Biggest ever quantum chip announced, but scientists aren't buying it

Quantum computing firm D-Wave has announced this month its largest ever quantum chip containing 2,000 qubits — double the capacity of its previous biggest system. The chip is scheduled to ship next year, and if it lives up to its promise, it would solidify D-Wave’s position at the forefront of quantum computing, a potentially revolutionary field that would change computing as we know it. But despite D-Wave’s confidence, scientists and academics say the company has never proved its advantages over normal computers. And, more damningly, that using the company's current methodologies, it never will.

D-Wave’s Colin Williams, the company’s director of business development and a former quantum computing scientist himself, is bullish. "[The...