Microsoft's Majorana moment in question: Breakthrough or boy who cried quantum?

Microsoft's recent announcement of the Majorana 1 quantum processor, a topological qubit-wielding breakthrough so bold it's designed on physics that aren't fully established yet, has come under scrutiny — and it may only have itself to blame.

Gather 'round readers, for it is a tale as old as time. Or at least as old as 2018, when Microsoft first made headlines relating to the Majorana particle and its application in quantum computing. In this tale, a boy (read: Microsoft) runs into the village crying "Majorana particles! Majorana particles! The elusive theoretical particles first theorized by physicist Ettore Majorana in the 1930s! They're real! And we've tamed them for the stabilization of quantum computing qubits!"

The villagers cheer in delight, hailing a breakthrough for the ages. However, upon further scrutiny and the highlighting of several inconsistencies by the village elders (read: Prof. Sergey Frolov and Vincent Mourik), the boy is forced to retract his claims in 2021, with those involved admitting that they can "no longer claim the observation of a quantized Majorana conductance."

Leaping ahead to February of this year, the boy (read: one again, Microsoft) was back at it again, running through the village square and crying out about Majorana particles once more. "Majorana particles! Majorana Particles! Not only are they real, but we've invented an entirely new state of matter, a topological superconductor, to observe and control them to create stable and scalable qubits! And it's all housed within this shiny, Majorana 1 quantum processor!"

Once again, the villagers cheered in delight. But the village elders (read: scientific community), once bitten, twice shy, are now voicing concerns about these claims, submitted in March 2024 and published in Nature in February 2025. To them, Microsoft may be the boy who cried wolf once before. And now, Prof. Frovlov is back and pulling no punches, calling Microsoft's Majorana-based breakthrough "essentially a fraudulent project," when speaking with The Register on Wednesday.

Microsoft's Majorana 1 chip: Breakthrough or blunder?

The Majorana 1 chip was meant to be Microsoft's ticket to the quantum computing crown. Unlike traditional computers which rely on bits, the Majorana 1 makes use of qubits — which are notoriously unstable and one of the major hurdles faced in developing quantum computers.

Microsoft's solution to this problem was to harness the Majorana particle using a new topological semiconductor to create topological qubits that offer greater error corrections and stability. On paper, it's a groundbreaking achievement and should propel Microsoft ahead of the pack in the race to build practical quantum computers.

In reality? Researchers aren't buying it. Some state that Microsoft's work is "not reliable and must be revisited" while others like Prof. Sergey Frolov (yes, the very same to challenge Microsoft's 2018 Majorana particle claims and helped force its 2021 retraction) suggest they are "unreliable scientific claims" in a video posted to YouTube.

Speaking to The Register on Wednesday, Prof. Frolov elaborated, "These concerns go back quite a number of years so [the community reaction] hasn't just been triggered by this announcement per se ... It was just made in such a dramatic way that it, I guess, triggered a reaction but the underlying sort of understanding that this is essentially a fraudulent project."

Frovlov doesn't just question Microsoft's findings, he questions the very foundations of their claims.

As Frolov put it, "This is a piece of alleged technology that is based on basic physics that has not been established. So this is a pretty big problem."

What's next

While the scientific community remains skeptical of the software giant's claims (especially given its history with Majorana particles), Microsoft is sticking to its guns.

Microsoft researcher Chetan Nayak has publicly pointed out that within the intervening months from the most recent paper's (Interferometric single-shot parity measurement in InAs–Al hybrid devices) submission and publication, Microsoft has made even more progress with its topological qubits, and is preparing to prove it. But we'll need to wait to hear more during a discussion at the American Physical Society (APS) held in California next week.

Meanwhile, Frolov claims that Microsoft has already shared data with select researchers ahead of the APS meeting and that it didn't instill much confidence in Microsoft's findings, stating, "I was not there but I spoke with a few people that were … and people were not impressed and there was a lot of criticism."

On the APS meeting itself, Frolov says "We kind of know that it's not going to be a concern-killer presentation ... as a physicist, there's just absolutely no way that qubit that they're claiming can work because a topological qubit requires Majorana and without Majorana you cannot have it."

It seems that the burden of proof relies solely on Microsoft's shoulders heading into next week's APS meeting, with its 2018 error still ringing firmly in the ears of prominent physicists. However, while the company may be labeled as the boy who cried wolf based on current interpretations, it's important to note that the wolf does eventually show up in that original fable and there's still a possibility it shows up in this story too.

Could Microsoft's claims hold up to further scrutiny? If one thing is for certain, the scientific community isn't ready to take its word as gold, and it'll need to bring more than bold claims to the table, it'll need receipts.

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