Microsoft is expanding its quantum software stack with new developer tools designed to make quantum application development more accessible, while laying the groundwork for fault-tolerant quantum computing. The company also claims it is currently co-designing “the world’s most powerful quantum computer.”

In a blog post, Microsoft said it has added capabilities to its Quantum Development Kit (QDK), an open source developer toolkit for building quantum applications, including domain-specific toolkits for quantum chemistry and quantum error correction, as well as deeper integration with AI-assisted development through GitHub Copilot.

The updates are intended to support developers and researchers working on near-term quantum hardware while scaling toward logical qubits and more reliable quantum computation.

The QDK provides developers with tools to build, test, and execute quantum applications locally and on quantum hardware. It includes simulators, programming tools, and integrations with Visual Studio (VS) Code, where developers can write and debug quantum code using languages and frameworks such as Q#, OpenQASM, Qiskit, and Cirq. The QDK installs and runs on standard laptops.

A key focus of the update is AI-enabled quantum programming. With the QDK extension installed in VS Code, GitHub Copilot can assist developers with tasks such as code generation, unit testing, job submissions, circuit rendering, debugging, visualization, and resource estimation.

The blog from Matthias Troyer, VP of quantum at Microsoft, said the integration is designed to make quantum programming workflows “faster and easier,” particularly for developers already familiar with Python, Jupyter notebooks, and modern Integrated Development Environment (IDE) environments.

Troyer’s blog said the chemistry tools support reproducibility and portability through Windows Subsystem for Linux and Docker, and include native VS Code extensions for real-time molecular and circuit visualization.

In parallel, Microsoft is expanding its tooling for quantum error correction, making internal research tools available to the broader quantum community. Quantum error correction remains one of the field’s central challenges, particularly as researchers explore hybrid classical and quantum approaches to managing errors.

The QDK for error correction includes open source modules for characterizing and debugging encoded quantum programs, customizable encoding and decoding strategies, and notebook-based workflows for common research use cases. Microsoft said additional tooling packages will be released over time, with full availability expected later in 2026.

‘World’s most powerful quantum computer’ teased

The QDK is part of the broader Microsoft Quantum platform, which integrates quantum hardware, software, AI, and high-performance computing through Microsoft Azure. The platform combines a quantum operating system, a quantum engine, and qubit virtualization to support logical qubits across multiple types of quantum hardware.

As part of that effort, Microsoft is co-designing Magne, which it described as the world’s “most powerful quantum computer,” by applying its platform to neutral-atom qubits from Atom Computing. Additional details on Magne are expected to be revealed at the Discover Magne event taking place in Copenhagen.

Microsoft said it will also provide training, developed with QBraid and academic and industry partners, to help developers and researchers build expertise in reliable quantum computing as the platform continues to evolve.