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Google has announced plans to team up with the UK to invite researchers to come up with uses for the tech giant’s state-of-the-art quantum chip Willow.

It is one of several firms competing to develop a powerful quantum computer – which is seen as an exciting new frontier in the future of computing.

Researchers hope they will be able to crack problems in fields such as chemistry and medicine which are impossible for current computers to solve.

Professor Paul Stevenson of the University of Surrey – who had no involvement with the agreement – told the BBC it was “great news for UK researchers”.

The collaboration between Google and the UK’s national lab for quantum computing means more researchers will get access to the technology.

“The new ability to access Google’s Willow processor, through open competition, puts UK researchers in an enviable position,” said Prof Stevenson.

“It is good news for Google, too, who will benefit from the skills of UK academics.”

Quantum devices work in a fundamentally different way to the computers powering our smartphones and laptops, solving problems using technologies based on the science of particle physics

But the full potential of the technology has yet to be realised and the machines that currently exist have few practical applications and most are experimental.

It is hoped giving UK researchers access to Willow would help “uncover new real world applications”.

Scientists will be able to submit proposals describing how they intend to use the chip, and they will work with experts from Google and the UK quantum lab to design and conduct experiments.

When it was unveiled in 2024, Google’s Willow chip was seen as a significant step forward in the field.

Rival firms including Amazon and IBM are also developing their own tech.

The UK has a significant quantum industry. Quantinuum, which has headquarters in Cambridge and Colorado, US, reached a $10bn (£7.45bn) valuation in September.

Announcements of new developments from firms throughout 2025 have led some experts to believe powerful machines capable of having real-world impact will be developed within a decade.

Dr Michael Cuthbert, Director at the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) said the partnership would “accelerate discovery”.

He said the cutting edge science it would support could ultimately lead to quantum computing being used in areas such as “life science, materials, chemistry, and fundamental physics”.

The NQCC already hosts seven quantum computers from British-based firms such as Quantum Motion, ORCA and Oxford Ionics.

The government says it is committing £670m to support the tech, which is a priority area in the UK’s Industrial Strategy.

Officials believe quantum could contribute £11 billion to the UK economy by 2045.

A former crypto entrepreneur who was behind two digital currencies that collapsed and lost an estimated $40bn ($29.9bn) has been sentenced by a New York judge to 15 years in prison for an “epic” fraud.

Do Kwon, a South Korean national, was co-founder of Singapore-based Terraform Labs, which developed the TerraUSD and Luna digital coins.

Kwon had admitted misleading investors about TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin that was supposed to maintain its value against the US dollar.

He was one of a number of crypto bosses to face charges in the US after digital tokens slumped in 2022, triggering the failure of several companies.

US District Judge Paul A Engelmayer, who handed down the sentence, said the Stanford graduate had repeatedly lied to investors who trusted him with their money.

“This was a fraud on an epic, generational scale,” he said during Thursday’s court hearing in Manhattan.

“In the history of federal prosecutions, there are few frauds that have caused as much harm as you have.”

Kwon – who pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud – expressed remorse to the judge.

“I have spent almost every waking moment of the last few years thinking of what I could have done different and what I can do now to make things right,” he said.

Prosecutors alleged that when TerraUSD fell below its $1 peg in May 2021, Kwon told investors that a computer algorithm had restored its value.

Instead, Kwon had arranged for a trading firm to secretly buy millions of dollars of the coin to artificially boost its value, according to court documents.