In February, Microsoft announced a breakthrough step toward scalable quantum computing.

They claimed to have created the foundation for a million-qubit system using a special quantum state called Majorana modes.

But producing even a single topological qubit has proven insanely difficult. Now some experts are questioning whether Microsoft has actually made any real progress at all.

Did They Just Overhype the Claim?

The biggest issue is that while Microsoft’s press release gave the impression that they had achieved a functional topological qubit, their actual research paper says otherwise.

They used careful wording like “topological core architecture” and “exotic quantum properties”—phrases that sound impressive but avoid directly claiming they have a working qubit.

Amazing that a marketing team and gullible journalists who just “fucking love science” could be so easily taken.

“Microsoft didn’t exactly do much to prevent the misunderstanding.”

The claim that Microsoft had successfully created an actual topological qubit seems to have come from news outlets, particularly the failing New York Times (more fake news).

Microsoft could have corrected the narrative, but… hey, you can’t buy this kind of marketing.

And if NYT believes it, so will deep-pocketed investors.

What Do the Experts Think?

Microsoft’s paper relies on something called the topological gap protocol, which they use to determine whether they’ve created the right conditions for Majorana states to exist.

Physicist Henry Legg tested their code and found a serious problem:

“The identification of the topological phase depends on arbitrary cutoffs… This clearly shouldn’t be the case.”

That means the results can change depending on what data range you choose to analyze.

Another physicist, Vincent Muric, went even further:

“This paper should never have been published or accepted by any respected publisher… It should be retracted.”

Burn.

Wow, so it’s true – you can have gigabytes of data backed up by detailed analysis and every type of beautiful chart and graph – and end up with a narrative instead of truth.

This is bigger than quantum computing.

This is the whole problem with how we think about science.

How we select data, presuppositions, and biases determine the narrative far more than anyone really wants to let on.

So, What Did They Measure?

If Microsoft didn’t really create a topological qubit, what did they measure? Sergey Frolov, another expert on topological states, thinks it could be something as mundane as electrons randomly jumping around in the wire.

“They don’t even show proof that this is coming from any superconductor, not even a topological one.”

In other words, Microsoft’s findings might not be evidence of Majorana states at all—it could just be noise.

Not Looking Good

Microsoft did release their full data set (all 96GB of it), and researchers are still analyzing it.

But at this point, the skepticism is strong. The combination of past retracted papers, vague wording, and questionable data analysis doesn’t inspire confidence.

For now, it seems like Microsoft’s quantum breakthrough might be more of a marketing breakthrough than a scientific one.

Time will tell whether their topological qubit dreams will actually pan out—or if they’ll just be another hyped-up “world of tomorrow” promise that never quite materializes.

But really, who am I to judge? Trust the Science!