IBM and partners including the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will build the first ever national algorithm center for quantum computing in the city’s South Side, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The state will provide a $25 million grant that will help purchase equipment for the IBM project.

The announcement comes five months after PsiQuantum Corp. said it would invest more than $1 billion to become the anchor tenant at Pritzker’s quantum campus. The billionaire governor, who has been trying to turn Illinois into a hub for new technologies, set aside $500 million for quantum as part of the budget passed earlier this year.

“This is first of its kind for us,” Jay Gambetta, IBM vice president of quantum, said in an interview. “What made us choose Chicago is honestly the talent in computer scientists — you have so many computer scientists that graduate from the schools here, as well as applied mathematicians and physicists. And then you’ve also got many industries that are potential early adopters of quantum computing.”

Quantum computers — which rely on “qubits” and can store data in multiple forms: ones, zeros, both, or something in between — are exponentially more powerful than their binary counterparts. Companies including IBM are trying to crack the technology, but skeptics have cast doubt over whether it will ever replace classical computers.

The initial investment will be “in the tens of millions” and maybe reach the “low hundreds” in the next two years, IBM Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna said at a press conference. He declined to provide a precise figure.

IBM’s investment, fueled by the IBM Quantum System Two quantum computer, is aimed at creating the software and algorithms that will allow quantum computing to generate effective commercial applications, Gambetta said. Industries typical of the Midwest including fertilizers, finance, insurance and materials could benefit from the quantum project.

“As we go into this next phase of quantum computing where algorithm are just as important as the hardware, we are making the decision that that we will grow out algorithm footprint in Chicago,” Gambetta said. “The software is where most of the jobs end up, so as we go into the future, this is going to be our core footprint, that’s where we’re going to have our algorithm researchers.” Read More At Yahoo!