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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Microsoft announced Majorana 1 on 19 February 2025 as a chip designed to use topological qubits. The company reported eight such qubits and a design intended to scale to one million, but the million-qubit figure is a roadmap target—not a demonstrated machine. Researchers have also challenged whether the measurements establish that the devices host the topological states Microsoft claims.
What is Majorana 1?
Majorana 1 is Microsoft’s quantum-processing chip, built around what the company calls a Topological Core. Its devices combine indium arsenide, a semiconductor, with aluminum, a superconductor. They operate near absolute zero, with magnetic fields used to tune the devices.
The name refers to physicist Ettore Majorana and the Majorana modes the chip is designed to use. In this setting, a Majorana zero mode is a proposed quasiparticle state—not an ordinary particle traveling along a wire. Microsoft says its nanowires are intended to host these modes at their ends.
How is a Majorana 1 qubit supposed to work?
Encoding information in parity
Microsoft’s approach encodes information in electron parity: whether a nanowire contains an even or odd number of electrons. In the company’s description, an unpaired electron is shared between two Majorana zero modes. The aim is to make the encoded information less exposed to disturbances than information stored in a more localized state.
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Reading the state
Microsoft reports reading parity using a quantum dot and microwave reflectometry. In its 2025 account, the company gave an initial single-shot readout error probability of 1% and said parity flipped about once per millisecond on average. These are reported device measurements; by themselves, they do not establish that the observed states are topological or that the information is protected well enough for fault-tolerant computing.
How many qubits does Majorana 1 have?
Microsoft said the chip placed eight topological qubits on a single chip designed with a path to one million. The eight-qubit figure is the company’s reported chip configuration; one million is an architectural target, not a demonstrated qubit count.
The proposed scaling path starts with a tetron, a single-qubit device. Microsoft’s roadmap then describes 4×2 arrays, entanglement, measurement-based braiding, and quantum-error detection. Each is a step toward a larger system, not evidence that a million-qubit or fault-tolerant processor already exists. Microsoft technical fellow Chetan Nayak put the ambition this way: “Whatever you’re doing in the quantum space needs to have a path to a million qubits.”
Why are researchers skeptical of Microsoft’s claim?
Measurements and their interpretation are different claims
The central dispute is not simply whether the devices produced measurable signals. It is whether those measurements demonstrate the Majorana zero modes—and the topological protection—that Microsoft attributes to them. Nature’s 19 February 2025 coverage reported that researchers were skeptical of the company’s “topological qubits” claim. Its 7 March follow-up reported that an analysis challenged the test protocol behind the claim.
The tetron protocol is contested
APS Physics described a tetron as an H-shaped device in which four Majorana zero modes are expected at the wire ends. In its account, researcher Henry Legg argued that “The gap protocol is flawed” and could produce false positives. Microsoft researcher Roman Lutchyn defended the work while acknowledging that the protocol’s concerns deserved consideration. This disagreement means the claim should be treated as contested, not as an independently settled demonstration.
What the evidence does and does not establish
- Device behavior: Microsoft reported parity measurements, readout error, and parity flips.
- Topological interpretation: Microsoft interprets the results as evidence for topological Majorana modes; independent coverage describes unresolved methodological objections.
- Scalable fault-tolerant computing: A million-qubit design target and a stated development path do not demonstrate a fault-tolerant computer or establish that one is near.
Microsoft said, “Our path to useful quantum computing is clear.” That is the company’s position on its roadmap, not an independent conclusion that the path has been validated.
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What has changed since the Majorana 1 announcement?
Nature reported on 3 June 2026 that Microsoft had unveiled Majorana 2, an updated chip, while researchers remained skeptical of the company’s topological-qubit claims. The update shows that Microsoft’s program continued; it does not independently confirm that Majorana 1 conclusively demonstrated topological qubits.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can you buy or use Majorana 1?
Majorana 1 is research hardware, not a consumer quantum computer. The available information does not establish a retail price or consumer availability, and it does not describe a demonstrated fault-tolerant Majorana 1 computer that a reader can run programs on. Microsoft’s chip announcement and its longer-term scaling plan should not be confused with access to a finished machine.
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