New quantum chips are bringing the technology closer to practical application, moving us closer to what’s called quantum advantage — the point at which a quantum computer can perform a task faster and more efficiently than a conventional computer.
Why It Matters
Except for a few experimental instances, today’s quantum computers can’t yet outdo classical systems. Estimates of when quantum might become practical, or achieve what the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency calls “utility-scale operation — meaning its computational value exceeds its cost” — still range from five years to never. Two major impediments are quantum’s error rate and poor scalability. According to Forbes, the best quantum computers have error rates of between one per 100 and one per 1,000, compared to traditional binary computers’ rate of one in a quintillion calculations. The errors typically increase as you add qubits, limiting the capacity to scale quantum to a useful level.
What’s New
Reaching quantum advantage for practical use may still be some years off, but the past 12 months have seen some remarkable progress in both error control and scalability. For Google’s Willow chip, introduced in December 2024, the error rate decreased as more qubits were added to the network. And according to Google, it outperformed supercomputers on a benchmarking test, completing a computation in five minutes that would take even the fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years — more than the age of the universe.
In February 2025, Microsoft debuted the Majorana 1 chip, its own bid for a more scalable and reliable quantum model. Cooled to near absolute zero (−459.67°F), the chip uses “Majorana particles” and a newly reached state of matter called “topological superconductivity” that previously existed only in theory. Microsoft claims the new chips are more reliable than typical quantum technology, and that although the experimental model houses only eight qubits, the chip could hold up to 1 million.
This article appears in our guide, “Quantum Computing: What You Need to Know Today.” To learn more about this important technology, download it here:
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