Amazon unveils Ocelot: Its first quantum chip in the race for practical quantum computing

Amazon just revealed its first quantum computing chip, Ocelot, marking a step forward in its push to develop large-scale quantum systems. Developed by the AWS Center for Quantum Computing in Pasadena, California, the chip marks a key move in Amazon’s long-term goal of building scalable quantum systems.

The announcement follows Microsoft’s debut of its own quantum chip last week, adding to the growing momentum in the space. The launch also signals an intensifying push from tech giants into quantum research.

“We believe that scaling Ocelot to a full-fledged quantum computer capable of transformative societal impact would require as little as one-tenth as many resources as common approaches, helping bring closer the age of practical quantum computing,” Fernando Brandão, Amazon Web Services’ director of applied science, and Oskar Painter, the cloud group’s quantum hardware chief, wrote in a blog post.

Quantum computing promises to tackle problems beyond the reach of traditional computers. Unlike regular processors that use bits toggling between zero and one, quantum chips operate with qubits, which can exist in both states at the same time. This fundamental difference could open the door to breakthroughs in materials science, cryptography, and complex simulations.

Quantum Computing’s Biggest Challenge: Scale

For years, quantum computing has been a research-heavy field with little commercial impact. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has funded work in the area for two decades, but the technology is still far from mainstream use. The biggest hurdle is scale—quantum computers need millions of qubits to function reliably.

“That’s because they’re not big enough yet,” said Peter Barrett, founder and general partner at Playground Global, which has backed quantum startups Phasecraft and PsiQuantum.

Right now, even the most advanced quantum chips fall short. Google’s Willow chip, considered the most powerful to date, has 105 qubits. Ocelot has just nine. That’s a long way from the million qubit systems experts believe are needed to make quantum computing useful at scale.

Amazon Unveils New Quantum Computing Chip

Amazon has been laying the groundwork for years. Back in 2020, when Andy Jassy was still leading AWS, he said he was “optimistic in the future that quantum computing will play a role” as cloud adoption grew in enterprises and government, CNBC reported. Six months later, AWS launched Amazon Braket, a service that lets developers experiment with quantum computers from companies like IonQ and Rigetti. Now, Amazon wants its own hardware to be part of that ecosystem.

Amazon isn’t alone in trying to build these systems. Microsoft has been pushing forward with its own approach, publishing its quantum research in Nature just last week. Like Microsoft, Amazon developed its chip in-house, though scaling up will likely require partnerships with leading semiconductor manufacturers. Painter suggested that outsourcing could be part of Amazon’s strategy as it moves further into hardware development.

Public interest in quantum computing has picked up recently, driven by new methods for making qubits more resistant to errors. Ocelot was designed with error correction in mind, a critical challenge in quantum computing. Google’s Willow chip has shown progress in that area as well.

Quantum Computing: Still a Long Road Ahead

Quantum computing has been making headlines lately, fueled by research into ways to reduce qubit errors, one of the biggest obstacles to large-scale systems. Ocelot was designed with error correction in mind, a challenge that Google’s Willow chip is also addressing.

Still, don’t expect quantum computing to go mainstream anytime soon. y. Painter estimated that commercial workloads won’t run on quantum computers for at least a decade. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang went further, telling analysts in January that useful quantum computing could be 15 to 30 years away. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a similar view in a recent interview with Joe Rogan.

Not everyone is that cautious. Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is holding firm on an earlier prediction:

“I stand by my prediction years ago — by 2030, useful quantum computing,” Gelsinger wrote in a LinkedIn comment this week.

For now, companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are still in the early stages. The real breakthroughs will come when they can scale these chips up to the millions of qubits needed for practical applications. Until then, quantum computing remains more of a promise than a reality.