Microsoft’s new “topological qubit” is not based on a solid, liquid or gas. It is another phase of matter that many experts did not think was possible.

Microsoft has developed the world’s first quantum computing chip called Majorana 1. The company says quantum computers are now just years away, not decades.

Microsoft says the new chip, the Microsoft Majorana 1, is "the world’s first quantum chip powered by a new Topological Core architecture" that it expects will "realize quantum computers capable of solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems in years, not decades.