Microsoft’s next-gen quantum chip cuts timeline to useful quantum computing
Microsoft claimed last year that it had made a key breakthrough in quantum computing with Majorana 1, the company’s first quantum processor. While physicists were immediately skeptical of Microsoft’s claims, the software giant is announcing Majorana 2 today, the next generation of its topological quantum chip.
Majorana 2 contains qubits, a unit of information in quantum computing much like the binary bits that computers use today, that are 1,000 times more reliable, according to Microsoft. It’s a milestone that helps make quantum computing more reliable, thanks to the use of a new material stack and some help from Microsoft Discovery’s agentic AI.
“To create Majorana 2, the Microsoft Quantum team improved Majorana 1’s material stack to create a more
stable topological phase,” explains Chetan Nayak, Microsoft technical fellow and corporate vice president of quantum hardware. “Majorana 2 replaces Majorana 1’s superconductor, aluminum, with lead, and
also updates the semiconductor active...
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