On the evening of December 10th, the US stock market opened and the market's attention was focused on Google. As of the close, Google A (GOOGL) closed up 5.59% at $185.17, approaching the historical high of $190.71 set on July 10th. Leading the component stocks of the S&P 500 telecommunications sector, with the largest daily increase since April. Its market value increased by $112 billion overnight (approximately RMB 812 billion).
On the news front, Google released the new generation quantum computing chip Willow, which caused a huge sensation in the global technology industry. It is reported that this is a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing, which is regarded as the next technological frontier for many technology companies.
According to China Fund News, Google's release of the new generation quantum computing chip Willow has caused a huge sensation in the global technology industry. It is reported that this is a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing, which is regarded as the next technological frontier for many technology companies.
The Google press release also stated that Willow can complete a standard benchmark calculation in less than 5 minutes, while today's fastest supercomputer takes "10 ^ 25" years, a number far exceeding the age of the universe.
This achievement was personally announced by Google CEO Pichai on social media and has been urgently published in the scientific journal Nature.
As soon as the news came out, even Musk exclaimed in amazement, 'Wow!'! Musk responded to Google CEO Sundar Pichai's tweet "Wow" on social media, expressing his amazement. Pichai said: One day we should use a Starship to create a quantum cluster in space.
Pichai's response quickly opened Musk's box, and Musk wrote, "Any civilization with self-respect should at least reach the Kardashev II civilization. In my opinion, we haven't even reached 5% of the I civilization yet
At the same time, Sam Ultraman, Elon Musk's "old enemy" and CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, also forwarded Pichai's post with "big congratulations!!".
It's not easy to receive congratulations from both of them at the same time.
Winfried Hensinger, a quantum technology professor at the University of Sussex in the UK, explained that Google's Willow chip demonstrates a new milestone in how quantum computers handle errors that occur during operations.
As more additional qubits are used to correct these errors, their technology becomes more effective in reducing errors. This is a very important milestone for quantum computers
But Hensinger acknowledges that Willow, with only 105 qubits, is still too small to perform useful calculations, and quantum computers require "millions of qubits" to solve truly important industry problems.
He added, "Building a quantum computer with a large number of qubits using superconducting qubits may be fundamentally difficult, as cooling so many qubits to the desired temperature - close to absolute zero - is difficult, even impossible
Hensinger still agrees that Google's development has increased people's interest in quantum computing and the continued development of this field. "This result further enhances people's confidence that humans will be able to create practical quantum computers, thereby enabling some high impact applications
Due to the fact that quantum computers utilize the behavior of subatomic particles, they need to operate in extreme environments to prevent particles from interacting with their surrounding environment. Most experiments assume temperatures close to absolute zero. Such limitations make it difficult for quantum computing technology to find practical applications, as high error rates hinder the large-scale application of quantum computing.
According to a paper published on Monday in the scientific journal Nature, the Willow chip has reduced the error rate. This makes it possible to build larger scale quantum computers, and Google can now start weighing cost issues.
Multiple technological methods are competing for a leading position in the field of quantum computing. Google's technology is called superconducting quantum bits, which are also adopted by competitors IBM and Amazon. The manufacturing tools for Willow chips are similar to those used in traditional microchip manufacturing. But Google has also recently invested in QuEra Computing Inc, which uses so-called neutral atomic qubits. A qubit is a fundamental unit of information in quantum computing.
Analysts say that Willow has epoch-making significance as it will be the first step in building useful quantum computing, bringing enormous potential in many fields such as AI big models, drug discovery, nuclear fusion, battery design, and more in the future.