Microsoft ($Microsoft Corporation MSFT$ ) and Quantinuum have leapt one step closer to commercializing quantum computing through greatly reducing error rates associated with qubits, the companies announced Wednesday.

"By applying Microsoft’s breakthrough qubit-virtualization system, with error diagnostics and correction, to Quantinuum’s ion-trap hardware, we ran more than 14,000 individual experiments without a single error," said Jason Zander, Microsoft's executive vice president for strategic missions and technologies.

Quantum computing has the ability to process and analyze data at a rate that makes silicon-based computers appear primitive. Mega tech companies such as Google (GOOG)(GOOGL) and IBM (IBM) have also invested heavily in quantum computing.

While a bit, or binary digit, is the basic unit of information in classical computing, a qubit, short for quantum bit, serves as the equivalent in quantum computing.

The problem with qubits is they are incredibly delicate, and the computer must control the precise quantum states of single atoms, which are typically error prone.

"We’re now entering the next phase for solving meaningful problems with reliable quantum computers," Zander said. "Our qubit-virtualization system, which filters and corrects errors, combined with Quantinuum’s hardware demonstrates the largest gap between physical and logical error rates reported to date."

Quantinuum, which was created from the merger of Cambridge Quantum and Honeywell Quantum Solutions, plans to introduce a new H-Series quantum computer, Helios, in 2025.

"With a hybrid supercomputer powered by 100 reliable logical qubits, organizations would start to see scientific advantage, while scaling closer to 1,000 reliable logical qubits would unlock commercial advantage," Zander said.

Microsoft and Quantinuum believe reliable quantum computing could help solve some of humankind's greatest problems, such as climate change, the energy crisis and food insecurity. It could also revolutionize the fields of chemistry, materials science, medicine and accelerate the development of meaning-aware AI language models.

Quantinuum and Microsoft Azure Quantum have collaborated for several years to reduce errors in quantum computing and make it commercially applicable. They believe today's announcement brings them one step closer to achieving that goal.

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