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Nvidia (NVDA-1.54%) chief executive Jensen Huang tried to do damage control after his doubts about quantum computing tanked the stocks — but they fell again anyway.
Despite Huang’s apology during the AI chipmaker’s Quantum Day on Thursday, shares of D-Wave Quantum (QBTS-3.97%), Rigetti Computing (RGTI-1.17%), Quantum Computing (QUBT-1.69%), and IonQ (IONQ+3.60%) all fell — some by double-digit percentages.
At the market open on Friday, shares of Quantum Computing were down by about 10%, while Rigetti and D-Wave were down by more than 4% and IonQ was up by less than 1%. Later in the morning, some of the stocks were back on the rise, with IonQ up by more than 5%, D-Wave and Quantum Computing down by less than 1%, and Rigetti down by less than 2%.
At the event, which was held during Nvidia’s annual GTC developers conference, Huang said that he didn’t know there were publicly traded quantum computing companies when he made comments in January that led the stocks to fall by more than 40%.
“My first reaction was, I didn’t know they were public,” Huang said, in remarks reported by Bloomberg. “How can a quantum company be public?”
During Nvidia’s financial analyst day at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Huang said he thought “useful quantum computers” are still decades away.
“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.”
Huang had added that he expects Nvidia will play “a significant part” in the development of quantum computers, and push it toward getting “there as fast as possible.”
“This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong,” Huang said Thursday, according to CNBC.
Huang added that he thinks “quantum computing has the potential and all of our hopes that it will deliver extraordinary impact,” but that “the technology is insanely complicated.”
Meanwhile, Quantum Computing reported fourth-quarter earnings results after the market close on Thursday showing that total revenue fell to $62,000, from $75,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“The increase in gross margin is primarily attributed to lower costs of goods sold in the 2024 period,” the company said.
At the same time, the company’s operating expenses grew to $8.9 million, from $6.6 million the previous year.