Nvidia has had a roller-coaster week, with its stock (NASDAQ: NVDA) hitting a record high on Monday, only to fall by 6.2% on Tuesday, closing at $140.14.
Founder and CEO Jensen Huang is now channeling that volatility toward quantum computing stocks like IonQ and Rigetti Computing, which tumbled after he shared a bearish forecast for the technology‘s market readiness.
What Huang Said About Quantum Computing
Speaking to analysts yesterday, Huang said that the horizon for “very useful quantum computers” is decades away.
“If you said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side…If you said 30, it’s probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it.”
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on January 7, 2025
Huang also emphasized that the technology has more specific use-case value, including cryptography.
Quantum Computing Stocks Slide
That forecast sent quantum computing stocks, including IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS), Quantum Computing (NASDAQ: QUBT), and Rigetti (NASDAQ: RGTI), down by more than 40% on Wednesday in intraday trading.
Quantum computing is a decades-old but still-experimental technology that leverages quantum mechanics to solve complex problems far faster than classical computers.
But it remains prone to high error rates with significant barriers to scalability and stability.
Google, IBM Among Big Tech Players in Quantum Space
Tech giants such as Alibaba, Google, IBM, and Microsoft have significant investments in developing scalable quantum computing hardware, software ecosystems, as well as cloud-based quantum platforms.
Companies like IonQ and Rigetti are focused on specialized quantum technologies — trapped-ion in the case of IonQ and superconducting processors in the case of Rigetti — aiming to carve niches in hardware innovation and hybrid quantum-classical computing solutions.
In December, Google announced its newest quantum chip, Willow, that, it says, “in under five minutes” solved a computation problem that would have taken today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years.
Google claims Willow’s design significantly reduces error rates using advanced error correction, improved qubit coherence, and the surface code for scalable, reliable quantum computing.
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