Microsoft’s quantum computing technology called into question, again
Microsoft’s quantum computing technology called into question, again
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/microsofts-quantum-computing-technology-called-150226831.html
Publish Date: 2026-06-24 11:02:00
Source Domain: ca.news.yahoo.com
By Stephen Nellis
SAN FRANCISCO, June 24 (Reuters) – A new critique in the scientific journal Nature is raising fresh questions about Microsoft’s claimed quantum computing breakthrough last year, which underpinned the company’s announcement this month that it will have a working quantum system by 2029.
Quantum computers could solve scientific and cybersecurity problems beyond the reach of conventional machines. They have become a priority for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which invested $2 billion in the field and this week set goals for a scientific quantum system by 2028.
Like Big Tech rivals IBM, Alphabet’s Google and others, Microsoft is developing its own quantum computer. But while rivals are engineering machines based on better-understood quantum technologies, Microsoft has spent nearly two decades trying to break new scientific ground on a technology it says could help it leapfrog competitors.
In a formal reply to the critique and an interview with Reuters, Microsoft said it stands behind its research and that its quantum program is making practical progress despite any concerns.
Microsoft’s scientific effort has drawn skepticism. Two previous Microsoft-backed papers were retracted from Nature, while editors flagged alerts about possible research problems in two others, one in Nature and another in Science.
Microsoft said the previously retracted papers in Nature were done outside its labs and it did not review the data in them before publication.
The peer-reviewed critique published in Nature on Wednesday by Henry Legg, a lecturer in quantum physics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, raises concerns about a fifth paper, published in February 2025, and an associated press announcement. The paper, which is not being retracted, is central to all of Microsoft’s subsequent quantum efforts.
Microsoft said publicly last year it had found the Majorana, a long-theorized subatomic particle central to its approach. However, it…
