The promise of powerful computers that exploit the laws of quantum mechanics in order to process information has moved a step closer. Two independent teams in the US have built a quantum “bus” that allows the states of two superconducting qubits to be stored, transferred and exchanged. The buses could allow a number of such qubits, which can be produced using standard microchip-manufacturing processes, to be linked together to perform the gate operations that would allow a quantum computer to perform calculations.