Microsoft started going down this road nearly 20 years ago, and that research has now yielded what looks like a significant quantum-computing breakthrough. The Majorana 1 chip contains eight qubits, or quantum bits, far fewer than top-tier quantum computers currently in operation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS Amazon on Thursday unveiled its first quantum computing chip, about a week after rival Microsoft announced its first chip devoted to the nascent technology.The new chip, called Ocelot, can cut the “costs of implementing quantum error correction by up to 90%,

Google's parent company, announced its new quantum computing chip. This started a frenzy of trading in pure-play quantum computing stocks like Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) and D-Wave (NYSE: QBTS).

Microsoft on Wednesday announced Majorana 1, its first quantum computing chip. The achievement comes after the company has spent nearly two decades of research in the field.

Microsoft has outlined its research in a peer-reviewed paper published today in Nature, explaining how its researchers were able to create the topological qubit. Microsoft has helped create a new material made from indium arsenide and aluminum, and it has placed eight topological qubits on a chip that it hopes can eventually scale to 1 million.

Its Majorana 1 chip, made of a new material, can perform high-level computing tasks with greater speed and accuracy, Microsoft says.

Quantum computing stocks advanced on Thursday after Microsoft launched a new chip that indicated the technology is not "decades away" as stated by the top boss of AI chip bellwether Nvidia.

Shares of quantum computing companies wavered on Thursday after jumping yesterday on renewed investor interest in the nascent technology.

Innovation is pouring out of the big technology companies. From hand-controlled augmented reality glasses at Meta Platforms, self-driving car commercialization at Alphabet, and robot-controlled warehouses at Amazon,