerant computer from Chicago’s silver warehouse—or whether the race turns out to be longer than anyone wants—Illinois is already treating the outcome as an economic turning point. For Pritzker, it is a way to keep talent from repeating the past. For Peng. it is the end of the beginning—and the start of a race that reaches far beyond Illinois’s borders.

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