After developing a prototype of a 17-qubit quantum computer, IBM reportedly plans to timeshare the machine to other companies through cloud computing.

As part of its IBM Q project, the company wants to build "commercially available universal quantum computers" for business and science in the coming years. It also plans to upgrade its quantum technologies that are already available to developers.

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"As a first step to increase Quantum Volume, IBM aims to constructing commercial IBM Q systems with ~50 qubits in the next few years to demonstrate capabilities beyond today's classical systems," the company said.

Researchers have spent decades for the field. According to IBM, quantum computing follows the laws of quantum mechanics, a branch of science that addresses how the physical world fundamentally works. And the IBM Q systems aim to solve too complex and exponential problems that classical computers find hard to handle.

If quantum computers live to its promise, it could yield breakthroughs in different fields including financial services, medicine, supply chain logistics, artificial intelligence, and security.

"We envision IBM Q systems working in concert with our portfolio of classical high-performance systems to address problems that are currently unsolvable, but hold tremendous untapped value," Tom Rosamilia, IBM Systems' senior vice president, said.

IBM also recently released an API (application program interface) that will allow developers and programmers to create interfaces that operate between quantum computers running at speeds of five quantum bits (qubits). The program could also be used even by those who do not have a deep background in quantum physics.

IBM Research also launched a cloud-enabled platform called IBM Quantum Experience that will allow everyone with the capability to carry out experiments on it. The company so far has 40,000 users that have conducted at least 275,000 experiments.

Other than IBM, a Canadian company called D-Wave Systems also developed a computer that Google and NASA have tested.