Technology giant Google has officially launched its exclusive Willow Early Access Program, offering selected scientific teams the keys to the “holy of holies“ of computing power - the new Willow quantum processor. The machine, with 105 qubits, is a true cornerstone in science, but access to it comes with a serious geopolitical filter. Scientists from China, Russia, Iran, Belarus and Ukraine remain in front of closed doors, no matter how ingenious their projects are.
The application deadline is May 15, 2026, and the criteria are ruthless. Google is not just looking for theoretical developments, but real practical value. After years of experimenting with synthetic tasks, the team in Santa Barbara, California, is now ready to prove that quantum computers can solve real-world problems.
The Willow processor itself is a technological beast. Unveiled in late 2024, it demonstrated qubit coherence in nearly 100 microseconds – a feat that is five times better than its predecessor, Sycamore. But the big news isn’t just speed, it’s stability. Willow manages to tame the "noise" that has so far thwarted complex quantum algorithms, turning it into a reliable tool for the future.
To illustrate its power, Google cites a startling example: a task from the RCS benchmark that would have taken Frontier (the fastest supercomputer on the planet) an unimaginable 10 septillion years was solved by Willow in less than five minutes. More importantly, however, for the first time, the scaling curse has been overcome - in Willow, adding new qubits does not lead to an avalanche-like increase in errors.
This breakthrough practically solves the fundamental problem of quantum correction, defined back in 1995 by Peter Shore. We are no longer talking about science fiction, but about a real platform ready for use. Now it remains to be seen who the lucky ones will be who will get the chance to harness this unearthly power, and what discoveries they will bring to the world - provided, of course, that they are on the “right” side of the political map.