Microsoft has unveiled Majorana 2, its latest topological quantum chip, claiming it is 1,000 times more reliable than its predecessor. The announcement came during the company's annual Build conference on Tuesday.
The chip achieves average qubit lifetimes of 20 seconds, with some lasting up to one minute. Microsoft credited its Microsoft Discovery platform and agentic AI tools for accelerating breakthroughs in materials discovery, fabrication, and qubit reliability.
Majorana 2 builds on Microsoft's Majorana 1 chip by replacing the aluminum-based topological superconductor with a lead-based design. This change better protects qubits from interference, bringing scalable quantum computing closer to reality-now expected by 2029.
The rapid progress adds to concerns over Q-Day, the point at which quantum computers could break widely used public-key cryptography, such as that securing Bitcoin. Over $461 billion worth of BTC is considered at risk due to exposed public keys. Google's Willow chip and Caltech research have also suggested that cryptography-breaking quantum computers may arrive sooner than previously estimated.