Alphabet Inc. Class C (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) achieves major breakthrough in quantum chip technology, could see practical applications within five years.

Alphabet(GOOG.US,GOOGL.US) announced that a quantum algorithm running on its "Willow" quantum chip has successfully achieved reproducible verification surpassing traditional supercomputers, marking a crucial step towards practical applications of quantum computing. The research was published in the Wednesday issue of "Nature". Alphabet Inc. Class C stated that this achievement has opened a pathway for quantum technology to be implemented in the next five years. The algorithm, called "Quantum Echoes", is highlighted by its verifiability, meaning that the results can be replicated on another quantum platform, providing the credibility necessary for both research and industrialization. Alphabet Inc. Class C stated that "Quantum Echoes" runs 13,000 times faster than the fastest supercomputer globally and has the potential to play a role in areas such as drug development and materials science. Alphabet's stock price rose 2.4% during Wednesday's trading. Tom O'Brien, a scientist from Alphabet Inc. Class C's Quantum AI team, stated: "Verifiability is a huge step towards real-world applications, and this result is pushing quantum into the mainstream." This is another milestone for Alphabet Inc. Class C in the quantum race. Last December, the company announced that Willow could solve a problem in 5 minutes that would take a traditional supercomputer 10 septillion years to complete. Microsoft Corporation(MSFT.US), IBM(IBM.US), and several startups are also advancing the commercialization of quantum computing. However, a long-standing challenge in this field is how to make quantum computing power usable for practical tasks. Scott Aaronson, a professor at the University of Texas and an industry authority, praised this as a "major breakthrough in one of the hardest problems of recent years", but also warned that there are still significant challenges to achieving commercial practicality and "fault-tolerant scalability". A collaborative paper shows that this algorithm can be used to accurately calculate atomic distances in molecules, providing cutting-edge tools for fields such as drug design and battery material development. However, for this application to be truly realized, the scale of quantum computing power would need to be 10,000 times that of current machines. Michel H. Devoret, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics in 2025, is part of Alphabet Inc. Class C's team. The company stated that it will continue to advance practical business and research applications by expanding chip sizes and improving accuracy.