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A woman bikes by a giant Google logo at Google’s Bay View campus in Mountain View, California on Aug 13, 2024 where the “Made by Google” media event was held today. 

Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

Google has unveiled a new chip that it says marks a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing, an area seen as the next frontier for many tech companies.

However, while Google’s achievements have been noted for advancing the field, experts say that quantum computing still has no real-world uses — yet.

“We need a ChatGPT moment for quantum,” Francesco Ricciuti, associate at venture capital firm Runa Capital, told CNBC Tuesday, referencing OpenAI’s chatbot that has been credited with driving the boom in artificial intelligence. “This is probably not that.”

What has Google claimed?

Proponents of quantum computing claim it will be able to solve problems that current computers can’t.

In classical computing, information is stored in bits. Each bit is either a one or zero. Quantum computing uses quantum bits or qubits which can be zero, one or something in between.

The theory is that quantum computers will be able to process much larger volumes of data, leading to potential breakthroughs in areas like medicine, science and finance.

Google on Monday announced Willow, its latest quantum chip.

“Typically the more qubits you use, the more errors will occur, and the system becomes classical,” Hartmut Neven, founder of Google Quantum AI, wrote in a blog post.

Willow can reduce errors “exponentially” as the number of qubits is scaled up, the U.S. tech giant said, which “cracks a key challenge in quantum error correction that the field has pursued for almost 30 years.”

Google measured Willow’s performance using the so-called random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark, which presents a computational task that’s difficult for classical computers to solve.

Willow performed a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years — or 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years — Google said.

“This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe,” Neven said.

Has Google truly made a quantum breakthrough?

Google’s Willow chip has demonstrated a “new milestone in how quantum computers can deal with errors that happen during their operation,” according to Winfried Hensinger, professor of quantum technologies at the University of Sussex.

“Their technique becomes more effective in reducing errors the more extra qubits are being used to correct for these errors. This is a very important milestone for quantum computers.”

But despite optimism that quantum computing could one day change the world — or at least computers’ role in it — experts in the field have suggested that Google’s quantum computing breakthrough is still lacking in real-world uses.

Quantum computing is a technology that could have geopolitical significance: PsiQuantum co-founder

Runa Capital’s Ricciuti said that Google’s claims of success are “based on tasks and benchmarks that are not really useful for practical cases.”

“They are trying to define a really high problem for normal computers that they can solve with quantum computers. It is amazing they can do that, but it doesn’t really mean it is useful,” Ricciuti added.

Hensinger said Willow “is still well too small to do useful calculations” and that quantum computers will require “millions of qubits” to solve really important industry problems. Willow has 105 qubits.

Meanwhile, Google’s chip is based on superconducting qubits, a technology that requires intense cooling, which could be a limiting factor in scaling up.

“It may be fundamentally hard to build quantum computers with such large number of qubits using superconducting qubits as cooling so many qubits to the required temperature – close to absolute zero – would be hard or impossible,” Hensinger said.

Still both Hensinger and Ricciuti agree the developments by Google add to the excitement around quantum computing and continued development in the space.

“This result increases confidence further that humanity will be able to build practical quantum computers enabling some of the high impactful applications quantum computers are known for,” Hensinger said.

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Elon Musk’s Neuralink filed as ‘disadvantaged business’ before being valued at $9 billion

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Elon Musk's Neuralink filed as 'disadvantaged business' before being valued at  billion

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Elon Musk’s health tech company Neuralink labeled itself a “small disadvantaged business” in a federal filing with the U.S. Small Business Administration, shortly before a financing round valued the company at $9 billion.

Neuralink is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) system, with an initial aim to help people with severe paralysis regain some independence. BCI technology broadly can translate a person’s brain signals into commands that allow them to manipulate external technologies just by thinking.

Neuralink’s filing, dated April 24, would have reached the SBA at a time when Musk was leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. At DOGE, Musk worked to slash the size of federal agencies.

MuskWatch first reported on the details Neuralink’s April filing.

According to the SBA’s website, a designation of SDB means a company is at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more “disadvantaged” persons who must be “socially disadvantaged and economically disadvantaged.” An SDB designation can also help a business “gain preferential access to federal procurement opportunities,” the SBA website says. 

Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, is CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, in addition to his other businesses like artificial intelligence startup xAI and tunneling venture The Boring Company. In 2022, Musk led the $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he later named X before merging it with xAI.

Jared Birchall, a Neuralink executive, was listed as the contact person on the filing from April. Birchall, who also manages Musk’s money as head of his family office, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Neuralink, which incorporated in Nevada, closed a $650 million funding round in early June at a $9 billion valuation. ARK Invest, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Sequoia Capital and Thrive Capital were among the investors. Neuralink said the fresh capital would help the company bring its technology to more patients and develop new devices that “deepen the connection between biological and artificial intelligence.”

