The global tech community is in an uproar again! Just now, Microsoft has finally unleashed a major move that it has been holding back for a full 17 years!

They created the world's first topological quantum chip, Majorana 1. Microsoft CEO Nadella even announced that the era of million-level large-scale quantum computing will arrive early!

 This palm-sized quantum chip is as significant as the invention of the transistor, and it all comes from a topological state of matter created by Microsoft that humans have never seen before. This is a state of matter that is different from solid, liquid and gaseous states. It has always existed only in physical theory. Only through it can humans obtain the particles most suitable for qubits - Majorana particles.

Topological Qubit

"Topology" is a very special scientific principle. Simply put, it can make the transmission and storage of information in the chip more stable and less error-prone. Microsoft scientists have developed a new material called "topological conductor."

Microsoft said that just as the invention of semiconductors gave rise to today's smartphones, computers and electronic devices, topological conductors and the new chips they support provide a feasible path for the development of quantum systems.

In traditional computers, bits can only represent 0 or 1, but qubits in quantum computers can represent 0 and 1 at the same time, or any state in between, resulting in greater computing power.

However, most types of qubits can only maintain their quantum state for a very short time, often just a fraction of a second, leading to calculation errors or the rapid loss of stored information. For years, companies like IBM, Microsoft and Google have been trying to make qubits as stable as binary bits.

To this end, Microsoft has chosen a different path from IBM, Google and other companies - developing topological qubits. They believe such qubits are more stable and require less error correction, giving them advantages in speed, scale and controllability.

And this path relies mainly on a special type of particle that has never been actually observed or made - the Majorana particle.

This special particle, first proposed by theoretical physicist Ettore Majorana in 1937, does not exist in nature and can only be "induced" under specific conditions of magnetic fields and superconductors.

Because the materials needed to create such particles are extremely difficult to develop, most quantum computing research groups have chosen to abandon this path and instead work on other types of qubits.

Microsoft's Majorana 1 claims to be a breakthrough. The topological conductor they developed successfully achieved two goals. One is the ability to induce Majorana particles under specific conditions, and the other is the ability to precisely control the behavior of these particles, thereby constructing qubits whose stability and reliability far exceed traditional solutions.

On this basis, the Microsoft team has also made significant progress in measurement technology.

They developed a precise measurement method controlled by digital pulses that can detect odd and even changes in the number of electrons in a superconducting wire (that is, the difference in a single electron), thereby achieving high-precision reading of the qubit state.

Microsoft's paper published in Nature shows that they used indium arsenide and aluminum to stack a nanowire structure atom by atom on an atomic scale, successfully created a topological conductor, and finally obtained Majorana particles. The anti-interference ability of qubits composed of Majorana particles is directly maximized. It can also automatically correct errors and accurately control using digital signals. Compared with traditional qubits, it has a crushing advantage.

There are currently only 8 qubits in this Majorana 1 chip, but Microsoft said that its unique H-shaped architecture has strong scalability performance, and they will soon be able to pack millions of qubits into the same size chip. This is the threshold needed for quantum computers to deliver transformative real-world solutions—such as breaking down microplastics into harmless byproducts or inventing self-healing materials for use in construction, manufacturing, or healthcare. All the current computers in the world working together cannot accomplish what a one million qubit quantum computer can accomplish.

"No matter what you do in the quantum realm, you need to find a path to millions of qubits. If not, you hit a bottleneck and can't solve the important problems that really motivate us," Nayak said. “We have actually found the path to a million qubits.”

Just as the invention of semiconductors made today's smartphones, computers, and electronics possible, topological conductors and their new types of chips offer a path to developing quantum systems that scale to millions of qubits, capable of solving the most complex industrial and social problems.

What does this mean for our world? The emergence of Majorana 1 chips has at least three significant implications for the development of human science and technology.

1: The day when large-scale quantum computing benefits mankind will be within reach.

Now that the biggest technical obstacle has been removed, Microsoft CEO Nadella recently said that it is expected that in the near future, the realization of quantum supercomputing will no longer be far away, and may even completely change the world within ten years.

This technological breakthrough will bring disruptive changes to many fields such as biology, medicine, and materials science. The powerful computing power of quantum supercomputers is expected to instantly decipher the structure of cancer-related proteins and push medical research into a new era. At the same time, it can also design true high-temperature superconducting materials and open a new chapter in the energy field.

When qubits reach the million level, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will also face unprecedented security challenges and may be cracked in an instant. The arrival of quantum computing will redefine our understanding and future of technology, science and even society.

2: The liberation of AI computing power will accelerate the arrival of the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) era.

The disruptive computing power of quantum computing will bring unimaginable breakthroughs to AI training. When large model training is shortened from 3 months to 3 minutes, the emergence of super artificial intelligence will become inevitable. By that time, real AGI will be around us.

When the power of quantum computing is combined with AI tools, people can describe the new materials or molecules they want to create in simple, straightforward terms and get actionable answers immediately, without guesswork or years of trial and error.

In the words of Matthias Troyer, head of quantum computing at Microsoft: "Any company engaged in manufacturing can design a product perfectly on the first try, and a quantum computer will give the answer directly. A quantum computer can teach AI the "language of nature," so that AI can directly tell you how to prepare what you want."

3: The era of silicon-based chips may be coming to an end, and mankind will move towards a new technological era of quantum computing.

The emergence of the Majorana 1 chip marks the rise of a new computing paradigm. It is based on new physical principles and completely abandons the framework of traditional chips. When qubits begin to be mass-produced like integrated circuits, our generation may be able to witness with our own eyes how the computing power revolution will throw civilization directly into the next dimension just like the internal combustion engine replaced the horse-drawn carriage!

Although many scientific and engineering challenges have been solved, it will be several years before the ripe fruits are harvested. Microsoft technical researcher Krysta Svore mentioned that achieving material stacking of topological matter is one of the most difficult parts of the entire process.

Microsoft "sprays" the material atom by atom, requiring the material to be perfectly arranged. If there are too many defects in the material stack, the performance of the qubit will be severely affected.

Microsoft expects to build a fault-tolerant prototype quantum computer based on topological qubits in years, not decades.