Google Announces Quantum Computing Breakthrough, but Real-World Applications Are Still Elusive

In a scientific paper and a series of blog posts on Wednesday , Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL) detailed what it called the "first-ever algorithm to achieve verifiable quantum advantage on hardware." Using its Willow quantum chip, which the company announced in December 2024, Google was able to perform a specific quantum algorithm 13,000 times faster than a classical supercomputer in a way that can be repeated.

While this development is a step in the right direction, real-world applications of quantum computing may still be many years away.

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Moving toward real-world use cases

Google was able to perform the out-of-order time correlator algorithm, which the company has dubbed Quantum Echoes, dramatically faster on its Willow quantum chip compared to the best classical algorithm running on a supercomputer. It's possible that the classical method could be improved and erase this advantage, but as of now, Willow reigns supreme.

Google's implementation of the Quantum Echoes algorithm involves sending a signal into the qubits on the Willow chip, perturbing a single qubit, sending the same signal in reverse, then measuring the response. In theory, this algorithm could help researchers probe quantum systems.

In a separate experiment in collaboration with the University of California, Berkeley, the Quantum Echoes algorithm and the Willow quantum chip were used to study two molecules. The results lined up with those of traditional methods, marking a step toward using quantum computing in drug discovery, materials science, and other applications.

Right now, though, this quantum computing breakthrough from Google still leaves the company far from being able to apply the technology to meaningful real-world use cases. Google claims it "paves a path toward real-world applications."

International Business Machines recently made a similar breakthrough, demonstrating a speedup in a computation involved in bond trading by pairing its quantum computers with standard machine learning techniques. While it's hard to predict when quantum computing will be widely used in industry, progress is clearly being made.

A quantum computing stock to own

Instead of investing in a pure-play quantum computing company that requires constant fundraising to stay afloat, Alphabet is a lower-risk alternative. The company's core advertising business is wildly lucrative, and its cloud computing business is benefiting from booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Alphabet can easily fund its quantum computing efforts, even if they take many years to reach commercial viability.

In the second quarter of 2025, Alphabet generated revenue of $96.4 billion and operating income $31.3 billion. Much of the company's revenue still comes from advertising, but the cloud business contributed about $13.6 billion of revenue during the quarter. Alphabet plans to pour $85 billion into capital expenditures this year to keep up with demand for its cloud products and services. Rumors of a megadeal between Alphabet and AI start-up Anthropic for cloud computing services emerged earlier this week.

In the battle for quantum computing supremacy, Alphabet is pitted against IBM, various smaller companies like IonQ and Rigetti Computing, and Microsoft. Notably, Microsoft is taking a novel approach with its Majorana 1 quantum chip. The company is leveraging the properties of an exotic type of particle, and it believes it can scale up the technology to a million qubits on a single chip.

Meanwhile, IBM is focusing on combining quantum computers with classical approaches. The tech giant expects to demonstrate scientific quantum advantage by next year, deliver a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029, and scale up to a useful size in 2033 and beyond.

The race toward commercially viable quantum computing may have multiple winners, and there's a good chance Alphabet will be one of them. Alphabet's breakthrough with the Quantum Echoes algorithm is an important step toward that goal.

Timothy Green has positions in International Business Machines. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, International Business Machines, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.