Microsoft says it has demonstrated, with Quantinuum, logical operations with the largest number of error-corrected qubits yet, and partners with Atom Computing
Microsoft Quantum and Quantinuum demonstrate the first combination of computation and error correction in quantum computing, creating 12 highly reliable logical qubits. Plus, HPC, AI, and quantum computing were used together to solve a real-world chemistry problem for the first time according to the blog post! … X: Konstantinos Karagiannis / @konstanthacker : Consider the logical qubits coming from Quantinuum and other quantum computing companies in the next year or two. We are about to have machines that cannot be simulated by classical computers. [image] @quantinuumqc : Today, we unveiled our roadmap to universal, fault-tolerant quantum computing by 2030. Here's what you need to know: https://www.quantinuum.com/... [image] Michael P Gibson / @william_blake : “Lastly, as we expand our Azure Quantum compute platform, we are excited to announce that Microsoft and Atom Computing are coming together to ultimately build the world's most powerful quantum machine.” Great news from 1517 port co @Atom_Computing https://blogs.microsoft.com/ ... @microsoft : We've reached a new era in quantum computing. Today, we're announcing the best performing logical qubits on record and will provide priority access to reliable quantum hardware in Azure Quantum. https://blogs.microsoft.com/ .... #AzureQuantum #Quantum @QuantinuumQC @Atom_Computing [image] LinkedIn: Mark Russinovich : Microsoft and Quantinuum demonstrate the best performing logical qubits on record, achieving the largest number of error corrected qubits … Travis H. : Today, Microsoft and Quantinuum achieved a significant breakthrough in Quantum Computing by demonstrating error correction across 12 Logical Qubits for a real-world chemistry simulation. … Kevin Peesker : 🚀 Exciting times at Microsoft as we announce a groundbreaking milestone in our journey towards quantum computing excellence. … Nicholas McQuire : VERY Exciting announcements from Microsoft today at Quantum World Congress 2024 in Virginia, bringing the promise of quantum computing at scale even closer to reality. … Aseem Datar : 12! — We have achieved yet another record towards our realising a quantum future. — At Microsoft, we have applied our improved qubit virtualization system … Krysta Svore : We are excited to announce that Microsoft and Atom Computing are coming together to develop a new generation of reliable quantum hardware … Forums: Msmash / Slashdot : Microsoft Performs Operations With Multiple Error-Corrected Qubits Ars OpenForum : Microsoft performs operations with multiple error-corrected qubits
Context & Ripple Effects
This builds on Microsoft and Quantinuum’s earlier error-correction result across more than 14,000 experiments, shifting the emphasis from demonstrating protected qubits to carrying out logical operations with them. The added Atom Computing partnership broadens Microsoft’s hardware relationships while Azure Quantum is positioned as the access layer.
The collaboration also connects quantum hardware to an application workflow using HPC and AI for chemistry. Later coverage of Microsoft and Atom Computing’s 1,000-plus-physical-qubit enterprise plan makes this partnership a concrete part of Microsoft’s route from logical-qubit demonstrations to deployable systems.
First-order effects
- Microsoft and Quantinuum can point to 12 highly reliable logical qubits and a combined computation-and-error-correction demonstration, strengthening the practical relevance of their prior error-correction work.
- Atom Computing gains a formal role in Microsoft’s reliable-hardware strategy, while Azure Quantum is set to offer customers priority access to the resulting hardware.
Second-order effects
- Quantum hardware vendors will face greater pressure to show logical operations and reliability, not only larger physical-qubit counts; the relevant competitive unit increasingly becomes the usable logical qubit.
- The chemistry workflow raises the value of integration among quantum processors, HPC and AI, making cloud-platform orchestration and hybrid tooling more important alongside hardware advances.
Third-order effects
- If logical-qubit reliability continues to improve, quantum competition may reorganize around full systems stacks—hardware, error correction, classical compute and cloud delivery—rather than any single qubit technology.
- The gap between laboratory claims and customer-ready capability will remain a key execution risk: records and roadmaps need repeatable workloads and accessible hardware before they establish broad commercial advantage.
The trend: Quantum computing is moving from physical-qubit milestones toward hybrid, error-corrected logical-qubit systems evaluated by whether they can run useful workloads reliably.