Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang purportedly was responsible for tanking quantum computing stocks on Wednesday after a claim he had made about quantum computers' usefulness. Reuters reports that Jensen Huang believes quantum computer usefulness will only truly take place in 20 years, tanking several quantum computing stocks by more than 40%.
According to Reuters, Jensen Huang claimed on Tuesday, "If you kind of said 15 years... that'd 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."
Jensen's statement alone caused Rigetti Computing (RGTI.O), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS.N), Quantum Computing (QUBT.O), and IonQ (IONQ.N), stock to fall more than 40%, combining for a lost market value of over $8 billion.
Apparently, the Nvidia CEO is not the only person with this view of quantum computers. Reuters reveals that Ivana Delevska, an investment chief of Spear Invest, holds the same views, saying the 15 to 20-year timeline "seems very realistic." It is the same amount of time Nvidia took to develop accelerated computing.
The Nvidia CEO's far-away viability claim on quantum computing comes as the technology has reached an inflection point in functionality and effectiveness. Just a few months ago, Chinese scientists could crack military-grade encryption, some of the world's highest and most complex encryption, with D-Wave quantum computers.
Quantum computers are also breaking new records. Google's new Willow quantum computing chip can solve a workload that would take a classical computer 10 septillion years to complete. Last month, China unveiled the fastest quantum computer the country has built, featuring 504 qubits of performance.
Quantum computing is still in its infancy, similar to the 1980s and 1990s of classical computing development. Only time will tell whether it will take 20 years to mature enough for mainstream use, as Huang has predicted.
