The race to shape the future of computing is heating up among tech companies, with Microsoft saying on Wednesday it has made a major breakthrough in quantum computing, potentially paving the way for the technology to address complex scientific and societal challenges.

Microsoft said it had reached a milestone in its quantum- computing journey, delivering a boost to shares of quantum pure plays such as D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing on Thursday. The tech behemoth unveiled its Majorana 1 chip on Wednesday afternoon,

Microsoft says it has developed a breakthrough quantum processor based on a new state of matter, giving it a clear path to achieve quantum computing’s long-term promise of solving some of the world’s most difficult problems.