Microsoft $MSFT -4.17% unveiled Majorana 2, a next-generation quantum chip it says is 1,000 times more reliable than its predecessor, and said it now expects to deliver a scalable quantum computer by 2029 — cutting its previous timeline in half.
Qubit lifetimes on the new chip reach a mean of 20 seconds, and the company said certain qubits have held their state for up to a full minute. On the previous chip, qubits were surviving for under 12 milliseconds before collapsing, Bloomberg reported. Majorana 2 also adds four qubits over its predecessor, bringing the total to 12, and operates at speeds of one microsecond per operation, the company said.
At the heart of the stability gains is a shift in materials: where the previous chip relied on aluminum for its superconducting components, Majorana 2 uses lead instead. The company said lead's properties make it more effective at insulating qubits from the environmental interference that leads to calculation errors. Because lead dissolves in water, engineers had to devise a specialized fabrication process to stop it from being lost during chip production, Reuters reported.
Microsoft developed the chip with the help of its agentic AI platform, Microsoft Discovery, which the company also announced is now available to all customers. According to the company, the agents took on tasks ranging from running complex measurements and refining the fabrication process to combing through roughly 20 years of accumulated research and surfacing manufacturing defects that had gone undetected by human researchers.
