Insider Brief
- Microsoft’s claims about its Majorana 1 quantum chip face internal skepticism from Amazon executives and external criticism from researchers questioning the validity of its topological test, Quartz reports.
- Amazon’s head of quantum technologies and its quantum hardware chief cast doubt on Microsoft’s claims, alleging that the company’s approach is hype in internal messages, according to Business Insider.
- A separate critique from physicist Henry Legg argues that Microsoft’s topological gap protocol (TGP) is flawed, raising concerns about whether the company’s test accurately identifies Majorana quasiparticles, while Microsoft stands by its research and plans to release more supporting data.
The clashes over Microsoft’s quantum computing claims are continuing, with top quantum executives questioning whether Microsoft’s newly announced chip delivers on its promises, according to a story in Quartz.
The dispute surfaced the same day Microsoft introduced its Majorana 1 chip, which the company said was built with a novel material — called “topological superconductors” or “topoconductors.” Microsoft described the development as a “breakthrough,” claiming it had created a new state of matter known as topological superconductivity.
But in an internal email to Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy, the company’s head of quantum technologies, Simone Severini, cast doubt on Microsoft’s assertions, Business Insider reported.
The paper Microsoft published “doesn’t actually demonstrate” its claims, Severini reportedly wrote, saying the research only suggested that the chip “could potentially enable future experiments.” He also pointed to Microsoft’s track record, noting that the company has previously had to withdraw quantum computing research papers. Amazon Web Services (AWS) chief executive Matt Garman and other executives were also recipients of the email, according to Business Insider.
Amazon’s head of quantum hardware, Oskar Painter, expressed similar skepticism in internal Slack messages reviewed by Business Insider. Painter appeared to take issue with Microsoft’s portrayal of its findings, reportedly saying there should be push back on the statements coming from Microsoft’s posts on the Majorana study.
Painter also reportedly said that Google and IBM’s quantum computing efforts are more credible, while indicating that Microsoft overstated its approach.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Quartz.
Challenge to Microsoft’s Approach
Another critique published shortly after the Majorana claims were released challenges Microsoft’s claims about its topological qubits, specifically raising questions about the test the company used to identify the elusive Majorana quasiparticles. In a preprint published on arXiv, Henry Legg, a theoretical physicist at the University of St Andrews, argues that Microsoft’s topological gap protocol (TGP) — a test for detecting Majoranas — is flawed, casting doubt on the foundation of its qubit approach.
Legg and his colleagues suggested that the test could be fooled by “false positives, doppelgangers with the electronic features of Majoranas that lacked their useful properties.”
Microsoft did not mention TGP in its February 19 announcement but later confirmed to Nature that it relied on the method.
Since the TGP is flawed, the foundations of the qubit are not there, Legg said.
Microsoft Defends Research
Microsoft defended its research. A company spokesperson told Quartz that its paper, published in Nature, underwent nearly a year of review before publication and that the study “outlined our approach” but “does not speak to our progress.” The spokesperson also said Microsoft had made “tremendous progress” since then and that the company’s quantum computing work has been validated by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Microsoft welcomes the debate on the experiment and expects the results from ongoing research to answer some of the questions, the spokesperson indicated.
“Discourse and skepticism are all part of the scientific process,” the Microsoft spokesperson told Quartz. “That is why we are dedicated to the continued open publication of our research, so that everyone can build on what others have discovered and learned.”
Microsoft said it would release more data supporting its approach “in the coming weeks and months.”
The peer review file of Microsoft’s Nature paper reportedly includes a statement that its results do not provide direct evidence for the existence of Majorana zero modes — exotic particles that are theorized to be a foundation for more stable quantum computing — but rather demonstrate findings that “might enable fusion experiments using future Majorana zero modes.”
As to Legg’s work, Chetan Nayak, who leads Microsoft’s quantum computing efforts, indicated that Legg’s critique misrepresents the findings of the study.
“The criticism can be summarized as Legg constructing a false straw man of our paper and then attacking that,” he said.
Amazon Advances
Amazon has made its own advances in the field. A week after Microsoft’s announcement, AWS unveiled Ocelot, its first-ever quantum computing chip. Amazon said the small-scale prototype was designed to test its quantum error correction architecture, which aims to reduce the additional qubits needed for error correction by up to 90%, an efficiency gain that could be crucial for scaling quantum computers.
According to AWS, reducing the number of physical qubits required to form error-corrected logical qubits could cut the resource cost by a factor of five to ten compared to conventional approaches.
“With the recent advancements in quantum research, it is no longer a matter of if, but when practical, fault-tolerant quantum computers will be available for real-world applications. Ocelot is an important step on that journey,” said Painter, in a statement. “In the future, quantum chips built according to the Ocelot architecture could cost as little as one-fifth of current approaches, due to the drastically reduced number of resources required for error correction. Concretely, we believe this will accelerate our timeline to a practical quantum computer by up to five years.”
Both Microsoft and Amazon are pursuing different pathways to practical quantum computing. Microsoft’s bet on topological qubits — if successful — could lead to more stable quantum processors that are less prone to errors. However, the technology remains unproven, with past claims about Majorana-based qubits drawing scrutiny from the scientific community. In contrast, Amazon has focused on error correction methods for more conventional qubits, an approach also pursued by Google and IBM.
