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.

With the development, Microsoft is raising the stakes in what is set to be the next big technological contest.