Google announced on Monday that it has overcome a significant challenge in quantum computing with the introduction of a new generation of chips. The company demonstrated the ability to solve a computing problem in five minutes that would take a classical computer longer than the history of the universe.
Like other tech giants such as Microsoft and IBM, Alphabet’s Google is pursuing quantum computing due to its potential to deliver computing speeds far faster than today’s fastest systems. While the problem solved by Google’s quantum lab in Santa Barbara, California, does not have immediate commercial applications, the company hopes quantum computers will eventually address complex challenges in fields like medicine, battery chemistry, and artificial intelligence—areas that current computers cannot tackle effectively.
The results released on Monday stem from a new chip called Willow, which features 105 qubits—the fundamental units of quantum computers. Qubits are fast but error-prone because they are susceptible to disruption by even the smallest external influences, such as subatomic particles from space events.
As more qubits are added to a chip, the error rate increases, which can render the chip less effective than traditional computer chips. Since the 1990s, researchers have been working on quantum error correction to mitigate this issue.
In a paper published in *Nature* on Monday, Google revealed that it has developed a method to connect Willow’s qubits in such a way that error rates decrease as the number of qubits increases. The company also claimed it can correct errors in real time, a crucial step toward making quantum machines more practical.
“We are past the break-even point,” said Hartmut Neven, head of Google Quantum AI, in an interview.
In 2019, IBM challenged Google’s claim that its quantum chip could solve a problem in a few minutes that would take a classical computer 10,000 years, arguing that the same problem could be solved in two-and-a-half days using different assumptions. In response, Google said that its latest estimates take such concerns into account, adding that even under ideal conditions, a classical computer would still take a billion years to achieve the same results as the Willow chip.
While some of Google’s competitors are developing chips with more qubits, the company remains focused on maximizing the reliability of its qubits, said Anthony Megrant, chief architect for Google Quantum AI.
Previously, Google fabricated its quantum chips in a shared facility at the University of California, Santa Barbara. However, the company has now built its own dedicated fabrication facility to produce Willow chips. This new facility is expected to accelerate the development of future chips, which are chilled in large refrigerators called cryostats for experiments.
“If we have a good idea, we want somebody on the team to be able to get that into the clean room and into one of these cryostats as quickly as possible, so we can generate multiple cycles of learning,” Megrant explained.
