University of Kwazulu-Natal

Nvidia S Quiet Move Into Quantum Computing Could Reshape The Next

Bonisiwe Shabane
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nvidia s quiet move into quantum computing could reshape the next

In the last two weeks, NVIDIA, the enabler and chief beneficiary of the AI craze, has bought into quantum computing. “I'm a little surprised they haven't done it before,” says Richard Shannon, an investment analyst at Craig Hallum. The investments from NVIDIA’s venture capital arm and other investors—which collectively value quantum computing startups Quantinuum, QuEra and PsiQuantum at over $17 billion—represent a shift in tone for NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang. In January, Huang said that useful quantum computers were 15 to 20 years away, sending publicly-listed quantum computing firms tumbling. He walked this back in March, saying in June that quantum computing had reached an “inflection point” and could “solve some interesting problems in the coming years”. A NVIDIA spokesperson declined to comment.

By positioning itself at the center of the hardware that AI companies need to run their models, NVIDIA has become the world’s most valuable company, valued at $4 trillion. NVIDIA designs GPUs (the chips specialized for running AI algorithms), develops CUDA (which allows the chips to talk to each other), and packages it all into supercomputers the size of fridges—which AI companies are... Quantum computing is unlikely to help NVIDIA’s AI customers. “Quantum computing and AI are sort of diametrically opposed,” said Pete Shadbolt, chief science officer at PsiQuantum, one of the startups that NVIDIA invested in. AI systems are powerful because they learn patterns from vast quantities of data. Quantum computers, by contrast, “hate data, and they love precision,” said Shadbolt.

Proponents believe that quantum computing could usher in a new computing paradigm. Rather than performing numerous simple calculations in parallel, as NVIDIA’s GPUs do, quantum computers could solve a few, extremely valuable equations. Quantinuum does this using ions (charged atoms), PsiQuantum uses photons (light particles), and QuEra uses neutral atoms. These tiny particles obey the strange laws of quantum mechanics: they can be in multiple states at the same time, allowing quantum computers to explore multiple paths of a complex calculation simultaneously, arriving at... This includes shortening the millions of years that it would take classical computers to break the encryption schemes that underlie much of the digital economy to hours, which has sent banks scrambling for “quantum-resistant”... In the ever-shifting world of technology, NVIDIA has mastered the art of strategic ambiguity.

From gaming GPUs to AI supercomputers, the company’s innovations have redefined industries while keeping competitors guessing. In 2017, as cryptocurrency miners flocked to NVIDIA’s hardware, the company appeared reluctant to embrace the trend publicly, choosing instead to focus on its core markets of gaming and data centers. But behind the scenes, NVIDIA was quietly laying the groundwork for a foray into blockchain, releasing its Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) series—a calculated move that signaled its ability to adapt without losing focus. This approach, a mix of caution and boldness, has come to define NVIDIA’s journey into emerging technologies like AI and, most recently, quantum computing. This blend of public reticence and private ambition has become something of a signature for NVIDIA. At first glance, its approach to emerging technologies appears cautious, almost hesitant.

But beneath the surface, the company has been quietly reshaping the contours of computing itself, moving not with the fervor of a sprinter, but the deliberation of a chess master. Nowhere is this more apparent than in its venture into quantum computing. Jensen Huang , Founder & CEO of NVIDIA, who once likened AI to “a new industrial revolution,” has a habit of playing the long game. At CES 2025, he declared that practical quantum computing might still be 15 to 30 years away. The pronouncement, delivered with his trademark mix of gravitas and pragmatism, seemed to reinforce NVIDIA’s image as a company firmly rooted in the here and now. Yet, for those paying attention, the statement felt like a deliberate misdirection.

Behind the scenes, NVIDIA has been quietly building what can only be described as a quantum empire. In 2021, the company unveiled cuQuantum, a quantum circuit simulation software development kit designed to accelerate quantum computing research. Integrated into leading platforms like Cirq, Qiskit, PennyLane, and Orquestra, cuQuantum wasn’t just a foray into the quantum space—it was an assertion of dominance. By providing the computational backbone for quantum simulation, NVIDIA was staking a claim as the indispensable bridge between classical and quantum computing. Then, in 2023, NVIDIA doubled down with the launch of DGX Quantum, the world’s first GPU-accelerated quantum computing system. Built on the company’s Grace Hopper Superchip and powered by the open-source CUDA Quantum platform, the system represents a major milestone in hybrid computing.

In typical NVIDIA fashion, DGX Quantum arrived quietly but spoke volumes about the company’s ambitions. It wasn’t just a tool for researchers; it was a signal to the industry that NVIDIA intends to be at the center of the quantum revolution. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is growing more bullish about quantum computing — and he expects they'll start solving real-world problems in the coming years. "Quantum computing is reaching an inflection point," Jensen declared during his keynote speech at Nvidia's GTC Paris developer conference Wednesday. Quantum computers are machines that use the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems too complex for classical computers, which store information in bits (ones and zeroes). Quantum computers use quantum bits, or "qubits," which can be zero, one or something in between — the aim being to process much larger volumes of data to facilitate breakthroughs in areas like medicine,...

Quantum has been a buzzy space for investors with the rise of several popular stocks, such as Rigetti Computing and IonQ, which on Monday acquired Oxford Ionics for $1.1 billion. Shares of Rigetti and IonQ were up 4.5% and 3.7% respectively in U.S. premarket trading.

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