With its ‘topological’ quantum computers, Microsoft aims to reach useful scales faster than competing technologies

Its Majorana 1 chip, made of a new material, can perform high-level computing tasks with greater speed and accuracy, Microsoft says.

Microsoft started going down this road nearly 20 years ago, and that research has now yielded what looks like a significant quantum-computing breakthrough. The Majorana 1 chip contains eight qubits, or quantum bits, far fewer than top-tier quantum computers currently in operation.