A person shows Google Quantum AI’s “Willow” chip, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on December 6, 2024.
Google | Via Reuters
Alphabet shares rose 5% during trading on Tuesday, the day after the company hailed its latest quantum computing chip as a “breakthrough.”
The Google parent company on Monday revealed “Willow,” a quantum computing chip that the company said performed significantly better on a quantum computing benchmark than its predecessor did in 2019. Willow, like similar quantum chips, uses uncertain “qubits” to represent numbers instead of transistors, which are used on traditional semiconductors. Google said its technology can reduce expected errors faster than they appear as quantum chips get bigger, which has been a bottleneck in the development of better quantum computers.
Willow is the second milestone in a six-step strategy to develop quantum computers that can perform useful applications, Google said. The chip has about 100 qubits, but Google is planning to eventually build a system with 1 million qubits.
“Willow brings us closer to running practical, commercially-relevant algorithms that can’t be replicated on conventional computers,” Google wrote in a blog post, adding that the experiment is evidence that suggests that reality is comprised of parallel universes.
“We see Willow as an important step in our journey to build a useful quantum computer with practical applications in areas like drug discovery, fusion energy, battery design + more,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on X.
When quantum computing matures, it is expected to be useful for large-scale simulations and code breaking, but that may not be possible for years or decades. Google isn’t the only tech giant working on quantum computing. Nvidia, Microsoft and IBM are also working on the technology, in addition to researchers at startups and universities.
Google’s announcement was praised on social media by several technology business figures, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“We should do a quantum cluster in space with Starship one day,” Pichai replied to Musk.