Microsoft has introduced Majorana 1, a quantum chip with a "Topological Core" architecture, potentially enabling powerful quantum computers within years instead of decades. The breakthrough stems from a newly developed material called a topoconductor,

Its Majorana 1 chip, made of a new material, can perform high-level computing tasks with greater speed and accuracy, Microsoft says.

Microsoft claims that building its first quantum-computing chip required that it create a new state of matter, which it is referring to as a topological state.