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IBM Unveils Nighthawk And Loon Quantum Chips
The company’s new processors push toward practical quantum advantage with two divergent chip designs.
IBM has released a pair of quantum chips — Nighthawk and Loon — that the company hopes will give it a credible shot at demonstrating the quantum advantage over regular processors. The designs split into two directions, with the Loon chip being the more experimental of the pair.
Nighthawk is IBM’s main bet. The chip is a 120-qubit version that’s due for distribution to partners in late 2025, using 218 tunable couplers in a square lattice to tighten control over qubit interactions. IBM says the layout will let it “execute circuits with 30 percent more complexity” and run problems that require up to 5,000 two-qubit gates. The company wants this line to mature quickly enough to power its first verifiable advantage claim.
Loon goes off the conventional path. Instead of keeping qubits on a flat plane, it links them vertically as well. New Scientist has flagged the design as an early test of 3D quantum layouts — an attempt to reduce errors by giving qubits more routes to talk to each other. It’s not aimed at near-term rollout but could shape future rigs if the approach holds.
The split strategy underlines IBM’s view that smart connectivity, not headline qubit counts, will decide who reaches the next milestone. Google, on the other hand, is leaning another way: Its Willow chip, paired with the “Quantum Echoes” algorithm, has already been presented as a proof point for “the first-ever verifiable quantum advantage running the out-of-order time correlator (OTOC) algorithm”.
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IBM is also backing a community-run quantum advantage tracker with Algorithmiq, the Flatiron Institute and BlueQubit. The framework “supports three experiments for quantum advantage across observable estimation, variational problems, and problems with efficient classical verification,” and IBM is pushing researchers to contribute.
For MENA labs building quantum and HPC programs under national digitalization efforts, the contrast between Nighthawk and Loon offers a clearer view of where the hardware race may bend next — tight, lattice-driven control on one side; a stab at 3D connectivity on the other.
The field is moving fast, and IBM’s twin quantum chips mark its next swing at staying in the fight.
News
Noon And Yango Switch On Robot Deliveries In Dubai
The rollout folds autonomous couriers into noon’s rapid-delivery network as the UAE tests everyday autonomy.
Noon and Yango Group have signed an agreement to put autonomous robot deliveries into commercial use in Dubai, turning Yango’s earlier pilots into a daily service for noon Minutes orders. The launch in Sobha Hartland is the first full integration of Yango Autonomy’s electric robots with a major e-commerce network in the region, with wider deployment planned across Dubai and, later, other GCC markets.
Residents can choose a robot at checkout, track it in the app and unlock its compartment once it arrives. The hardware runs on Yango’s AI navigation and routing stack, which plans paths, avoids obstacles and yields to pedestrians. The units had already covered more than 1,500 kilometers during previous Dubai pilots, a test bed that demonstrated their ability to operate in mixed pedestrian environments and dense residential streets.
The rollout adds a contactless option to noon’s last-mile network and is positioned as extra capacity during peak periods. “Partnering with Yango Group lets us bring a future-ready delivery option straight to our customers,” said Ali Kafil-Hussain, noon’s Chief Business Officer. Noon has used Minutes to set rapid-delivery expectations in UAE cities; autonomous units now slot into that same high-frequency model.
Regulatory clearance from Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority underpins the move. The RTA authorized Yango’s robots to operate on public walkways and in neighborhoods, smoothing the shift from controlled trials to commercial work. Dubai has framed autonomous mobility as part of its smart-city buildout, and the partners lean on that agenda to accelerate integration.
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For Yango, the partnership is an anchor for its autonomy platform in the Gulf. Islam Abdul Karim, Yango’s Middle East regional head, said the aim is to make autonomous delivery an “everyday, reliable service” for UAE communities. The company views operational data from early districts as the basis for scaling into more communities and, eventually, cross-border rollouts.
The move lands as Gulf retailers search for faster fulfilment and lower-emission logistics. Autonomous couriers remain a small share of last-mile delivery, but Dubai’s approvals and early usage data give the partners a clearer path to turn pilots into durable infrastructure.
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