Microsoft unveils Majorana 2 quantum chip at Build, targets 2029

At its Build conference, Microsoft unveiled Majorana 2, a qubit design that swaps the aluminum superconductor for lead and that Microsoft says more than doubles the topological gap. It cites a parity lifetime above 20 seconds in a lead-based device, and says the stack was designed with help from its Microsoft Discovery AI platform. Microsoft now targets a scalable topological quantum computer by 2029, and it says it is still characterizing the new design.

• Lead replaces aluminum as the superconductor
• Topological gap more than 2x the previous design (Microsoft claim)
• Parity lifetime above 20 seconds in an InAs-Pb device
• Target: scalable topological quantum computer by 2029
• Microsoft Discovery AI helped design the stack