IBM is set to invest more than $10 billion in quantum computing over the next five years. According to the company, the investment will cover R&D, capex, manufacturing scaling, ecosystem partnerships, and M&A; areas that IBM says will help accelerate its quantum roadmap beyond 2029, when it expects to deliver the world's first large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The announcement comes two weeks after the US government signed letters of intent with nine quantum computing companies, including IBM. That agreement will see IBM receive $1bn from the Department of Commerce, the largest funding agreement of the nine, to establish a new superconducting quantum foundry subsidiary dubbed Anderon. At the time, IBM said Anderon would be the first pure-play quantum foundry in the US, adding that the company would match the $1bn from the Department of Commerce to fund the initiative. The subsidiary will be headquartered in Albany, New York, and will operate as a standalone company, manufacturing 300mm quantum wafers. "The quantum era is no longer ahead of us, it has started. Our clients, partners, and users around the world are tapping into IBM quantum computers to do work that was impossible a few years ago," said Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO, IBM. "The pace of discovery with quantum computers is accelerating rapidly, and this investment powers our ability to deliver the next generation of quantum hardware, software, and manufacturing." IBM has been at the forefront of the development of quantum processors and, in February 2025, claimed to have booked $1bn in quantum business between Q1 2017 and Q4 2024. In November of that same year, IBM claimed it would achieve quantum advantage by the end of 2026 and is on target to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029. In April of this year, it was reported that IBM was
Jun 4, 2026 · via datacenterdynamics.com
'Quantum networking has many practical and commercial use cases in the classical world today,' said Ramana Kompella, head of Cisco Research and Cisco Fellow, in a session at Cisco Live 2026. Particle entanglement, superposition and teleportation are key concepts in quantum physics. Einstein famously dismissed such phenomena as “spooky action at a distance.” Quantum computing is the nascent field of technology bringing that spookiness to life, but it is quantum networking that will actually enable quantum computing to be useful by connecting multiple systems together. According to Cisco, quantum networking’s practical utility isn’t limited to quantum computing, and it can have a material impact on the regular networks we use today. In a deep-dive session at Cisco Live, Ramana Kompella, head of Cisco Research and Cisco Fellow, detailed precisely what quantum networking is, how it works at a theoretical level, and what Cisco is building to enable real world applications. During his session, Kompella made the case that the bottleneck to practical quantum computing is not the processor. It is the network connecting processors together. His argument drew directly from the history of classical infrastructure: The same scale-out methodology that built the modern internet could, he said, accelerate the arrival of useful quantum computing by decades. “Quantum networking can accelerate the arrival of practical quantum computing by decades by using the scale-out methodology that we’ve used successfully in our classical infrastructure,” Kompella said. How quantum networking actually works The starting point is understanding why quantum networks cannot be built like classical ones. “Quantum networking is completely different from classical networking,” Kompella said. In a classical network, data moves as packets through switches and routers. In a quantum network, information is not transported directly. Instead, the network distributes entangled photon pairs between nodes. Entanglement links two photons so that measuring the
Jun 4, 2026 · via networkworld.com
Grenoble-based hardware venture Quobly has finalized a €115 million ($133.5 million USD) Series A financing round to transition its silicon-based quantum computing architecture from technology validation into active industrial execution. The capital expansion was co-led by Bpifrance (investing via the Deep Tech 2030 fund under the France 2030 initiative), post-quantum cybersecurity specialist SEALSQ, and semiconductor manufacturer STMicroelectronics. Additional institutional and strategic backing was provided by the European Innovation Council (EIC Fund), Blast, ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital), and early-stage investor Innovacom. The capital injection follows a cumulative €19 million seed phase and is allocated to advance the fabrication, packaging, and commercial delivery of the company’s spin-qubit processing arrays. Technical Architecture & 300 mm FD-SOI Fabrication Standards The hardware approach developed by Quobly isolates it from platforms that rely on