Under Musk’s leadership at DOGE, the initiative took aim at government agencies that emphasized diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In February, for example, DOGE and Musk boasted of nixing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of funding for the Department of Education that would have gone towards DEI-related training grants.

WATCH: DOGE cuts face congressional test

DOGE cuts face congressional test. Here's a breakdown

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Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian closes $260 million funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund

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Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian closes 0 million funding round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund

Startup Hadrian raises $260 million to expand its AI-powered factories to meet soaring demand

Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian on Thursday announced the closing of $260 million Series C funding round led by Peter Thiel‘s Founders Fund and Lux Capital.

The machine parts company said it will use the funding to build a new 270,000 square foot factory in Mesa, Arizona, and expand its Torrance, California, location as it looks to beef up its shipbuilding and naval defense capabilities.

“What we really need in this country is this quantum leap above China’s manufacturing model,” said CEO Chris Power in an interview with CNBC’s Morgan Brennan. “It’s about supercharging the worker versus replacing them.”

Defense tech startups like Hadrian are disrupting the mainstay defense contracting industry, which is led by leaders such as Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, and battling it out to boost U.S. defense production while scooping up Department of Defense contracts.

An overall view of the manufacturing line in a Hadrian Automation Inc. factory.

Courtesy: Hadrian Automation, Inc.

Hadrian said the Arizona space will be four times the size of its California facility and start operations by Christmas. The factory will create 350 local jobs. The Hawthrone, California-based company said it is working on four to five new facilities to support production over the next year to support Department of Defense needs.

Read more CNBC tech news

Hadrian said it uses robotics and artificial intelligence to automate factories that can “supercharge American workers.”

Power said demand is rapidly growing, but the lack of U.S.-based talent is a major hurdle to building American dominance in shipbuilding and submarines.

Using its tools, the company said it can train workers within 30 days, making them 10 times more productive. Its workforce includes ex-marines and former nurses who have never set foot in a factory.

An overall view of the manufacturing line in a Hadrian Automation Inc. factory.

Courtesy: Hadrian Automation, Inc.

“We have to do a lot more … but certainly we’re able to keep up with the scale right now, and grateful to our team and customers for letting us go and do that,” he said. “As a country, we have to treat this like a national security crisis, not just the economics of manufacturing.”

The fresh raise also includes investments from Andreessen Horowitz and new stakeholders such as Brad Gerstner’s Altimeter Capital.

The company closed a $92 million funding round in late 2023.

WATCH: Startup Hadrian raises $260 million to expand its AI-powered factories to meet soaring demand

An overall view of the manufacturing line in a Hadrian Automation Inc. factory.

Courtesy: Hadrian Automation, Inc.

The Kuka arm is seen at a Hadrian Automation Inc. factory.

Courtesy: Hadrian Automation, Inc.

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Amazon cuts some jobs in cloud computing unit as layoffs continue

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Amazon cuts some jobs in cloud computing unit as layoffs continue

Attendees walk through an exposition hall at AWS re:Invent, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, in Las Vegas on Dec. 3, 2024.

Noah Berger | Getty Images

Amazon is laying off some staffers in its cloud computing division, the company confirmed on Thursday.

“After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we’ve made the difficult business decision to eliminate some roles across particular teams in AWS,” Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said in a statement. “We didn’t make these decisions lightly, and we’re committed to supporting the employees throughout their transition.”

The company declined to say which units within Amazon Web Services were impacted, or how many employees will be let go as a result of the job cuts.

Reuters was first to report on the layoffs.

In May, Amazon reported a third straight quarterly revenue miss at AWS. Sales increased 17% to $29.27 billion in the first quarter, slowing from 18.9% in the prior period.

Amazon said the cuts weren’t primarily due to investments in artificial intelligence, but are a result of ongoing efforts to streamline the workforce and refocus on certain priorities. The company said it continues to hire within AWS.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been on a cost-cutting mission for the past several years, which has resulted in more than 27,000 employees being let go since 2022. Job reductions have continued this year, though at a smaller scale than preceding years. Amazon’s stores, communications and devices and services divisions have been hit with layoffs in recent months.

AWS last year cut hundreds of jobs in its physical stores technology and sales and marketing units.

Last month, Jassy predicted that Amazon’s corporate workforce could shrink even further as a result of the company embracing generative AI.

“We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,” Jassy told staffers. “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce.”

WATCH: Amazon CEO says AI will change the workforce

AI will change the workforce, says Amazon CEO Andy Jassy

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