Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a popular investing theme in recent quarters as the technology promises to help businesses gain in efficiency -- and even develop game-changing products and services.

Its Majorana 1 chip, made of a new material, can perform high-level computing tasks with greater speed and accuracy, Microsoft says.

Quantum computing stocks advanced on Thursday after Microsoft launched a new chip that indicated the technology is not "decades away" as stated by the top boss of AI chip bellwether Nvidia.

Microsoft has announced a groundbreaking advancement in quantum computing with the introduction of its Majorana 1 chip. This innovative chip promises to bring the dream of quantum computing closer to reality in a matter of years rather than decades.

The tech giant’s researchers say the advance could lead to vastly more powerful computers.

Microsoft’s new “topological qubit” is not based on a solid, liquid or gas. It is another phase of matter that many experts did not think was possible.

Microsoft has achieved this by creating a new state of matter according to the company — essentially a new material made from indium arsenide and aluminium

There isn't yet a roadmap to show Microsoft can scale its chip to the million topological qubits required to make a working quantum computer.

Microsoft on Wednesday announced Majorana 1, its first quantum computing chip. The achievement comes after the company has spent nearly two decades of research in the field.

The company said it created a “new state of matter” that represents a major advance for quantum computing. But physicists who have reviewed the work say they aren’t convinced of the finding.