superconducting loops or trapped-ion topologies by utilizing existing commercial microelectronics fabrication lines. The processor layout encodes quantum information within electron spins using Fully Depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FD-SOI) transistor structures processed on 300 mm silicon wafers. This manufacturing pathway utilizes modified commercial transistors as spin-qubit containers, leveraging the precision, material purity, and high fabrication yields native to standard semiconductor cleanrooms. By fabricating these processors within STMicroelectronics’ commercial production environment in Crolles, France, the design leverages established microelectronics standards to achieve identical qubit reproducibility across dense grid arrays. To ensure system-level security from the physical layer up, Quobly works alongside SEALSQ to integrate quantum-resistant hardware roots of trust and cryptographic trusted platform modules (TPMs) directly into the low-temperature control electronics stack, shielding the quantum memory from physical and protocol-level security threats. Ecosystem Integration & High-Performance Computing Roadmaps The commercialization framework outlines a phased systems rollout under Quobly’s Alloy product line, prioritizing integration compatibility with existing high-performance computing (HPC) data centers. The company plans to open public cloud-based access to its first generation computing system,
Jun 4, 2026 · via quantumcomputingreport.com
Ooredoo Qatar, in a joint national initiative with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and the Ministry of Defense, has completed the deployment of Qatar’s first quantum-safe communications link. This infrastructure project establishes a fully operational, end-to-end Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) framework integrated directly into a live telecommunications environment. Developed to address the strategic risk of “harvest now, decrypt later” intercepts—where adversaries collect encrypted data packets today to decrypt them once fault-tolerant quantum computers emerge—the deployment transitions Qatar’s core networking architecture toward information-theoretic security protocols. Technical Architecture & Infrastructure Integration The quantum-safe framework operates across Ooredoo Qatar’s existing dark fiber infrastructure, avoiding the need for dedicated, non-standard fiber topologies. Managed by Senior Director Active & Core Network Mohammed Al Zaidan, the engineering teams validated stable quantum state propagation and cryptographic key distribution over multiple fiber-link distances. The underlying hardware layer incorporates a specialized QKD testbed developed in collaboration with Swiss quantum-security provider ID Quantique (IDQ). Unlike classical mathematical public-key cryptography, which can be cracked by advanced quantum algorithms like Shor’s algorithm, the QKD link relies on the fundamental laws of quantum mechanics. Photons are used to transmit the cryptographic keys; because quantum states cannot be measured or copied without altering their properties, any unauthorized attempt to intercept the fiber optic link introduces measurable bit errors, allowing network administrators to instantly detect eavesdropping and isolate the compromised key stream before data transmission begins. Institutional Governance & Cross-Sector Deployment The deployment represents a coordinated orchestration across telecommunications, defense, and academic sectors to build localized digital resilience. Under the leadership of Chief Strategy and Digital Transformation Officer Thani Ali Al Malki, Ooredoo Qatar provided the live telecom testing environment, validating hardware compatibility with active public networks. Scientific development and system integration were directed by Dr. Saif Al Kuwari at HBKU’s Qatar Center for Quantum
Jun 4, 2026 · via quantumcomputingreport.com
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Jun 4, 2026 · via youtube.com
A steady stream of ERP innovations from SAP SAP Cloud ERP, Joule and Agentic AI, quantum computing Over the past 24 months, the Walldorf-based software group SAP, under the leadership of CEO Christian Klein, has performed a breathless and panic-driven U-turn in order not to lose touch with the fast-paced age of artificial intelligence. Driven by the existential fear of the financial markets that the classic ERP business could become obsolete due to autonomous AI agents, SAP buried the North Star architecture that had only recently been propagated and proclaimed the new target image of the „Autonomous Enterprise“. A critical look at the innovation and acquisition strategy reveals that SAP is heavily reliant on inorganic growth through acquisitions worth billions and an extensive cooperation network due to a lack of its own fundamental AI core competencies. In order to create the urgently needed database for future AI agents, SAP acquired the data specialists Dremio and