In addition to launching Nighthawk, IBM also announced its Quantum Loon chip, an experimental processor that will not be made publicly available, but the company said it will be the driving force behind IBM's efforts to deliver the world’s first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029.

Shares of IBM (NYSE:IBM) rose about 2% on Wednesday intraday trading, settling 0.5% on the closing bell after the company revealed major progress in its quantum computing program. At its annual Quantum Developer Conference,

Creating revolutionary pharmaceutical drugs, testing new materials for cars and simulating how market scenarios can affect banks — these are just some of the tasks that could take months or years to develop,