Harnessing Topology: The Low-Error Breakthrough of Microsoft’s Majorana 1
A few months ago, on February 19th, 2025, Microsoft launched its Majorana 1 quantum computing chip. This is a significant milestone and breakthrough on several levels for both the computing and physics fields. Majorana 1 is “the world’s first quantum chip powered by a new Topological Core architecture” (Bolgar, 2025). The Topological Core architecture is the first of its kind in quantum computing. This article will not be going into detail about the nitty-gritty of quantum computing – for more on that, check out my article, “Quantum Computing and Climate Modeling” – rather, it discusses quantum computing as it relates to foundational principles of topology, computing with topoconductors, minimizing error, and what lies ahead.
Before delving into the quantum computing aspect of this article, we must first understand topology and topological states. To start, topology is “a branch of mathematics that describes properties that can change only in discrete steps rather than in a continuous flow. It can help explain some types of matter with exotic electronic abilities – for example, materials that are insulators in their bulk but conduct like metals on their surface” (Savage, 2018). Essentially, this branch of mathematics examines how objects can change only when they reach a certain threshold, rather than gradually. In materials science, this concept helps explain how some materials can be non-conductive internally while being conductive on their surfaces. To go one further, a topological state is “a phase of matter where the system’s essential properties are defined by its global, overall structure rather than by local details” (OpenAI, 2025).
A great analogy described by Neil Savage to better comprehend this topic is the coffee cup analogy. Savage writes, “a classic example of a topological system is a coffee cup. A coffee cup is a vessel for holding liquid with a handle containing a hole attached to its side. If you were to stretch out or warp the handle and elongate and deform the cylinder, you would have a strange-looking cup, but you still would have preserved the topology of the coffee cup. It is still recognizable as a coffee cup, and it still functions as a coffee cup” (Savage, 2018). This is handy as it relates to minimizing error, which will be discussed later.
Microsoft has leveraged these principles to create a quantum chip that uses topological states to encode quantum information in a way that minimizes the impact of local disturbances. Microsoft stated that Majorana 1 “leverages the world’s first topo conductor, a breakthrough type of material which can observe and control Majorana particles to produce more reliable and scalable qubits” (Bolgar, 2025). More on Majorana particles below. Microsoft has also described the topo conductor or topological superconductor as “a special category of material that can create an entirely new state of matter – not a solid, liquid or gas, but a topological state” (Bolgar, 2025). But how does this differ from traditional quantum computing? Well, it lies in the ways in which information is encoded.
Both the Majorana 1 chip and others, such as Google’s and IBM’s, rely on quantum entanglement and superposition to perform calculations. That hasn’t changed. Traditionally, companies such as Google and IBM have encoded information locally, meaning each qubit is confined to a specific physical element, such as a superconducting circuit or ion trap. A significant limitation of this method is its susceptibility to environmental disturbances. This requires complex error correction techniques to protect against noise, resulting in significant overhead.
In contrast, Microsoft’s approach with the Majorana 1 chip encodes information nonlocally using Majorana zero modes. Simply put, Majorana zero modes are considered quasiparticles. “The zero mode here refers to the zero-energy midgap excitations that these localized quasiparticles typically correspond to in a low-dimensional topological superconductor” (Sarma et al., 2015). Further description of this topic is more technical, requiring in-depth explanations of other concepts that this article does not aim to cover; suffice it to say that Majorana zero modes are the key building blocks for storing and processing quantum information within that topological phase.
Encoding information non-locally enables quantum systems to naturally protect against local disturbances, reducing the need for extensive error correction and paving the way for more stable and scalable quantum computing architectures. Below are a few quotes that outline this.
“The world’s first Topological Core powering the Majorana 1 is reliable by design, incorporating error resistance at the hardware level making it more stable” (Bolgar, 2025) – Microsoft
“Information being handled by the topological qubits is less likely to lose its coherence, resulting in a more fault-tolerant system” (Fernandez, 2025) – University of California
“Microsoft’s approach simplifies quantum error correction through a measurement-based method using digital pulses, further supporting the idea that the 1 million figure refers to raw qubits with enhanced stability” (Wang, 2025) – Next Big Future
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a published paper from Microsoft detailing their findings and statistics as they relate to the above. They had published a paper on February 19, 2025, but it only outlined their research on topological qubits as it relates to their methodology of measuring the qubits rather than showcasing performance statistics.
Both the Majorana 1 chip and others, such as Google’s and IBM’s, rely on quantum entanglement and superposition to perform calculations. That hasn’t changed. However, as of now, Microsoft’s Majorana 1 only contains eight qubits. Not much can be done with this amount of qubits, it is more to demonstrate proof of concept. In comparison, this amount is far less than Google’s “53-qubit Sycamore quantum processor” (Tepanyan, 2025) and IBM’s Condor “comprising 1121 superconducting quantum bit processors” (Abbasi, 2023). While this isn’t practical for large computing, it shows that computing with topological superconductors is possible, offering, as Microsoft described, “a clear path to fit a million qubits on a single chip that can fit in the palm of one’s hand” (Bolgar, 2025).
To give more of a perspective or scale of what number of qubits can do what, 100 raw qubits would allow for some early fault-tolerant algorithms. Ten thousand raw qubits would allow support for more complex problems, such as simulating small to medium molecular systems. These answers were provided by OpenAI, as these numbers and applications are just theories. We have yet to build a quantum computer incorporating that many qubits, so we can only speculate about its potential. With Microsoft demonstrating its ability to create a quantum computer that incorporates topological principles, the groundwork is set for a new wave of fault-tolerant quantum processing.
Works Cited
Abbasi, I. (2023). Understanding IBM’s 1000 qubit Quantum Chip. Retrieved from https://www.azoquantum.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=482#:~:text=Several%20companies%20are%20developing%20software%20and%20hardware%20for%20modern%20computers.
Bolgar, C. (2025). Microsoft’s Majorana 1 chip carves new path for quantum computing. Retrieved from https://news.microsoft.com/source/features/innovation/microsofts-majorana-1-chip-carves-new-path-for-quantum-computing/
Fernandez, S. (2025). “we have created a new state of matter”: New Topological Quantum Processor Marks Breakthrough in computing. Retrieved from https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/we-have-created-new-state-matter-new-topological-quantum-processor-marks-breakthrough
OpenAI. (2025, March 10). Response to “What are topological states?” [ChatGPT output]. ChatGPT. https://chat.openai.com
Sarma, S., Freedman, M., & Nayak, C. (2015). Majorana zero modes and topological quantum computation. Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/npjqi20151
Savage, N. (2018). Topological materials move from the world of theoretical physics to Experimental Chemistry. Retrieved from https://cen.acs.org/materials/electronic-materials/Topological-materials-move-world-theoretical/96/i26
Tepanyan, H. (2025). Google Quantum Computer: Shaping Tomorrow’s technology. Retrieved from https://www.bluequbit.io/google-quantum-computer
Wang, B. (2025). Microsoft Majorana 1 chip has 8 qubits right now with a roadmap to 1 million raw qubits. Retrieved from https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2025/02/microsoft-majorana-1-chip-has-8-qubits-right-now-with-a-roadmap-to-1-million-raw-qubits.html
