Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud unit has built its first quantum-computing chip, joining a growing roster of technology companies showing off futuristic hardware. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Microsoft Corp. in the last two months have announced their own quantum hardware, suggesting that the powerful form of computing — currently relegated to science experiments — may solve real problems in the coming years. Others say useful quantum computers, which might enable advances in chemistry or health care, are more than a decade away. Amazon Web Services’ new Ocelot chip, developed by a team working at the California Institute of Technology, comprises two tiny squares of silicon stacked on top of each other. The name is a play on words, referring to oscillators, which generate periodic electric signals, including in the prototype hardware Amazon developed. “Five years ago, I could have told you, ‘I think I could build a quantum computer and could build it practically,’” said Oskar Painter, head of quantum hardware at AWS. “Today I can say with confidence we are going to build a quantum computer.”

Full report : AWS unveils Ocelot, its new quantum chip built in partnership with Caltech, featuring five qubits that store data and four additional qubits to detect errors.