Nadella pushes Microsoft to build quantum computing ecosystem

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is now pushing the IT major to build a quantum computing ecosystem, a new revolutionary technology, which would allow scientists to do computations in a fraction of time. In fact, we’ve had to take a very novel approach of bringing together breakthroughs in math, fundamental physics, and computer science together, and put a system or get started on a journey to put a system that’s going to be a truly scalable general purpose quantum computer,” he said. “That broad charter has ended up putting Microsoft on the path to building the first topological qubit, a robust type of quantum bit that Microsoft believes will serve as the basis for a scalable, general purpose quantum computer system — and mark a profound breakthrough in the field of quantum physics,” she said. Microsoft’s plan to build a quantum computing ecosystem is based on Mr. Freedman’s field of math and a branch of physics so seemingly mystical, its early pioneers invoked philosophy and spirituality to describe it, and its later disciples attracted funding and support from self-help gurus in the 1970s, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen said. What Microsoft has done that’s really unique in its approach to quantum computing, which is to first of all recognise that each one of these steps is actually very hard, Mr. Freedman said.