Reltio in recent months, whose technologies are intended to help query and harmonize data from a wide variety of systems without prior copying. At the same time, the Group bought the Freiburg-based start-up Prior Labs to build a world-leading AI lab and develop spreadsheet models for business applications. This massive purchasing spree was supplemented by the more recent acquisitions of LeanIX for enterprise architecture management, WalkMe to provide a digital adoption platform and SmartRecruiters to expand its own HR management in the SuccessFactors environment with AI-supported recruiting. Missing LLM but n8n, Parloa and SAP Joule Studio As SAP does not develop its own basic models (large language models) such as OpenAI, the Group instead integrates technology from third-party providers and strategically invests in agile start-ups. Recent investments in the millions were made in the Berlin-based automation start-up n8n, whose platform will be integrated into the
Jun 3, 2026 · via e3mag.com
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Jun 3, 2026 · via youtube.com
Quobly, a French quantum computing company, on June 3rd announced the closing of a Euros 115 million Series A financing to accelerate the industrialisation of its silicon-based quantum computers and bring its first commercial product to market by the end of 2026. - The round is led by Bpifrance, SEALSQ and STMicroelectronics, with participation from the European Innovation Council (EIC Fund), Blast, ALIAD (Air Liquide Venture Capital) and existing investor Innovacom, bringing together leading industrial, sovereign and deeptech investors. Existing shareholders also include the CEA, CNRS, Quantonation and Supernova Invest. Long-time investor Bpifrance is participating through the Deep Tech 2030 fund, managed on behalf of the French government as part of the France 2030 initiative. - This financing will support continued R&D, industrialisation efforts and international commercial expansion. - Quobly, bringing semiconductor-grade manufacturing and industrialisation to quantum computing, plans to deploy its first commercial quantum computer through the cloud by the end of 2026 under its Alloy product line. From technology validation to commercial deployment at scale This Series A marks a key step in Quobly’s roadmap to industrial-scale quantum computing, transitioning from early validation to the production of its first commercial systems. Alloy Pioneer, the first computer in Quobly’s Alloy product line, is designed for early adopters in high-performance computing and research environments. The system will be accessible through the cloud in 2026, before deployment within HPC infrastructures in 2027. Quobly’s quantum computers are designed to integrate into existing HPC and data-centre infrastructures, with a compatible footprint, power supply and utility requirements, enabling straightforward deployment. Alloy Pioneer is accessible through Alloy Forge, Quobly’s quantum application development environment, enabling users to develop and validate applications under realistic hardware constraints. The company will, in particular: - Increase the performance and scalability of its quantum computer product line, - Accelerate the industrialisation
Jun 3, 2026 · via worldbusinessoutlook.com
Microsoft unveils more reliable quantum chip Tech giant Microsoft has unveiled Majorana 2, a quantum chip that it claims is ‘1,000 times more reliable’ than its predecessors. It now expects to achieve a scalable quantum computer by 2029, halving its original timeline. Microsoft applied recent advances in agentic AI, which sped up the scientific process and accelerated collaboration. It compared the improvements in qubits technology to a phone battery that ‘instead of dying in a day could last for nearly three years on a single charge’. This reliability, fast speed (one microsecond operations) and small qubit size (1/100th of a millimetre) can help intractable problems in global health, food supply, sustainability, energy production and more, the company said. “We need to make improvements each year that will get us closer to delivering a computer that we believe will have massive commercial and societal value,” said Chetan Nayak, Microsoft technical fellow. The company also announced the general availability of Microsoft Discovery, its comprehensive platform for organisations to embrace Frontier R&D. This combines specialised AI agents for scientific research and development, a Discovery Engine that drives research and reasoning workflows. Microsoft also introduced in early preview a Microsoft Discovery app with core capabilities that individuals can download for free and run locally on their computers with a GitHub Copilot account, lowering the barrier to entry for advanced AI-driven research. Quantum computing chips rely on advanced semiconductor fabrication, requiring the same electronics specialty gases used in traditional microelectronics, with a heavy emphasis on ultra-cold environments. Their production involves ultra-high purity and bulk gases such as helium, nitrogen, hydrogen and argon, as well as silane, ammonia and tungsten hexafluoride (deposition and precursor gases), sulfur hexafluoride and carbon tetrafluoride (etching and cleaning), and dopant gases (phosphine and diborane). Next week helium security, the most pressing
