A Truly Remarkable Breakthrough Google S New Quantum Chip Achieves

A cryostat in Google’s quantum-computing facility. Credit: Google Quantum AI Researchers at Google have built a chip that has enabled them to demonstrate the first ‘below threshold’ quantum calculations — a key milestone in the quest to build quantum computers that are accurate enough... Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription Receive 51 print issues and online access

Today’s first-ever verifiable quantum advantage was made possible by decades of investment in hardware and scientific discovery. Today, powered by our high-performance quantum chip, Willow, we have achieved the first-ever demonstration of verifiable quantum advantage. This milestone is a critical step toward realizing useful quantum computation, a feat made possible by the precision and speed engineered into our quantum hardware systems. Willow, our state-of-the-art quantum chip, is built from superconducting quantum circuits. This field of research began with the groundbreaking discovery of the macroscopic quantum effect in 1985, an achievement that earned John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John Martinis the status of 2025 Physics Nobel Laureates. Utilizing these circuits, superconducting qubits function as macroscopic "artificial atoms." Over the past 40 years, driven by the mature integrated circuit fabrication and active research in both academia and industry, these qubits have demonstrated...

This makes them a leading platform for building a fault-tolerant quantum computer. Building on the foundation of this leading platform, we set out to demonstrate its power in a complex, practical application, to take quantum computing closer to delivering real-world benefits for people. To reveal hidden information about the inner dynamics of quantum systems, such as molecules, we successfully executed the Quantum Echoes algorithm. This algorithm relies on reversing the flow of quantum data in the quantum computers, which in turn places strong demands on Willow's performance at the system scale. It requires running the Willow chip with a large set of quantum gates and a high volume of quantum measurements — two key elements required to distill useful signals from background noise. The current-generation Willow chip, benefiting from continuous post-release improvements, delivers best-in-class performance at scale.

Across its entire 105-qubit array, it features fidelities of 99.97% for single-qubit gates, 99.88% for entangling gates, and 99.5% for readout, all operating at an unmatched speed of tens to hundreds of nanoseconds. Google's new 105-qubit "Willow" quantum processor has surpassed a key milestone first proposed in 1995 — with errors now reducing exponentially as you scale up quantum computers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Google scientists have created a new quantum processor that, in five minutes, cracked a problem that would have taken the world's best supercomputer 10 septillion years to solve. The breakthrough will allow quantum computers to become less error-prone the bigger they get, achieving a milestone that overcomes a decades-long obstacle.

Quantum computers are inherently "noisy," meaning that, without error-correction technologies, every one in 1,000 qubits — the fundamental building blocks of a quan computer — fails. It also means coherence times (how long the qubits can remain in a superposition so they can process calculations in parallel) remain short. By contrast, every one in 1 billion billion bits fails in conventional computers. Algorithm performed task beyond capability of classical computers, although experts say real-world application still years away Google has claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing after developing an algorithm that performed a task beyond the capabilities of conventional computers. The algorithm, a set of instructions guiding the operation of a quantum computer, was able to compute the structure of a molecule – which paves the way for major discoveries in areas such as...

Google acknowledged, however, that real-world use of quantum computers remained years away. “This is the first time in history that any quantum computer has successfully run a verifiable algorithm that surpasses the ability of supercomputers,” Google said in a blogpost. “This repeatable, beyond-classical computation is the basis for scalable verification, bringing quantum computers closer to becoming tools for practical applications.” Keywords: Mathematics and computing; Quantum information.

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