At its annual Build conference, Microsoft unveiled its next-generation quantum chip, Majorana 2, claiming it offers 1,000 times better reliability than its predecessor. The company stated that this advancement brings scalable quantum computing closer to reality, with a target timeline of 2029. Simultaneously, Microsoft emphasized that AI tools have become a crucial component of its quantum research and development process.
Improved chip reliability
According to Microsoft, the Majorana 2 uses a new lead-based topological superconductor design, replacing the previous generation's aluminum-based approach, to reduce the impact of external interference on the qubits. The company claims that the chip's qubits have an average lifetime of 20 seconds, with some lasting approximately one minute.
Microsoft technical researcher Chetan Nayak stated that the team needs to make continuous improvements every year to advance the development of a commercially viable quantum computer along the established path. According to him, the current system's performance is "1000 times better" than last year.
AI in materials and manufacturing optimization
In a post-conference blog post, Microsoft stated that the Microsoft Discovery platform and agentic AI tools helped researchers organize years of quantum research data and accelerated the research and development process at multiple stages.
- Identifying more promising materials
- Automatic execution of measurement process
- Optimize manufacturing processes and identify defects
Zulfi Alam, head of Microsoft's quantum business, stated that AI-automated measurement is one of the key changes in the research and development. The system can perform voltage regulation and parameter search in parallel, tasks that would be significantly less efficient if performed manually.
Bitcoin's cryptographic security is once again under scrutiny.
This announcement has once again sparked discussion about "Q-Day." Q-Day typically refers to the point at which a quantum computer becomes powerful enough to break currently widely used public-key encryption systems. Once this capability emerges, attackers could theoretically deduce private keys from publicly available information, thereby forging signatures or transferring assets.
Bitcoin is therefore considered one of the potential targets. The report mentions that the potential value of Bitcoin at risk due to exposed public keys is approximately $461 billion. Previously, Justin Thaler, research partner at a16z and associate professor at Georgetown University, stated that once quantum computers possess the capability, they could potentially forge the digital signatures currently used by Bitcoin, thereby allowing unauthorized transfers of assets from accounts.
The industry's prediction of Q-Day timing was made in advance.
Microsoft is not the only tech company to disclose progress in quantum computing. The report mentions that Google's previously released Willow chip has demonstrated a lower quantum error rate; and recent research from Caltech suggests that the quantum resources required to break elliptic curve cryptography may be lower than previously estimated.
Industry predictions regarding the arrival of Q-Day are converging towards around 2030. Google previously projected this to occur around 2032, while some researchers believe the capability could be available as early as 2030.
