IBM has submitted a proposal to the Town of Poughkeepsie Planning Board to construct a new 511,000-square-foot quantum computing facility at its historic Poughkeepsie campus. The project involves the demolition of two existing buildings totaling 161,000 square feet to accommodate a manufacturing and assembly center for the company’s next-generation Starling quantum systems. Once completed, the expansion will bring IBM’s total Poughkeepsie footprint to approximately 3.9 million square feet and create an estimated 200 permanent jobs.
The IBM Quantum Starling, scheduled for a 2029 release, is a central milestone on the company’s development roadmap. It is designed to be a large-scale, fault-tolerant system capable of running 100 million quantum gates on 200 logical qubits. Unlike earlier generations that relied heavily on physical qubit counts, the Starling architecture utilizes quantum low-density parity-check (qLDPC) error-correcting codes, which IBM reports can reduce the required physical qubit overhead by up to 90%. This leap is intended to enable reliable, complex simulations in fields such as drug discovery, materials science, and large-scale optimization.
The proposed facility is designed with a maximum height of 40 feet and will be partially excavated below grade to maintain specialized interior clearances for quantum cooling infrastructure without exceeding local height limits. During the planning board review, concerns were raised regarding the facility’s electricity demand, as quantum processors require massive power for the chillers that maintain temperatures near absolute zero. IBM representatives stated that the existing grid capacity, supported by two dedicated Central Hudson substations, should be sufficient through 2030, though the board has requested independent verification and long-term projections.
Dutchess County officials have characterized the project as the most significant investment at the Poughkeepsie campus in over four decades. The expansion is supported by regional workforce development initiatives, including Dutchess Community College’s Mechatronics Lab and the Center of Excellence for Business, Industry and Innovation, which are designed to train the skilled technicians needed for the quantum supply chain. The Planning Board has voted unanimously to serve as the lead agency for the environmental review, with the next submission—including updated traffic, noise, and greenhouse gas assessments—expected in May.
You can find the official report on IBM’s Poughkeepsie expansion here. Detailed information regarding the IBM Quantum Starling and its roadmap toward fault-tolerant computing is available via the IBM Newsroom here and in their technical blueprint for large-scale FTQC here.
April 28, 2026
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