they buried the lede. google doesn't have 2 qubits to rub together 100%. 105 "qubits" make a "single" qubit after coalescing or whatever. I'm really annoyed because i've kinda followed this since the mid-90s and this is the first time i am hearing that "it'll probably take millions of physical qubits to crack 256 bit"

to me the whole endeavor smells like a bait and switch or something. I remember about 10 years ago canada or someone had at least a few hundred qubits if not close to 1000 of them, but these were physical qubits, and don't represent anything, really. Google's 105 finally makes a "fast enough" single qubit or at best half of a pair.