Microsoft's second topological quantum chip delivers qubits 1,000 times more reliable than last year's model, and the company has moved its scalable quantum computer deadline forward from 2033 to 2029.
Microsoft unveiled Majorana 2, the follow-up to the topological chip it introduced in 2025. The company credits agentic AI with driving the materials science discoveries behind the reliability leap. That improvement proved significant enough to revise the public roadmap, shaving four years off the timeline to a scalable quantum computer.
Microsoft has been the contrarian in the quantum race, betting on topological qubits while IBM and Google have spent years scaling conventional architectures. Topological qubits are theorized to be inherently more stable and error-resistant, but they have been stubbornly difficult to build reliably in hardware. If the 1,000x figure survives peer review, it would validate a decade-long wager and reshape the competitive calculus in Microsoft's favor.
Microsoft has retracted quantum claims before; a Nature paper asserting Majorana fermion evidence was pulled after internal review found data analysis problems. That history makes 2029 a deadline worth bookmarking, not banking on.