Google Claims Quantum Computing Advance

"Alphabet shares rose Tuesday, a day after its Google said it developed a new chip that moves a step forward in the tech industry's longtime dream of developing commercially relevant quantum computing.

The chip, called Willow, represents a significant advance in solving error-correction problems that have long dogged quantum computing efforts, the company said Monday. 

Google said the chip performed a computation in under five minutes that would take current supercomputers a near-eternity to do.

Quantum computing holds promise for applications from discovering new drugs to security and encryption. Quantum computing harnesses qualities of quantum mechanics to solve problems beyond the capability of traditional computers.

Even the most powerful traditional computers use binary digits, or bits, which can either be ones or zeros. 

Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which represent and store information in a quantum state that is a complex mix of zero and one.

As Google is fending off challenges to its core search business brought by artificial intelligence, the quantum breakthrough was a reminder that Google continues to be a force in cutting-edge innovation. It sparked buzz in the tech community, with Elon Musk responding "Wow" on X to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai's post announcing the quantum development.

It is unlikely to have a significant impact on Google's business soon. Quantum computers are still in the early stages and years away from large-scale commercialization. While Google's progress on the error-correction challenge is significant, industry executives say there are other engineering challenges also keeping quantum systems from being commercially viable.

"While we are years away from mainstream quantum computing, we believe Google's announcement of Willow yesterday is an important step in the long path to make quantum useful for everyday applications," RW Baird analyst Colin Sebastian said in a research note Tuesday.

In a blog post, Google showed the latest development achieved the second milestone of its six-milestone "quantum computing roadmap." Google said the next challenge for the field is to demonstrate a first "useful, beyond-classical" computation on today's quantum chips that is relevant to a real-world application.

Alphabet's stock rose 5.6% on Tuesday." [1]

1. Google Claims Quantum Computing Advance. Fitch, Asa.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 11 Dec 2024: B.4.