Jun 3, 2026 · via gasworld.com
IBM Might Be The First To Commercialize Quantum Computing, But At What Cost? Quantum computers are hailed as the next big leap in computing. The technology uses quantum physics to speed up computation. Heck, quantum physics could let us send messages back in time. The only problem is how to build a commercial device capable of channeling the power of quantum physics. IBM thinks it has a solution — so long as it has the time and money to fund the process. Recently, IBM filed a request to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission regarding its plans for quantum computing research. According to the document, IBM plans to invest over $10 billion to commercialize quantum computing. This money will go towards research and development, capital expenditures, ecosystem partnerships, scalable manufacturing, and potential mergers and acquisitions. According to IBM's projections, development will take five years, and the corporation is confident it can create the world's first "large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computer" in or by 2029. Technically speaking, this wouldn't be IBM's first quantum rodeo, as the company claims it has "deployed over 90 quantum systems" to date. Moreover, IBM has developed relationships with over 300 companies, universities, and government agencies, all of which allegedly use IBM's existing quantum computers. The only question is who will get their hands on IBM's first large-scale commercial quantum computer when it's ready for testing. IBM plans to augment its research with a manufacturing plant On one hand, IBM's plans are noteworthy in and of themselves. After all, breakthroughs in quantum computing could affect how much they cost, and we could all use cheaper PCs now that AI data centers have driven up numerous gadget prices. But the timing of IBM's announcement transforms it into a potential one-two punch. In May of 2026, the National Institute
Jun 3, 2026 · via bgr.com
Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), the UK-based scaleup building and deploying quantum computers, has raised a £260m ($350m) Series C. The raise marks the biggest ever funding round ever by a private quantum computing company in Europe, following a $600m equity raise bagged by UK- and US-based Quantinuum in 2025. The Series C is the fourth megaround ($100m+) raised by a quantum computing company in Europe since the start of the year, already surpassing three that were announced across all of 2025, and reflecting sustained investor interest in the sector. Quantum computing is maturing, after long being considered a niche market relying on a yet-to-be-proven technology. Companies in the space are now promising to unlock business value in the coming years, attracting more customer interest and plenty of investor money. OQC’s round was led by Bullhound Capital, with participation from the British Business Bank, alongside European investors Fynveur, Cofides, Fulcrum Asset Management, Pentland Ventures, Magdalen College Oxford, Oxford Capital and Firgun. US investment firms Alpha Edison and 18 West, as well as Singapore’s Adaptive Capital Partners also participated. What does OQC do? OQC builds quantum computers using superconducting qubits. This means it uses electrons to create qubits, or quantum bits, which are the tiny particles forming the basis of quantum computers. Superconducting qubits are the approach adopted by major players in the space, including US tech giants IBM and Google, as well as Finnish company IQM, which recently announced plans to list on Nasdaq at a $1.8bn valuation. OQC has also built a platform to enable customers to access its quantum computers “as a service", which means the scaleup deploys quantum systems in partner data centres like US-based Equinix and Digital Realty. These partners in turn offer access to the systems via the cloud, or enable users to run their workloads
Jun 2, 2026 · via sifted.eu
