King's College London Gets Early Access to Google's Willow Quantum Chip
This is the first known academic early-access grant for Willow, signaling Google's shift from internal benchmarks toward external validation and real-world research applications.
Reporting from 1 sources: GIGAZINE.
King's College London has secured early access to Google's Willow quantum processor, a chip that demonstrated calculations 13,000 times faster than the world's fastest supercomputer in 2025. The access was granted through a program run by Google Quantum AI Lab and the UK's National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC). A team led by Dr. Eleanor Crane of the university's physics department will use Willow to model quantum analogues of brain neurons, aiming to open new paths in computational neuroscience and quantum modeling. The research could eventually underpin development of better solar cells, efficient power grids, and new disease treatments. Crane said the hardware capable of running such complex simulations is extremely rare, and thanked NQCC and Google for the opportunity. Google Quantum AI COO Charina Chou stated the company believes quantum computing holds immense potential as a tool for scientific progress in fields where classical computing faces fundamental limits.
Google Quantum AI Lab first unveiled the Willow chip in 2024, claiming it achieved exponential improvements in quantum error correction alongside ultra-fast computation. The 105-qubit processor was later shown in 2025 to outperform the world's top supercomputer by a factor of 13,000 on a benchmark task. The early-access program with the NQCC opened in December 2025, inviting research teams to submit experimental proposals for execution on Willow. The submission deadline was May 15, 2026, with selection results due by July 1. King's College London's proposal was announced as the winner on May 26, ahead of that notification window. Dr. Crane's team plans to study quantum analogues of brain neurons, a project that bridges computational neuroscience and quantum modeling. Google Quantum AI COO Charina Chou said the company sees quantum computing as a new tool for scientists in fields where classical computing hits fundamental limits, and that King's proposal was compelling enough to warrant providing Google's resources and expertise.
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