Google says it has cracked a quantum computing challenge with new chip

Google on Monday said that it has overcome a key challenge in quantum computing with a new generation of chip, solving a computing problem in five minutes that would take a classical computer more time than the history of the universe. Like other tech giants such as Microsoft and IBM, Alphabet’s Google is chasing quantum computing because it promises computing speeds far faster than today’s fastest systems. In 2019, IBM challenged Google’s claim that Google’s quantum chip solved a problem that would take a classical computer 10,000 years, saying the problem could be solved in two-and-a-half days using different technical assumptions about a classical system. Even under the most idealistic conditions, Google said a classical computer would still take a billion years to get the same results as its newest chip.