Microsoft opens quantum research center in Maryland for DARPA testing of topological qubit system

Microsoft just opened a dedicated quantum research center in Maryland’s University of Maryland Discovery District, giving DARPA something it hasn’t had before: the ability to physically walk up to Microsoft’s topological quantum hardware and run its own tests. The 15,000-square-foot facility, which opened on September 22, 2026, represents a shift from remote evaluations to direct, independent benchmarking of the company’s Majorana 2 qubit system. The center is part of DARPA’s Underexplored Systems for Utility-Scale Quantum Computing (US2QC) program, nested within the broader Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. Microsoft is one of two companies selected for the program’s final phase, which means evaluators can now install hardware and execute their own measurement protocols on-site. From milliseconds to seconds The technical leap between Microsoft’s earlier quantum efforts and the Majorana 2 system is substantial. Qubit lifetimes, the amount of time a qubit can maintain its quantum state before losing coherence, have jumped from under 12 milliseconds to up to 20 seconds. That’s roughly a 1,600x improvement, the kind of gap that separates a proof of concept from something that might act...