University of Kwazulu-Natal

Nvidia Ceo Says Useful Quantum Computers Are Still 15 30 Years Away

Bonisiwe Shabane
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nvidia ceo says useful quantum computers are still 15 30 years away

Quantum computing stocks dropped Wednesday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared that useful quantum computers are many years away. "If you said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side," he said during Nvidia's analyst day. "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." Huang said he believes Nvidia will play a "very significant part" in creating the computers and helping the industry "get there as fast as possible." Stocks tied to quantum computing tumbled on the heels of the comments, with Rigetti Computing plunging 40%, while IonQ shed 37%.

D-Wave Quantum dropped more than 30%, while the Defiance Quantum & AI ETF fell 4%. Quantum Computing, which announced a stock offering to raise $100 million, sank 37%. "As valuations have become a bit lofty, we're not surprised by today's correction," said AXS Investments CEO Greg Bassuk, calling the reaction somewhat "overblown." Several stocks across the quantum computing industry, including Rigetti Computing (RGTI), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), IonQ (IONQ), and Quantum Computing (QUBT), fell sharply Wednesday following comments from Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang about the technology. Huang said at an analyst event Tuesday that "very useful quantum computers," which could make a number of computing tasks more efficient, are likely 15 to 30 years away. "If you kind of said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side," Huang said.

"If you said, you know, 30, it’s probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it." Huang also said Nvidia is an ideal partner for quantum computing companies because "it turns out that you need a classical computer to do error correction with the quantum computer, and that classical computer... D-Wave Quantum was down 33% Wednesday afternoon, while Rigetti, IonQ, and Quantum all declined around 40%. The Defiance Quantum (QTUM) exchange-traded fund (ETF), made up of the listed companies along with other chip and tech companies like Nvidia, was down 4.5%. Whether quantum computers will be useful in the near future is a debated topic—and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has just weighed in.

"If you kind of said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that'd probably be on the early side. If you said 30, is probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it," Huang said during a Q&A with analysts. If he's right, this means we won't see effective quantum computers until 2045. This month, Huang also hinted at more AI plans, unveiled the anticipated RTX 50 Series GPUs, and announced a small desktop computer known as Project DIGITS with its Blackwell GPU inside and an expected... Nvidia's stock has soared over 160% in the past year, largely due to continued AI hype.

In the past day, quantum firms D-Wave and IonQ both saw their respective stock prices fall more than 35%. The field of quantum computing hasn't gotten nearly as much hype as generative AI and the tech giants promoting it in the past few years. Right now, part of the reason quantum computers aren't currently that helpful is because of their error rates. Nord Quantique CEO Julien Lemyre previously told PCMag that quantum error correction is the future of the field, and his firm is working on a solution. The errors that qubits, the basic unit of information in a quantum machine, currently make result in quantum computers being largely unhelpful. It's an essential hurdle to overcome—but we don't currently know if or when quantum errors will be eliminated.

“Very useful quantum computers are still a few decades away,” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said during a keynote presentation at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. His comment sent shockwaves through the quantum computing industry, with shares of leading companies like Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum and IonQ plummeting between 30 and 50 percent. These companies’ CEOs were quick to defend their industry in a bid to win back investor confidence. By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. “Jensen Huang has a misunderstanding of quantum.

He is ‘dead wrong’ about D-Wave,” Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave Quantum, which develops quantum computing systems, told Observer. “There is more than one approach to building a quantum computer. Our (D-Wave) systems are performing scientific computations on important problems that are not solvable by even massively parallel GPU systems.” D-Wave uses quantum annealing, an approach that excels in solving specific computational optimization problems. This method is particularly useful for materials simulation, scheduling and logistics applications. “Commercial quantum computing is already here,” Baratz added. For example, Canada-based Pattison Food Group reduced an 80-hour scheduling task to 15 hours using D-Wave’s technology.

Another client, NTT DOCOMO, Japan’s largest telecom provider, slashed the time to optimize network resources from 27 hours to just 40 seconds. Quantum computing CEOs are also talking up their companies’ revenue and profit prospects. D-Wave estimated its 2024 sales jumped 120 percent from the previous year. IonQ, which makes quantum computers, predicts it will turn a profit on more than $1 billion in sales by 2030, CEO Peter Chapman wrote in a blog post on Jan. 10. Quantum computing relies on qubits—units of data that can exist in multiple states at once—and holds the potential to quickly solve calculations that would take even supercomputers a thousand years.

Exciting recent developments include Google’s Willow chip, which solved a random circuit sampling (RCS) benchmark problem in just five minutes. RCS, one of the most challenging benchmarks for quantum computers, would take today’s fastest supercomputer 10 septillion years (1 followed by 24 zeros) to solve, Google claims. Nvidia (NVDA) chief executive Jensen Huang doesn’t think useful quantum computers will be here anytime soon — and stocks are not reacting well to it. Quantum computing stocks such as IonQ (IONQ) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI) fell by more than 40% Wednesday morning after Huang’s comments during Nvidia’s financial analyst day at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). IonQ’s shares were down by about 45%, while Rigetti’s shares fell by more than 48% mid-morning. Quantum Computing (QUBT), which announced a stock offering earlier this week to raise $100 million, saw its shares fall by about 49%.

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), meanwhile, saw shares fall by around 47%. “If you said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side,” Huang said. “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.” The Nvidia chief said he thinks the AI chipmaker will play “a significant part” in the development of quantum computers, and push it toward getting “there as fast as possible.”

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