Willow: A Quantum Leap Forward

The first remarkable aspect of Willow is its ability to exponentially reduce quantum errors as the number of qubits increases. This breakthrough paves the way to solving the problem of quantum error correction, a challenge that has remained unsolved for nearly thirty years. Secondly, Willow has demonstrated the capability to perform a standard reference calculation in less than five minutes—an operation that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers an unimaginable 10 trillion trillion years (10²⁵ years), far exceeding the age of the universe. The Willow chip represents a significant milestone in a journey that began over a decade ago. When I founded Google Quantum AI in 2012, my vision was to build a functional, large-scale quantum computer capable of leveraging quantum mechanics—the "operating system" of nature as we currently understand it—for the benefit of society. Such a computer would advance science, enable the development of useful applications, and help tackle some of the world's greatest challenges. Within Google Research, our team has laid out a long-term roadmap, and with Willow, we have achieved a critical step toward delivering commercially relevant applications.