Santa Barbara, California: Hidden inside a Google facility in California, a machine named Willow is redefining the limits of computation.
Operating at temperatures colder than outer space, the quantum computer can solve problems in minutes that would take classical supercomputers trillions of years — marking a major step toward practical, real-world quantum power.
It is a quantum computer, operating on principles that fundamentally redefine what computation can achieve.
BBC economics editor Faisal Islam describes it as resembling “a golden chandelier” and housing “the coldest place in the known universe.” Yet beneath its striking appearance lies technology pivotal to global financial security, Bitcoin encryption, government secrets, and the future of the world economy.
Willow consists of an oil barrel–sized stack of circular discs connected by hundreds of black control wires, descending into a bronze liquid helium bath refrigerator. This system cools the quantum microchip to just one-thousandth of a degree above absolute zero — conditions necessary for quantum behavior to emerge.
There are no screens or keyboards. Instead, each quantum computer is given a distinctive name — such as Yakushima or Mendocino — wrapped in contemporary art, with graffiti-style murals lining the facility walls. It is a fusion of advanced science and human creativity.
According to Hartmut Neven, head of Google Quantum AI, the Willow chip has settled “once and for all” the debate over whether quantum computers can outperform classical computers in meaningful tasks.
This breakthrough is not merely theoretical. The achievement has already been applied to the Quantum Echoes algorithm, a computation impossible for conventional machines. The algorithm helps scientists understand molecular structures using techniques related to MRI technology.
Neven says this leap forward opens the door to solving some of humanity’s most urgent challenges.
“It will enable us to discover medicines more efficiently,” he told the BBC. “It will help us make food production more efficient, help us produce energy, transport energy, store energy — and help address climate change and human hunger.”
“It allows us to understand nature much better,” Neven added, “and unlock its secrets to build technologies that make life more pleasant for all of us.”
The scientific impact is already being recognized. Some members of the Willow research team have recently received the Nobel Prize for their foundational work on superconducting qubits — the building blocks of quantum computing.
According to IBM, a quantum bit, or qubit, is the basic unit of information in quantum computing — the quantum equivalent of the classical binary bit. While a classical bit can exist only as a 0 or a 1, a qubit can exist in a superposition of both states simultaneously, allowing for exponentially richer data processing.
The Willow chip currently operates with 105 qubits. By comparison, Microsoft’s quantum program has eight qubits but uses a different technological approach. The true global race, however, is toward a “utility-scale” quantum machine with one million qubits — capable of error-free quantum chemistry simulations, drug discovery, and materials design.
To visualize its power, imagine trying to find a tennis ball hidden inside one of a thousand closed drawers. A classical computer opens them one by one. A quantum computer opens all of them at the same time.
Or imagine needing a hundred keys to open a hundred doors in traditional computing. Quantum computing allows all one hundred doors to open instantly — with a single key.
These machines will not sit in pockets or on desks. They will not become smartphones, laptops, or smart glasses. Instead, they will exist as specialized, centralized engines of computation — quietly reshaping industries from behind the scenes.
What makes them transformative is exponential growth. Each additional qubit dramatically increases capability, and nations and corporations worldwide are racing to participate.
Sir Peter Knight, Chair of the UK’s National Quantum Technology Programme’s Strategy Advisory Board, says Willow represents a major breakthrough.
“All the machines are still at the toy model stage and make mistakes,” he told the BBC. “They need error correction. Willow was the first to demonstrate that you could do error correction through repeated rounds of repair — and that it actually improves performance.”
In the world of quantum computing, that achievement marks a decisive step from possibility to practicality — and from promise to power.
