Governor JB Pritzker Directs $500 Million to Construct Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park

CHICAGO — Governor JB Pritzker announced on Monday the formal execution of a $500 million state capital development agreement to engineer and construct the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park (IQMP) on the 128-acre former US Steel South Works brownfield site on Chicago's South Side along Lake Michigan.

The world-class campus, developed in partnership with the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Argonne National Laboratory, and global quantum developers including PsiQuantum, establishes North America's premier cryogenic testing, quantum algorithmic research, and utility-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer manufacturing ecosystem.

Establishing Chicago as the Quantum Computing Capital of the World Quantum computing promises to solve computational equations in minutes that would require classical supercomputers millennia to process, revolutionizing material science discovery, cryptographic security, and drug formulation.

"The future of quantum technology is being written right here in Illinois," Governor Pritzker said at the South Works site in Chicago. "Just as Silicon Valley became the epicenter of the semiconductor revolution, the Illinois Quantum Park will be the epicenter of the quantum computing revolution. This $500 million investment transforms a historic former steel mill into the most advanced quantum research and manufacturing facility in the world, creating thousands of high-paying union construction and engineering jobs."

Campus Facilities and Cryogenic Infrastructure The $500 million capital allocation finances:

• Utility-Scale Cryogenic Cooling Plant: Constructing high-capacity liquid helium and dilution refrigeration infrastructure supplying sub-Kelvin temperatures to quantum hardware.
• Advanced Quantum Cleanroom Testing Suites: 150,000 square feet of vibration-isolated cleanrooms for photonic and superconducting qubit fabrication.
• Quantum Workforce Development Institute: $50 million partnering with City Colleges of Chicago to train local South Side residents for specialized cryogenic and microelectronics technician careers.

Academic leaders, quantum technology CEOs, and building trades labor unions commended the transformative project, projecting that the quantum campus will attract over $20 billion in private technology investments to Chicago over the next decade.