Microsoft Majorana 1 is a quantum chip announced on February 19, 2025. It uses the company’s Topological Core architecture, which is designed to encode quantum information in topological qubits. It is a research milestone—not a consumer device or a commercially useful quantum computer available today.
What does “Majorana 1” mean?
Majorana 1 is Microsoft’s name for its topological quantum-computing chip. The company describes it as a step toward building quantum computers that can scale to solve practical problems. That is a development goal, not evidence that this chip already performs useful, large-scale computations. Microsoft’s February 2025 announcement presents the chip and its architecture.
“Majorana” refers to Majorana zero modes: unusual quantum states that, in Microsoft’s proposed design, are expected to form at the ends of suitable superconducting nanowires when the wire is in the intended topological phase. The “1” identifies the chip; it does not indicate that the device contains one qubit.
How is the proposed topological qubit supposed to work?
A qubit is a unit of quantum information. Microsoft’s design aims to encode that information in properties of a topological phase, rather than relying only on a local property of an individual particle or atom.
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- Combine materials: A semiconductor nanowire is placed near a superconductor.
- Reach the intended conditions: The materials and operating conditions are meant to produce a topological phase in the wire.
- Form end states: In that phase, Microsoft says Majorana zero modes are expected at the wire’s two ends, with an energy gap along the rest of the wire.
- Encode information: The architecture aims to use the resulting topological properties to represent quantum information.
Microsoft’s topological-qubits explainer describes this as the basis for the approach. It explains the company’s design, but by itself does not settle scientific debate about whether the intended states have been achieved or how well the architecture performs.
Why pursue topological qubits?
The motivation is protection from errors. Microsoft says topological encoding could make qubits less sensitive to local disturbances because the information is associated with a broader topological property rather than a single local feature. This is the intended advantage of the design, not an established performance comparison showing that Majorana 1 is more reliable than other quantum hardware.
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Microsoft’s explainer gives context for the scale it believes future quantum machines will require. It describes current systems generally as having qubit counts in the hundreds and error rates around 1% to 0.1%. It says a future machine capable of challenging scientific and commercial problems would need one million stable qubits and error rates much less than 1 in 1,000. These are broad figures and requirements from Microsoft’s explainer—not Majorana 1 specifications or measured results.
What has been established, and what remains under evaluation?
Majorana 1’s announcement describes Microsoft’s chip and the company’s approach. The claims about the architecture’s promise should be distinguished from independently established performance: the available reports do not provide a consistent benchmark that would support ranking Majorana 1 against other quantum-computing platforms.
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On September 29, 2026, TechRadar reported that DARPA had on-site access to a newer Microsoft topological system based on Majorana 2 for evaluation. That access creates an opportunity for independent testing; it is not an evaluation result or an endorsement. The report also noted continuing scientific skepticism about earlier performance claims. TechRadar’s report on DARPA access describes the evaluation opportunity.
How does Majorana 2 fit in?
Majorana 2 is Microsoft’s follow-on chip, announced in June 2026. Tom’s Hardware reported that Microsoft changed the superconductor from aluminum to lead and updated the semiconductor active region. The outlet also reported Microsoft’s target of a practical quantum machine by 2029. That date is a company roadmap target, not a guaranteed delivery date, and the report does not establish an independent benchmark or outcome for the newer chip. Tom’s Hardware’s Majorana 2 report covers the announcement and target.
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Is Majorana 1 available to buy or use?
No consumer version, compatible accessory, or public-use product is identified in the cited announcement and technical explainer. Majorana 1 is a research chip and part of Microsoft’s effort to develop scalable quantum computing, not a PC component or a service consumers can use to run everyday software.
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