HSBC Tests IBM Quantum Chips, Sending Shares Higher On Breakthrough Trial

Sep 23 - International Business Machines IBM climbed more than 5% on Thursday after HSBC (HSBC) said it used IBM's quantum processors to test applications in bond trading, according to a Thursday press release.

The bank said trials with IBM's Quantum Heron hardware showed a 34% improvement in predicting the likelihood of bond trades being executed at quoted prices compared with standard algorithmic methods. The test used anonymized data from European bond markets.

HSBC described the project as an early step in exploring how quantum systems might complement traditional computing in financial services. Quantum machines rely on qubits, units of data that can operate beyond the binary limits of classical computing, but the technology remains at an early stage.

The announcement comes as other technology firms expand in the field. Amazon AMZN, Microsoft MSFT and Alphabet GOOGL have each disclosed progress this year in quantum computing research. IBM has also set plans to build a large-scale quantum facility in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. by 2029 and in August partnered with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) on quantum-centric supercomputing.