A former steel mill on Chicago’s Far South Side is poised to enter the 21st century as a cutting-edge technology hub thanks to a $300 million investment from the state of Illinois.
As Crain’s reports, the state and its development partners have chosen the former U.S. Steel Southworks plant on Lake Michigan as the site for a 128-acre quantum computing campus. Silicon Valley startup PsiQuantum will be at the center of the development, occupying 300,000 square feet with ambitions to build the largest quantum computer in the country.
The state of Illinois will invest $300 million in the campus and provide $200 million to PsyQuantum through grants, workforce development assistance, low-interest loans and other incentives. To receive the funding, PsyQuantum must invest at least $1 billion. The company plans to hire 150 people over five years and build multiple quantum systems at the site.
Related Midwest, general contractor Clayco, and architecture firm Lamar Johnson Collaborative are developing and constructing the campus, which, once complete, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker expects to attract more than $20 billion in private and public investment and create thousands of jobs.
“The opportunities ahead are enormous,” Pritzker said. “No other state has done anything like this. We’ve created something that’s centrifugal.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is also enthusiastic about the campus and sees the project as a major win for the city.
“This is one of the most transformative developments of the post-industrial era,” Johnson said. “It sends a strong message to companies that Chicago is open for business. They could have gone anywhere in the country, anywhere in the state. They chose Chicago.”
The campus, called Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, has the potential to revitalize the Far Southside region and position the state as a leader in advanced computing innovation.
“It’s a dream place to build a datacenter-scale quantum computer,” said PsyQuantum co-founder Pete Shadbolt. “US Steel is a symbol of American dynamism. We can’t forget the history of Illinois. The first sustained nuclear reaction occurred in Illinois. [Chicago Pile-1]”We have a lot of people in the industry, from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, various universities. We started the process of building a U.S.-first system with a very open mind.”
Andrew Terrell
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