Will Microsoft Quantum chip be a game changer?

[Arthur Hanson]

Any thoughts on the impact or lack thereof would be greatly appreciated, Thanks


Microsoft says it's made a major breakthrough in quantum computing capabilities with the Majorana 1, its first quantum chip, and the first of its kind to be powered by what are called topological qubits.

What's this new chip all about?
First off, the palm-sized processor has eight qubits at its core. These qubits are made from a new class of materials called 'topoconductors,' and they're said to be awfully small – about 1/100th of a millimeter each. They're also fast and can be digitally controlled, which means a large number of them can be more easily managed than in other quantum computers.

Microsoft is also excited about the possibility of fitting up to a million qubits onto this processor. At that milestone, you could expect a quantum computer to operate reliably, i.e. with enough error correction, to begin tackling real problems that surpass the capabilities of today's classical computers....

Microsoft unveils first quantum chip powered by 'topological qubits'

Microsoft says it's made a major breakthrough in quantum computing capabilities with the Majorana 1, its first quantum chip, and the first of its kind to be powered by what are called topological qubits.

newatlas.com

 

[U235]

It's early days. I've looked through the Nature paper. They aren't claiming the creation of a (topological) qubit. Just progress towards one.

The approach might be a good one or a bad one. Only time and research will tell.

 

[Daniel Nenni]

It's early days. I've looked through the Nature paper. They aren't claiming the creation of a (topological) qubit. Just progress towards one.

The approach might be a good one or a bad one. Only time and research will tell.

From what I hear in the trenches it will be the 2030s before it hits us consumers. Lots of money is being put into it so it could be the next AI?

 

[blueone]

From what I hear in the trenches it will be the 2030s before it hits us consumers. Lots of money is being put into it so it could be the next AI?

In investing this phenomenon is called "FOMO". Fear of missing out. I think 2030s is being optimistic even for data center accelerators. D-Wave, the only quantum computing company with commercial deployments, whose systems only work for quantum annealing (which means optimization problems), was founded in 1999, and has 3Q24 revenue of $1.9M.