Time to get ready for Q-Day. Here’s how. A practical guide to understanding quantum risk and building your readiness plan Key takeaways - Q-Day is the point when quantum computers can break today’s encryption, especially the public-key systems that protect your emails, VPNs and transactions. - Attackers are already collecting encrypted data today with plans to decrypt it later when the capability exists. - Experts don’t agree on timing, but many place meaningful risk in the next decade, and preparation could take just as long. - Most organizations haven’t started preparing, which increases long-term risk if sensitive data has a long shelf life. - You don’t need to overhaul everything today, but you do need visibility into your cryptography and a plan to migrate over time. What is Q-Day? You’ll see “Q-Day” described a few different ways, but the simplest one is that it’s the moment when quantum computers become powerful enough to break the encryption we rely on today. That matters because modern encryption is woven into almost everything you do. It protects logins, secures email, enables VPNs, verifies software updates, and keeps customer data private. Most of that protection depends on public-key cryptography like RSA and elliptic-curve cryptography. Those systems are incredibly strong against today’s computers, but a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could break them in a practical timeframe. Q-Day isn’t a fixed calendar date like Y2K. It’s a capability milestone. No one knows exactly when it will arrive, and it may not come with any obvious warning. That uncertainty is part of what makes this problem difficult to plan for. Why experts are concerned now If you read recent conference coverage and research, there’s a clear shift in tone. This isn’t being treated as a distant, theoretical issue anymore. It’s increasingly viewed as a real security risk
Jun 2, 2026 · via blog.barracuda.com
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Jun 2, 2026 · via youtube.com
Physicists achieve 'perfect randomness' for the first time ever Physicists used quantum bits to achieve 'perfect randomness' in a world-first experiment. The results of their research could strengthen cryptography and other security systems. Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated a means of generating "perfect randomness" by using entangled superconducting qubits. Creating true randomness is extremely difficult. Even the most sophisticated conventional random number generator can carry tiny biases. While in most everyday uses those biases are harmless, in cryptography — where the security of encrypted systems depends on unpredictability — even the most subtle pattern can become an exploitable weakness. The team at ETH Zurich, led by physics professors Renato Renner and Andreas Wallraff, say they have shown how to overcome this flaw and create perfectly random numbers using quantum physics, a milestone they describe as the first certified realization of perfect randomness. Random acts of qubits Traditional random-number generators often rely on physical processes such as photon behavior, but those systems can still be slightly skewed and exhibit a bias that causes certain numbers to appear more frequently than others. The ETH team's approach uses quantum entanglement to push randomness beyond that limit. The experiment revolves around two superconducting chips cooled to temperatures near absolute zero. Each chip acts as a qubit, the quantum equivalent of a binary bit. The chips are connected by a 98-foot (30-meter) tube that is also supercooled, allowing microwave photons to shuttle between them and create entanglement — a "spooky" quantum state where two particles can become linked such that measuring one instantly affects the other. By keeping the qubits nearly 100 feet apart, the researchers ensured that, during measurement, even light-speed signals could not travel between the qubits quickly enough to influence the outcome. In the language of quantum physics, that helps preserve
Jun 2, 2026 · via livescience.com
Abstract Scaling quantum computers remains a substantial scientific and technological challenge. Leveraging the full range of intrinsic degrees of freedom in quantum systems offers a promising route towards enhanced algorithmic performance and hardware efficiency. We experimentally study the use of 137Ba+ ions for quantum information processing, achieving high-fidelity state preparation and readout of up to 25 internal levels, thus forming a 25-dimensional trapped-ion qudit. By probing superpositions of up to 24 states, we investigate how errors scale with qudit dimension d and identify the primary error sources affecting quantum coherence. Additionally, we demonstrate high-dimensional qudit operations by implementing a 3-qubit Bernstein-Vazirani algorithm and a 4-qubit Toffoli gate with a single trapped-ion. Our findings suggest that quantum computing architectures based on large-dimensional qudits hold significant promise. Similar content being viewed by others Acknowledgements This research was supported, in part, by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), RGPIN-2018-05253 and the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF) (Transformative Quantum Technologies), CFREF-2015-00011. C.S. is also supported by a Canada Research Chair. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Supplementary information Rights and permissions Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article
Jun 2, 2026 · via nature.com
