Microsoft has presented its new quantum chip, Majorana 2, which is 1,000 times more reliable than its first version, presented in February 2025. The company has announced that the material architecture of this chip multiplies the reliability of its qubits, the minimum unit of information in a quantum computer, by 1,000. The qubits of Majorana 2 have an average lifetime of 20 seconds and peaks reaching one minute compared to the microseconds of conventional quantum chips. After the chip presentation, the company sets its goal to build a scalable quantum computer by 2029, halving the initial target timeline.
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Unlike classical computers, which encode the minimum information, bits, in two states represented as 0 or 1 and always only one of them at a time, quantum computers can represent both (qubits) simultaneously, although they are still very susceptible to errors. Microsoft’s quantum approach is topological chips, which do not try to correct errors after they occur but make qubits more resistant to errors. Last year, the company compared this approach to “the invention of semiconductors that made current smartphones, computers, and electronics possible.”
Microsoft stated in a press release that a quantum computer like the one it is trying to achieve “could solve problems so far unapproachable in areas such as health, food supply, sustainability, or energy production worldwide.” Chetan Nayak, Microsoft’s technical lead, advocated for “continuing to advance each year with improvements that bring us closer to developing a computer with enormous commercial and social value.” “We have to stay the course set by our roadmap. And if we compare ourselves to a year ago, the reality is that today we are 1,000 times better,” he added.
The superconductor of the first Majorana used aluminum, while Majorana 2 incorporates lead. The company explained that in quantum computing, “a lead-based superconductor helps protect fragile qubits from environmental interference,” such as cosmic origin, “which can affect their stability.” Achieving this advance, according to Microsoft, “required years of work to resolve other associated technical trade-offs.”
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In Majorana quantum chips, there are critical parts that Microsoft points out “are designed atom by atom.” “To keep each atom in its exact position, another material — an impurity — can be added to the crystal structure. However, introducing too much or doing it incorrectly alters that structure, so it is a delicate balance,” said Zulfi Alam, corporate vice president of Quantum Computing at Microsoft.
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Microsoft has highlighted that its quantum computer project has advanced faster thanks to artificial intelligence. This work has involved handling large volumes of data accumulated over nearly 20 years and in different formats. Before the application of AI, the information was isolated in silos. “By applying AI agents to this data, they are able to restructure it and establish correlations that humans cannot detect, because no person has the capacity to encompass such an amount of information,” Alam explained.
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