NVIDIA will establish a quantum research laboratory in Boston, USA. Jensen Huang: I didn't know the quantum company was listed, quantum stocks plummet

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang announced on Thursday that a quantum computing research laboratory will be established in Boston, USA, and plans to collaborate with scientists from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Huang made the announcement at NVIDIA's annual software developer conference held in San Jose, California. On that day, NVIDIA hosted a series of events focused on quantum computing.

NVIDIA stated that the research center will be named Nvidia Accelerated Quantum Research Center (NVIDIA 加速量子研究中心), abbreviated as NVAQC, and plans to collaborate with quantum computing companies such as Quantinuum, Quantum Machines, and QuEra Computing. NVIDIA indicated that the center will officially begin operations later this year.

Jensen Huang: How could quantum companies possibly go public? Once again, it led to a crash in quantum computing stocks.

In January of this year, Huang stated that practical quantum computers would still take 20 years to achieve, which led to a sharp decline in the stocks of quantum companies like IonQ Inc. However, at Thursday's event, he attempted to retract this statement and invited executives from quantum computing companies to discuss the industry's development prospects.

"This is the first time in history that a company's CEO invites all guests on stage to explain why he was wrong."

Jensen Huang admitted that when he made the relevant remarks in January, he was unaware that there were already quantum computing companies that had gone public.

"My first reaction was, I didn't know they were public companies. How could quantum companies possibly be public companies?"

The media reported that the goal of the quantum computing industry is to utilize the unique properties of subatomic particles to process data at speeds faster than traditional semiconductor electronic devices. However, the technical difficulty of building practical systems is extremely high, keeping the field in an experimental stage. In addition to quantum computing startups, companies like Microsoft and Alphabet's Google are also striving to find practical applications for quantum systems.

Huang's surprised remarks on Thursday once again led to a crash in quantum computing concept stocks. During Thursday's trading, Quantum fell 18%, D-Wave dropped 21%, Quantum Computing Inc fell 15.29%, Rigetti Computing Inc dropped 10.5%, Arqit Quantum Inc fell 5.8%, and the quantum ETF's decline expanded to 2.3%.

Executives: Still using NVIDIA GPUs to design chips, will not short NVIDIA

Representatives from companies like IonQ and D-Wave Quantum Inc. took the stage at Thursday's event. Huang stated that due to the novelty of this new computing method, it is natural for it to take years to develop. He mentioned that these companies might be able to convince him that the pace of quantum computing development is faster than he expected. "But I don't know," he joked.

"The whole conference felt like a therapy session for me," he said Executives from six companies on stage provided different answers to Jensen Huang, with some companies trying to extract commercial profits from the technology before quantum computers truly surpass traditional computers. Some believe that quantum computers have already begun to be used to solve complex scientific problems. Others think that this technology is even closer to driving advancements in traditional computing.

Matt Kinsella, CEO of Infleqtion, stated that the company is currently able to provide more advanced quantum clocks to help synchronize multiple traditional computing chips.

"We are following a proven market development and profitability strategy, commercializing first in areas that currently do have 'quantum advantage.'"

Executives from quantum computing companies indicated that even if quantum computers can surpass NVIDIA's GPUs in certain tasks, such as understanding interactions between atoms, quantum computers will not replace traditional computers.

Peter Chapman, CEO of IonQ, said:

"We use your GPUs to design our chips. Ultimately, traditional computing systems will still work alongside quantum computers, interacting... so I won't be shorting NVIDIA's stock after today's meeting."

The executives also mentioned that spending a decade perfecting a technology with significant impact is not unreasonable. Loic Henriet, head of the French company Pasqal, also believes that the term "quantum computing" is misleading. He pointed out that quantum processors will serve as accelerators, working in conjunction with traditional computers rather than replacing them