Microsoft’s Shocking Announcement Could Redefine Computing

Last December Google unveiled an experimental quantum computer that shocked the world.

It completed a calculation that would take our most advanced supercomputers 10 septillion years to accomplish.

To put that into perspective, a septillion is a 10 followed by 24 zeros…

In years, that’s longer than the universe has existed.

Yet, Google’s quantum machine accomplished this task in only five minutes.

Naturally, this brought a lot of attention to the field of quantum computing, generating headlines like this one from The New York Times:

Quantum Computing Inches Closer to
Reality After Another Google Breakthrough

It also caused the share prices of many quantum-computing-focused companies to skyrocket.

But the euphoria over Google’s quantum breakthrough didn’t last long.

In early January Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang publicly predicted that we are decades away from useful quantum computing.

His exact words were: “If you said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side. If you said 30, it’s probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it.”

That single statement helped tank the price of many of those previously high-flying quantum stocks, with some dropping nearly 50% off their highs.

It also temporarily poured cold water on the idea that useful quantum computers were right around the corner.

But based on Microsoft’s shocking reveal last week, useful quantum computers could be here much sooner than anyone ever imagined.

What Makes a Computer Quantum?

Before we get into Microsoft’s announcement, let’s do a quick review of the difference between regular and quantum computers.

Regular computers like your laptop processes information using bits. These bits can either be a 1 or a 0.

It’s like a light switch. On or off, one choice at a time.

Quantum computers, on the other hand, use something called qubits.

Qubits make quantum computers exponentially more powerful than regular computers because they exist in a superposition of multiple possible states.

In other words, a qubit can represent a 0 or a 1…

But it can also represent any proportion of 0 and 1, with a certain probability of being a 0 and a certain probability of being a 1.

That might sound confusing…

Actually, it is. But that’s quantum physics for you.

All you need to understand is that the superpositional state of qubits allows quantum computers to calculate solutions to problems simultaneously (all at one time) instead of sequentially (in order) like normal computers do.

This enables quantum computers to process certain calculations in a tiny fraction of the time it would take even our most advanced supercomputers years, decades or even millennia to accomplish.

Quantum computers excel at complex calculations like cracking codes or understanding the inner workings of molecules.

They’ll be able to design next-generation medicines, build better batteries…

And quantum computing could be a key factor in how artificial intelligence evolves.

But there’s a catch.

You see, quantum computers are extremely tricky to build because qubits are fragile.

Think of a qubit like a soap bubble. The second you touch it — or in this case, try to read the data inside it — it pops.

This is called decoherence.

Decoherence is a major hurdle to making quantum computers useful because it can lead to errors in their output.

Google has developed complex error-correction techniques to get around this.

But Microsoft has taken a different approach to decoherence.

And here’s where things get even stranger…

A New State of Matter

Remember back in elementary school when we learned that everything around us exists in one of three states — solid, liquid or gas?

Microsoft just announced that they’ve created a brand-new state of matter.

They’re calling this new material a topoconductor.

According to Microsoft, this topoconductor is: “a breakthrough type of material which can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits.”

For the record, that Majorana particle is a subatomic particle that was only theorized until recently.

But that might not be the most fascinating part of Microsoft’s announcement.

See, early computers used to run on vacuum tubes.

In fact, the first commercially produced digital computer — the UNIVAC I — used 5,000 vacuum tubes and weighed 16,000 pounds.

Today’s quantum computers are similarly unwieldy. They are large and require highly controlled environments to function properly.

So how were we able to develop relatively tiny smartphones, laptop computers and all the other advanced electronics we use today?

Transistors.

These tiny semiconductors are the basic building blocks of modern electronics.

And by leveraging these new topoconductors, Microsoft essentially just created: “the transistor for the quantum age.”

It’s a new architecture for quantum computing that’s able to fit 1 million qubits into a chip small enough to hold in the palm of your hand.

Microsoft scientists say that just one of these tiny chips will eventually contain more computation power than all the combined computation power on the planet today.

And this new technology should lead to a more stable and practical quantum computer.

According to Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella: “To think that we can build a million-qubit quantum computer in a thing of this size is unbelievable. Unless and until we could do that, you can’t dream of building a utility scale quantum computer.”

Here’s My Take

Whoever cracks quantum computing first could have a huge advantage in cybersecurity, medicine and a host of other technologies.

And I believe quantum computing could be a game-changer when it comes to developing artificial super intelligence (ASI.)

Because of this, the race to achieve useful quantum computing first could just be as important as the race for ASI.

They go hand in hand.

China has poured over $15 billion into quantum research, and the European Union has committed more than $7 billion.

But so far, the U.S. has relied on companies like Microsoft, Google and a wave of startups to lead the charge.

And it’s unclear where the U.S. stands in the quantum race.

After all, Microsoft’s scientists admit that their topoconductor technology still makes too many errors to be useful.

Their goal now is to scale up, improve reliability and eventually build a machine that can outperform today’s best supercomputers.

Experts are split on how soon this will happen.

But Microsoft thinks we’re looking at years, not decades.

If they’re right, we could be on the brink of a technological shift that would make today’s AI boom look like a warm-up act.

Regards,

Ian King
Chief Strategist, Banyan Hill Publishing