The companies aim to lay the groundwork for a quantum internet, where machines can communicate across long distances.

Cisco and IBM plan to pool their R&D efforts to build a network of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of working together to run computations up to hundreds of thousands of qubits.

IBM (NYSE:IBM) saw its stock rise 1.5% on Thursday after revealing a new strategic partnership with Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) aimed at building a next-generation network linking large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers.

The Dow Jones giants will collaborate on what IBM called networked distributed quantum computing, allowing powerful quantum computers to work together to run computations over a massive scale. IBM and Cisco hope to offer a first proof-of-concept for such a network within five years.

The fruits of the partnership are admittedly years away as the companies strive for a connected fault-scale network by the “early 2030s.”

IBM (IBM) and Cisco (CSCO) are collaborating to design a connected network of large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computers, targeted by early 2030s.

Silicon Valley technology titans IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. are looking beyond artificial intelligence to the next big thing: quantum computing. Today they announced plans to collaborate on a large-scale and fault-tolerant network that will enable tens of thousands of so-called “qubits” to work together to solve some of the world’s most complex problems.