Microsoft’s upgraded Majorana quantum computing chip fizzles with physicists

Microsoft’s new quantum computer chip has a fundamental problem

Microsoft’s announcement of a new quantum computing breakthrough with its Majorana 2 chip continues a trend of bold claims followed by scant evidence

Microsoft claimed today that it has improved its quantum technology by an extraordinary factor. Outside experts say it doesn’t even work and never has.

The company has named its latest quantum chip Majorana 2 , for the theoretical quasiparticle it aims to use as the basis for a new “topological” approach to quantum computing . Chilled to ultracold temperatures in superconducting wires, electrons may be coaxed to act collectively—as so-called Majorana quasiparticles —in a manner that theoretically makes them more resistant to the physical “noise” that causes computational errors in other quantum systems.

Similar to braiding weak fibers together to make a strong rope, Microsoft’s approach seeks to create topological quantum bits, or qubits , by manipulating multiple Majorana quasiparticles on one device. In principle, this quantum computing method could scale up better than others, with Microsoft claiming it could someday squeeze millions of qubits onto a single chip. That could give the company a significant advantage in the race to build a quantum device that outpaces any machine in existence at certain problems .

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“This is a very exciting era that we’re in,” said Jason Zander, executive vice president leading Microsoft’s Quantum team, during a press briefing before the public announcement. “We’re at the start of a new chapter.”

But the company has a mixed track record when it comes to such claims. In 2021 Microsoft retracted a high-profile Nature paper after outside experts pointed out that the study’s data could have come from material imperfections rather than a topological qubit. Physicists have raised similar concerns about several publications since, as well as about last year’s announcement of the Majorana 1 chip based on the disputed technology.