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IBM plans to shut down its mainframe manufacturing facility in Singapore and move the business to Poughkeepsie, New York. The Straits Times reports:
Global tech giant IBM is shutting its $90 million technology park in Tampines, costing up to 600 jobs in Singapore, and moving production of its high-end computer systems to the United States.
The move comes as analysts expect IBM to report weaker earnings, down around 3 per cent for its first quarter, after the close of trading in the US yesterday, in part due to an ageing mainframe product cycle.
The US firm will move the manufacturing of its mainframe computers IBM Z from Singapore to Poughkeepsie in New York.
Once up and running the Poughkeepsie will be one of the only locations with “the technical capabilities, infrastructure and expertise to run a quantum computation center,” reports Jack Howland from the Poughkeepsie Journal. He writes:
“The significance of this investment can’t be overstated,” Dutchess County Assistant Executive Ron Hicks told the Journal. “It’s putting Poughkeepsie once again on the map as a technological hub.”
IBM didn’t say how much money it’s investing in Poughkeepsie or when the facility could be complete.
IBM’s Poughkeepsie site, which was already known for producing the popular Z mainframe, is “positioned to be one of the few places in the world with the technical capabilities, infrastructure and expertise to run a quantum computation center,” according to IBM.
The center will be available to the IBM Q network, a group that includes business leaders like Fortune 500 companies, startups and academic institutions.
Hicks said, “It is our hope that some of these companies will find it convenient to invest in close proximity to this center.”
The facility, as well as the system, are intended to make quantum computing more widely available.
“The IBM Q System One is a major step forward in the commercialization of quantum computing,” Director of IBM Research Arvind Krishna said in a press release announcing the new system and Poughkeepsie facility. “This new system is critical in expanding quantum computing beyond the walls of the research lab as we work to develop practical quantum applications for business and science.”
Read more here.
Jeremy Jones, CFA
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