Microsoft says new quantum chip 1,000 times more reliable than predecessor Microsoft says its new quantum chip is vastly more reliable than its previous version, paving the way for a quantum computer solving commercially useful problems within three years. At the heart of quantum computing are qubits, which offer the promise of answering questions that defeat today's machines, but are notoriously delicate and unstable. Microsoft says the qubits on Majorana 2, its new chip, survive for an average of 20 seconds, rather than the milliseconds of Majorana 1. That means the new chip is 1,000 times more reliable - an improvement in performance the tech giant compares to the difference between a phone that needs charging every day to one which needs charging every few years. "We will have a quantum machine in 2029 that can solve commercially viable, reasonable problems", said Zulfi Alam, corporate vice president of Microsoft Quantum. That would still require huge further advances as such a device would require millions of qubits - the current chip, Alam said, has 12. Assessing the firm's claims are difficult because it does not release the full details of what it has discovered publicly, citing commercial confidentiality. There is a worldwide race to develop the technology, given its potential to take on tasks currently considered too enormous for even the most powerful traditional computers. Microsoft has spent 20 years pursuing an approach to quantum computing known as "topological". The firm's approach to this is based on exploiting the properties of a so-called quasi-particle, which had existed only in theory, since it was first predicted in the 1930s by Italian physicist Ettore Majorana. To do this it had to exploit a novel state of matter - different from the three familiar states of liquid, solid or gas. Paul Stevenson, a physics
Jun 2, 2026 · via bbc.com
Google Quantum AI Launches REPLIQA Research Program with $10M Gift. Google is aimed at applying quantum computing, quantum sensing, and artificial intelligence to biology and medicine, as large technology companies continue searching for practical uses for emerging quantum systems. With an investment of $10 million, this funding will support research at five universities, reflecting the growing interest in quantum technologies that could ultimately help researchers better understand biological systems that are currently difficult to model with conventional computers, mentioned five universities, such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, San Diego, University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Arizona. According to Towards Healthcare, the U.S. AI in life science market is projected to experience significant growth, with estimates suggesting the market size will increase from USD 1.14 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 5.91 billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.05% from 2026 to 2035. Growth is driven by Clinical Trial Optimization and AI algorithms, which help to revolutionize by refining patient inclusion criteria, predicting enrollment feasibility, and enabling seamless remote patient monitoring, which helps prevent costly trial failures. Generative AI and machine learning are cutting computational and screening costs, which drastically accelerate the identification of viable molecules. This allows biotech companies to shrink the timeline from concept to clinical trials. Combining Quantum Computing and AI It creates a powerful hybrid ecosystem in the US life science market, which merges AI’s pattern-recognition capabilities with quantum’s ability to simulate complex molecular interactions, drastically cutting traditional drug discovery costs and streamlining clinical trials. Google aims to develop “quantum-enhanced AI algorithms” and new scientific tools that could eventually support biological discovery. The company framed the initiative as a long-term foundational research program rather than a near-term commercialization effort. The company stated, “We see immense
Jun 2, 2026 · via precedenceresearch.com
Introducing Majorana 2 How Microsoft’s new quantum chip was made 1,000x more reliable with the help of Microsoft Discovery’s agentic AI The news - Microsoft unveils Majorana 2, its next-generation topological quantum chip developed with the help of Microsoft Discovery’s agentic AI. - Majorana 2’s new features include a new materials stack enabling a 1,000-fold improvement in reliability over the prior generation of qubits, with a mean qubit lifetime of 20 seconds and instances lasting as long as one minute. - Microsoft now expects to achieve a scalable quantum computer by 2029, cutting its original timeline in half. - Microsoft Discovery is now generally available. The platform for Frontier R&D lets customers deploy AI agent teams, guided by human expertise, to speed up scientific discovery. - The new Microsoft Discovery app provides a local version of the platform’s core capabilities that individuals can download for free and use with a GitHub Copilot account. Microsoft today unveiled Majorana 2, its newest topological quantum chip