Google has announced a major milestone in quantum computing, revealing that its researchers have developed an algorithm capable of performing a task beyond the reach of conventional supercomputers.
The new algorithm successfully computed the structure of a molecule—an achievement the company says could pave the way for breakthroughs in medicine and materials science.
“This is the first time in history that any quantum computer has successfully run a verifiable algorithm that surpasses the ability of supercomputers,” Google said in a blog post. “This repeatable, beyond-classical computation is the basis for scalable verification, bringing quantum computers closer to becoming tools for practical applications.”
The company acknowledged, however, that widespread real-world use of quantum computers remains several years away.
Michel Devoret, chief scientist at Google’s Quantum AI unit and a recent Nobel laureate in physics, described the result as “another milestone” for the field. “This marks a new step towards full-scale quantum computation,” he said.
According to a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature on Wednesday, Google’s quantum computer performed the molecular calculation 13,000 times faster than a classical system could.
Experts have hailed the feat as a demonstration of “quantum advantage,” a term used when a quantum computer performs a calculation that no classical computer can efficiently replicate.
Winfried Hensinger, a professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex, said the breakthrough was significant but cautioned against overhyping its immediate implications. “It’s important to understand the task Google has achieved is not quite as revolutionary as some of the world-changing applications that are anticipated for quantum computers,” he said. “However, it is yet another convincing proof that quantum computers are gradually becoming more and more powerful.”
Despite the achievement, fully fault-tolerant quantum computers capable of solving complex, real-world problems are still years away. Experts say such systems would require hundreds of thousands to millions of qubits—the fundamental units of quantum information—while current machines remain limited and highly unstable.
Hartmut Neven, Google’s vice president of engineering, said the algorithm—dubbed quantum echoes—could accelerate progress toward that future. “Real-world use of quantum computers might still be five years away,” Neven said, “but each breakthrough brings that future closer.”
