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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks to the press during the launch of the Gefion supercomputer at the Vilhelm Lauritzen terminal in Kastrup, Denmark, on October 23, 2024.
Ritzau Scanpix | Mads Claus Rasmussen | Via Reuters
Quantum computing stocks fell on Wednesday after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stated that quantum computers are many years away from being useful.
“If you said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be a little early,” he said during Nvidia’s analyst day. “If you say 30, it’s probably too late. But if you say 20, I think a lot of us would believe it.”
Huang said he believes Nvidia will play a “very important role” in creating computers and help the industry “get there as quickly as possible.”
Rigetti drops comments for Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang
Stocks linked to quantum computing plummeted following the comments, with Discard Computing falling 40%, while IonQ shed more than 32%. D-wave quantum fell more than 38%, while the Defiance Quantum & AI ETF fell 5%. Quantum computingwhich announced a stock offering to raise $100 million, sank 39%.
The sector had received a boost until the end of 2024 when enthusiasm around quantum computing soared after Google unveiled its latest Willow chip, which it said performed better than its 2019 predecessor in reducing errors. Many investors also expected the sector to be the next big tech craze since the rise of AI following ChatGPT.
The enthusiasm drove the stock through the end of the year, with Rigetti and D-Wave rising 1,449% and 854%, respectively.
Supporters of quantum computing say the technology will be able to perform computing tasks that regular computers cannot and process much larger volumes of data.
But many investors have warned that it may be too soon to rule out suitable industry winners and real-world use cases for the technology.
