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#Microsoft now says it has created a new state of #matter in its quest to make a powerful machine, called a #quantum #computer, that could accelerate the development of everything from #batteries to #medicines to #AI.

On Wednesday, Microsoft’s scientists said they had built what is known as a “topological qubit” based on this new phase of physical existence, which could be harnessed to solve mathematical, scientific & technological problems.

With the development, #Microsoft is raising the stakes in what is set to be the next big technological contest, beyond today’s race over #AI. Scientists have chased the dream of a #quantum #computer — a machine that could exploit the strange & exceedingly powerful behavior of subatomic particles or very cold objects — since the 1980s.

The push heated up in December when #Google unveiled an experimental quantum #computer that needed just 5 mins to complete a calculation that most supercomputers could not finish in 10 septillion years — longer than the age of the known universe.

#Microsoft’s #quantum #technology could leapfrog the methods under development at Google.

As part of its research, #Microsoft built multiple topological qubits inside a new kind of #computer chip that combines the strengths of the semiconductors that power classical #computers with the superconductors that are typically used to build a #quantum computer.

When such a chip is cooled to extremely low temperatures, it behaves in unusual & powerful ways that Microsoft believes will allow it to solve technological, mathematical & scientific problems that classical machines never could.