Google's Willow Chip: Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk Discuss Quantum Computing Breakthrough

Google has made a big leap in quantum computing with its new Willow chip, which has 100 qubits. The Willow chip solves a major problem in quantum error correction that experts have been trying to fix for nearly 30 years. The chip can complete a standard benchmark computation in under five minutes. This is amazing because the fastest supercomputers today would take 10 septillion years (that's almost 1025 years) to do the same thing.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai explained, “We see Willow as an important step in our journey to build a useful quantum computer with practical applications in areas like drug discovery, fusion energy, battery design + more.” This breakthrough could help us find new medicines, better energy sources, and improve technologies like batteries.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, also noticed Willow and reacted with a simple “Wow” to Pichai’s post on X (formerly known as Twitter). In response, Pichai said, “We should do a quantum cluster in space with Starship one day.” Starship is SpaceX’s advanced spacecraft, which is designed to transport people and cargo to places like Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

Pichai also talked about the importance of using solar energy. He said, “We should scale solar so much more, amazing that we keep looking at alternatives when the most obvious path is staring at our eyes, literally!” This conversation between Pichai and Musk shows how technology, space, and energy are all connected and how quantum computing could help solve big challenges in the future.