Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab on Tuesday unveiled a new quantum computing chip that it redesigned with the help of AI, saying it now believes it will have commercially useful quantum machines by 2029.
The new target date puts Microsoft on track to have quantum computers the same year as rival IBM (IBM.N), opens new tab, which last month said it plans to spend $10 billion on quantum machines. It also spun out a company to make quantum chips for others, with backing from President Donald Trump's administration.
Microsoft had not previously given a target year for the new chip, saying only that it would be a matter of years, not decades.
Microsoft and IBM are racing against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, Amazon (AMZN.O) , opens new tab and several Chinese efforts to develop quantum systems that could crack problems in medicine, chemistry and cybersecurity that would take conventional computers thousands of years. On Tuesday, Microsoft unveiled a new chip called Majorana 2, a follow-on from its first Majorana chip last year.
