A look at a secretive team of quantum researchers at Alphabet's X, who are focused on creating new algorithms and applications to run on quantum computers
Google's parent touted its quantum supremacy achievement last year. It doesn't talk about a group at X working on software. Tweets: @glenngabe , @scottthurm , @tsimonite , @gregoryjbarber , and @nxthompson Tweets: Glenn Gabe / @glenngabe : When people say Google can't do this or that algorithmically... the response should be “yet” :) -> Google X's secretive team of quantum researchers are focused on creating new algorithms to run on quantum computers https://www.wired.com/... https://twitter.com/... Scott Thurm / @scottthurm : Google got a lot of publicity for its quantum supremacy demonstration. But Alphabet has a second quantum computing team it doesn't like to talk about. @tsimonite uncovers it here https://www.wired.com/... via @wired Tom Simonite / @tsimonite : X, the lab formerly known as Google X, has a quantum computing research team—a quiet sister to Google's much-hyped quantum project. X says it doesn't have a quantum moonshot, but Alphabet creating a 2nd quantum team shows it thinks this tech is important https://www.wired.com/... Gregory Barber / @gregoryjbarber : TIL the head of Alphabet's secretive quantum computing team ran for NYC mayor on a platform that included giving everyone a pair of Google Glasses. (He got 0.3 percent of the vote.) via @tsimonite https://www.wired.com/... Nicholas Thompson / @nxthompson : Alphabet has a big quantum hardware team that they like to talk about. And a second team working on quantum software that they've been keeping very secret. https://www.wired.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Coming off Google's 2019 quantum supremacy claim and Fortune's side-by-side look at how IBM, Google, and Microsoft are approaching quantum computing, this Wired report surfaces the part of Alphabet's effort it doesn't publicize: a research team inside X building algorithms and applications rather than hardware. The tension is structural — relationships note that X simultaneously says it has no quantum moonshot project, so the software work sits outside the lab's official project list.
That matters because the later arc of X runs through portfolio discipline: by 2024 Bloomberg profiled the lab's push to spin projects off as independent startups after years of debate about what belongs inside Alphabet. An unlisted quantum software team is exactly the kind of asset whose ownership becomes a live question under that model.
First-order effects
- Google's public quantum narrative is built on the supremacy demonstration, but the X team means its application-layer work proceeds quietly, decoupled from the hardware milestone cycle that IBM and Microsoft are racing on.
Second-order effects
- Rivals named in the Fortune overview — IBM and Microsoft — face pressure to match not just qubit counts but algorithm and applications talent, since the team's existence signals Alphabet believes software, not hardware alone, is where quantum value lands.
Third-order effects
- If X's spin-off path holds, a mature quantum software effort could eventually be separated from Alphabet entirely, echoing the lab's broader shift from housing moonshots indefinitely to graduating them as companies.
The trend: Quantum computing competition is shifting from headline hardware milestones toward control of the algorithms-and-applications layer, with Alphabet hedging by keeping its software effort outside its official moonshot roster.