IBM joins Apple, Nvidia with pledge to invest $150B in US for computer manufacturing

New York Post Via MSN ^ | 04/27/2025

[SeekAndFind]

IBM will invest $150 billion in the US, including on facilities for quantum computer production, over the next five years, the latest American technology company to back the Trump administration’s push for local manufacturing.

The company’s announcement on Monday follows similar pledges by tech giants such as Nvidia and Apple, both of which have said they would spend about $500 billion each in the country over the next four years.

Several analysts see the spending commitments as overtures to President Trump, whose tariffs threaten to roil supply chains and raise costs for the technology industry.

IBM, also a significant government contractor, said more than $30 billion of the total investment would be used to expand its US manufacturing of quantum computers and mainframes — systems used for handling vast data and critical applications.

The company operates one of the world’s largest fleets of quantum computing systems, which promise to offer performance thousands of times more powerful than traditional computers.

“While we believe IBM will continue to invest in the emerging area of quantum technology, the bombastic figure is more likely a gesture towards the US administration,” said D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria, noting that Big Tech was using the investment pledges as a shield against trade conflicts.

Recent breakthroughs in quantum computing, including a new generation of chips announced by Alphabet’s Google in December, have driven up interest in the sector, though executives remain divided on when the technology will have real-world applications.

Google aims to release commercial applications in five years, while Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang predicts a 20-year wait for practical uses.

IBM said last week 15 of its government contracts were shelved under a cost-cutting drive by the Trump administration, a setback that eclipsed its upbeat June-quarter revenue forecast and sent its shares lower.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apple; ibm; manufacturing

[Zathras]

For those who don’t know, the Power10 is a extremely advanced design.
Built for big iron servers so no high volume manufacturing.

[citizen]

More jobs *returning* to the USA. This is a good thing everyone says — except the haters.

[citizen]

I hope the Trump administration is going hard to thwart the Chinese, actually all, industrial espionage.

[ronnie raygun]

Pledges mean nothing, they are buying time for the midterms I bet

[Pollard]

Hard to fathom IBM, a quintessential American company having bailed on the US. Never should have been allowed. Spend decades building up your company here, supported financially by Americans buying your products just to say, oh look, cheap labor in Asia. See ya.

[Pollard]

More jobs *returning* to the USA. This is a good thing everyone says — except the haters.

Or the realists who see the trend of manufacturing. You think there's going to be a bunch of American humans micro-soldering computer components?

Yes, jobs for those who write code for robotics. Might be some jobs installing and servicing the robotics but the higher level hands on positions will be people from whatever company the robotics were made by and they might not have a US facility.

They have a high tech printer for plastic film/bags at the last place I worked and Czechoslovakians were who traveled to the US for the installation and setup and one or two moved here on some kind of visa for ongoing service/repair.

I work at a CNC machine shop now and they're using Japanese machines. One line of CNC machines has a bot about 70 foot long that runs on tracks and moves the parts down the line to a dozen machining stations on the front. Right now, those are manned by humans but I watched a video the other day where the same type of machine from the same company was manned by bots on the front as well. That line was for pickup truck rearends - the cast iron pumpkin. Only thing a human did was bolt the bearing caps on so they could be machined as one with the cast iron pumpkin.

The future of manufacturing is robotics, coding for them and for blue collar, installing and then servicing them.

If this place goes the way of that truck rearend line, there will be more tech nerds in the office than machinists in the shop. The CNC Mill next to the one I'm running is the same model and is being fed work pieces by a robotic arm. It's a high quantity, long term job with thousands of the same part. I'm doing 10 of this part, 50 of another etc and have make custom sacrificial soft jaws for the vises, to set X, Y and Z starting points, change out cutting tools because the machine only holds so many in the tool turret.

Those long lines with multiple machining stations will be the first to go but eventually, the bots will be coming for my job. I retire in 11 years so I probably won't see it but it will happen. The bots are never late because they are there 24/7 and can work 24/7 too. No PTO, holidays, benefits or human attitude or life issues.

Only need a handful of people to run and maintain the bots that will replace 40 machinists.

The big question is, will we run out of natural resources to build and power all these robotics forever? I think that's why Elon wants to go interplanetary. Mining Mars.

[telescope115]

I retired from a CNC shop. We had CNC mills, lathes, Swiss machines, and multi spindles. Also two CNC OD grinders, I set up and operated one for about seven years. There had been talk about using robots for changing workpieces in all the machines. I could see it for the CNC mills and lathes, but the grinders require constant monitoring of size and finishes and speed and feed changes are made by the human operator as needed. I have been out of that environment for five years now, so maybe there have been developments I don’t know about.