{"id":2660,"date":"2026-06-25T01:43:05","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T01:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=2660"},"modified":"2026-06-25T01:43:05","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T01:43:05","slug":"nature-microsoft-quantum-computing-majorana-1-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=2660","title":{"rendered":"A new paper argues Microsoft exaggerated its quantum claims a year ago"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n

A critique published in Nature<\/em><\/a> Wednesday calls the basic technology behind Microsoft\u2019s \u201cbreakthrough\u201d quantum computing chip the Majorana 1 into question. Microsoft unveiled the chip in February 2025 and said it featured a brand-new technology known as a topological qubit. Topological qubits, they said, would be the \u201cbuilding blocks\u201d for their future quantum computer. Microsoft announced the next generation chip Majorana 2<\/a> at Build earlier this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

But in a peer-reviewed article, Henry Legg, a physicist at the University of St Andrews, reanalyzed Microsoft\u2019s data on their device and argued that the company\u2019s researchers did not conclusively demonstrate a working topological qubit in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Theory predicts that the electrons in this wire behave in a collective pattern known as a Majorana particle, for which the chip is named.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Proponents of quantum computing predict that the technology\u2019s computational abilities will advance new medicine discovery, encryption, and machine learning. Companies like Google<\/a> and IBM <\/a>have already demonstrated more advanced machines than Majorana 1 or 2, although presently, no one has conclusively gotten any quantum computer to perform anything useful. But Microsoft claimed that Majorana 1, and subsequently Majorana 2, paved their path toward a practical quantum computer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Microsoft\u2019s design, unique among quantum computing companies, involves a tiny wire, thinner than a human hair, made of the semiconductor indium arsenide stuck to a superconductor. Theory predicts that the electrons in this wire behave in a collective pattern known as a Majorana particle, for which the chip is named. Microsoft wants to encode information in the properties of the Majorana particle. (A topological qubit is to a Majorana particle as a transistor is to silicon.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Proponents of the Majorana particle think it is promising qubit material because theory predicts that when formed into topological qubits, the Majorana should compute with fewer errors than competing materials, such as superconducting circuits pursued by IBM. This suggests that ultimately, fewer topological qubits are needed to scale up to a useful quantum computer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

That is, if Microsoft has actually made a Majorana particle. \u201cThey haven\u2019t convincingly shown that they have Majoranas,\u201d Legg told The Verge<\/em>. \u201cYou can\u2019t make a qubit if you don\u2019t have the Majoranas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

In Legg\u2019s critique, he writes that what Microsoft claims as a signature of the Majorana particle could actually be from the formation of quantum dots, which are electron-containing structures, in the device. Quantum dots would not be useful for building the quantum computer. He also writes that Microsoft cherry-picked their data.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t make a qubit if you don\u2019t have the Majoranas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Microsoft\u2019s team published a rebuttal in Nature<\/em> disputing Legg\u2019s interpretation of their data. Legg\u2019s critique \u201cdoes not constitute a substantial scientific challenge to our findings,\u201d the Microsoft team wrote. Legg has not \u201cproposed an alternative model that fits all of our data,\u201d Chetan Nayak, a physicist leading Microsoft\u2019s quantum team, told The Verge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Legg first posted his critique on the online physics repository arXiv on March 11, 2025, within a month of Microsoft\u2019s Majorana 1 announcement. It took a year for Nature<\/em> to conduct a peer review and publish his article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Meanwhile, on June 2, Microsoft announced a new chip, the Majorana 2, featuring what they claimed was the next generation of their topological qubits. The company says they can build a \u201cscalable quantum computer\u201d by 2029. \u201cWe 100% stand behind our results,\u201d Nayak told The Verge<\/em>. \u201cWe stand by our roadmap. We stand behind our long-standing commitment to scientific rigor and dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Legg says the company\u2019s characterization of Majorana 2, which Microsoft wrote in a non-peer reviewed manuscript, suffers from similar problems he pointed out a year ago.<\/a> \u201cNothing in this [manuscript] resolves the fundamental issues that so many scientists have with this company\u2019s previous claims,\u201d Legg told The Verge<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Correction, June 24th: <\/strong>An earlier version of this article misstated<\/em> the original date of publication of Legg\u2019s critique<\/em>. It was posted on March 11, 2025, not February 26, 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/span><\/p>\n