Quantum computing research division of Google
Appears in 3 stories · Last updated Nov 1, 2026
Developing error-corrected systems toward million-qubit goal
Quantum computers could help with drug discovery, codebreaking and materials science, but only if they grow from dozens of quantum bits (qubits) to millions. The bottleneck is control: each qubit needs precisely steered light or microwaves, and thousands of cables run into refrigerators colder than deep space. Chipmakers are trying to move that control hardware onto standard production lines, as CU Boulder's December 2025 optical modulator did.
Updated Nov 1
Lead organization in the cultivation demonstration
Google just cleared a major hurdle on the path to practical quantum computing. Its Willow processor purified the "magic states" that enable universal computation with 40-fold fewer errors than conventional methods, in results published in Science.
Updated Oct 19
As of July 2026: Running dual-track quantum program: superconducting Willow and a new neutral atom effort in Boulder
Quantum computers can already outperform classical supercomputers on specific tasks, as Google's Willow chip demonstrated when it solved in five minutes a problem that would take the fastest machines 10 septillion years. The breakthrough, announced in October 2025, marks the first verifiable quantum advantage, achieved with Google's Quantum Echoes algorithm, which is 13,000 times faster than supercomputers. But scaling from 100-qubit systems to the million-qubit machines needed for real-world applications requires control hardware that doesn't exist, and current laser systems are tabletop-sized, power-hungry, and impossible to replicate thousands of times over.
Updated Jul 9
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