featuring a next-generation materials stack and qubits that are 1,000 times more reliable than their predecessors. With this progress, the team now expects to achieve a scalable quantum computer by 2029, cutting its original timeline in half. By applying recent advances in agentic AI specially designed to speed the scientific process and accelerate collaboration, Microsoft’s quantum team is overcoming key barriers in reliability, speed and size that have limited the application of quantum computing to real-life scenarios. For instance, the new chip’s qubits can maintain their quantum state 1,000 times longer than the first generation, enabling more reliable computation. While other common approaches measure a qubit’s “lifetime” in microseconds, Majorana 2 offers a mean qubit lifetime of 20 seconds, with some instances lasting as long as one minute. That improvement is roughly comparable to inventing a phone
Jun 2, 2026 · via news.microsoft.com
Microsoft’s quantum chip got an upgrade. Critics are still skeptical Error woes that plague quantum computers may be solved by using the math of topology Errors are a big problem for quantum computers, befuddling calculations and hindering the machines’ potential to outperform traditional computers. Microsoft’s new quantum chip could bring hope — for those who believe the company’s claims. Microsoft has unveiled an improved version of its quantum chip, which is designed to resist errors. But the upgrade hasn’t convinced harsh critics of the company’s previous efforts. Last year, Microsoft reported that it had developed a new kind of a quantum chip that protects information based on principles of topology, the field of mathematics dealing with the geometry of structures with holes. That claim immediately drew skepticism from scientists. In the new chip, announced June 2 at Microsoft’s Build conference in San Francisco, researchers swapped some of the materials used to create the chip’s quantum bits, or qubits. In particular, the team used lead instead of aluminum as a superconductor, a material that transmits electricity without resistance at low temperature. Those swaps improved a property called the parity lifetime, a marker of the quality of a topological qubit. These qubits are built from tiny superconducting wires, and the parity indicates whether there is an even or odd number of electrons within the wire. The lifetime indicates how long the parity is maintained before being spoiled by random jitter or outside influences. Previously, the qubit’s parity lifetime was measured in milliseconds; now, it is around 20 seconds, Microsoft researchers report in a paper posted on a Microsoft website and at arXiv.org. The paper is a preprint, so has yet to be peer-reviewed. “We’re seeing this more than 1000x improvement in this critical metric of the qubit based on this change,” Microsoft
Jun 2, 2026 · via sciencenews.org
Quantum computing could reshape how we approach some of the toughest problems in energy, climate, medicine, and materials. 🖥️ Unlike classical computers that rely on binary 0s and 1s, quantum computers use qubits that can represent many possibilities at once, creating powerful new ways to model nature. Through the XPRIZE #QuantumApplications competition, we’re helping steer this emerging field toward real-world impact. “When you come to these very powerful technologies that can shape our future, it is important how we direct the attention of the creators.” - XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari Here’s why it matters: ➡️ Quantum computing could support climate solutions by accelerating discovery of materials for carbon capture and efficient solar cells. ➡️ In drug discovery, quantum simulation could accelerate the path to new therapies by helping researchers model complex molecular interactions more efficiently. ➡️ Battery chemistry involves complex tradeoffs; quantum modeling may help researchers explore candidate materials and performance variables more efficiently. ➡️ Identifying materials that can survive extreme fusion conditions is a major barrier, quantum simulation may help solve it. While AI is powerful for pattern recognition, prediction, and design workflows, quantum computing offers a complementary path: using quantum mechanics itself to model parts of nature that are difficult for classical computers to simulate. At XPRIZE, we’re focused on ensuring breakthrough technologies like quantum computing are directed toward humanity’s biggest challenges. Read more in Ansari’s Forbes feature here. https://lnkd.in/gNFaVVfH XPRIZE’s Post More from this author Explore content categories - Career - Productivity - Finance - Soft Skills & Emotional Intelligence - Project Management - Education - Technology - Leadership - Ecommerce - User Experience - Recruitment & HR - Customer Experience - Real Estate - Marketing - Sales - Retail & Merchandising - Science - Supply Chain Management - Future Of Work - Consulting - Writing -
Jun 2, 2026 · via linkedin.com