IBM Ships Nighthawk R2, the Product Behind July's Speed Claim

IBM released Nighthawk R2, a 120-qubit processor capable of running over 100,000 circuits per second, a 25 times increase over IBM's previous machines. A new reset method cuts qubit reset time from about 200 microseconds down to 25 nanoseconds. The processor is now live and available to developers.

This is the actual shipped product behind a speed claim IBM first mentioned in July, now available for outside developers to test themselves.

This is confirmed through IBM's own blog with detailed technical specifications. The next test is whether independent researchers publish results using this processor's speed advantage in the coming months.

IBM Quantum Nighthawk r2—more circuits, faster. (2026, August 31). IBM Quantum Computing Blog. https://www.ibm.com/quantum/blog/nighthawk-r2