Wall Street senses quantum investment opportunities, popular "quantum computing concept stock" Rigetti Computing receives "buy" rating

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Rigetti Computing (RGTI.US), a "quantum computing concept stock" that has gained significant attention in the US stock market in recent years, attracted global funding focus on Wednesday. This was primarily due to the initiation of coverage and target price rating by Cantor Fitzgerald, a top Wall Street investment institution previously led by US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. The initiation of coverage on Rigetti is the latest signal from Wall Street indicating a bullish outlook on quantum technology stocks and their fundamental prospects, suggesting that Wall Street is beginning to recognize the strong investment opportunities in the cutting-edge field of quantum computing, and even betting on the potential for significant breakthroughs in commercial applications of quantum technology in the near future.

It is reported that Cantor Fitzgerald has given an "overweight" rating and set a target price of $15. In early trading on the US stock market, the stock attracted a massive influx of funds under Wall Street's coverage, with an initial increase of up to 6% to the $12 mark.

Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Troy Jensen wrote in a recent report to clients: "Global quantum computing is still in its infancy, but it remains one of the most sought-after technological milestones, and it is bound to have a significant economic impact in the future."

The analyst team led by Jensen added: "Although it may take several years for global quantum computing to achieve comprehensive commercial capabilities, this technology has already attracted significant attention from countless investors, and giants like NVIDIA, Microsoft, and IBM have poured substantial funds into this field."

As a result, companies related to this field have seen "significant stock price and market value expansion," but the institution noted that the current market trading valuation trajectory is undoubtedly in a "high" mode compared to recent actual revenue data or future profit forecasts.

It is understood that to significantly enhance its balance sheet fundamentals, Rigetti recently completed a new round of stock issuance at market price, raising up to $350 million.

Jensen Huang: Quantum Computing is Reaching a Critical Turning Point

Quantum computing systems utilize the properties of quantum mechanics, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement, to provide a new computing paradigm that theoretically can greatly surpass the computational power of traditional computers in certain specific areas. According to a statement from Google on December 9, the Willow quantum chip demonstrated astonishing performance in benchmark tests, capable of completing a "standard benchmark computation" in less than 5 minutes, while a traditional supercomputer would take 10^25 years to complete the same task.

However, it is important to note that, including Google, no company has yet achieved any practically usable level of "quantum computing" that can precisely control quantum states and achieve large-scale commercialization, and there is still a long way to go to reach the "final form" of this quantum mechanics acceleration mode. This is why Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized in a post that the Willow quantum chip represents "an important step towards building practical quantum computers," indicating that Google is still very far from achieving controllable and commercial "quantum computing." Currently, human technology cannot achieve precise and stable control over quantum states using a universal computing system, especially facing significant technical bottlenecks in realizing precise and controllable "quantum entanglement." Quantum entanglement is one of the key features of quantum computing, allowing for strong correlations between qubits, which is crucial for massive parallel computing and solving certain problems. However, current technology has not yet been able to achieve large-scale, long-term stable quantum entanglement.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently mentioned in a public speech that quantum computing is approaching a critical technological turning point, and in the coming years, it will be powerful enough to "solve some interesting global problems." Jensen Huang stated that, similar to the exponential growth pattern of transistors suggested by Moore's Law, the number of logical qubits that quantum computers can handle will evolve along a path of increasing tenfold every five years and a hundredfold every ten years. He also indicated that NVIDIA will collaborate deeply with quantum computing companies around the world in various ways in the future.

Jensen Huang, humorously referred to by gamers as the "Leather Jacket Swordsman," had previously stated in early January that "achieving a useful quantum computer may take as long as thirty years," which caused a collective plunge in U.S. stock prices of quantum computing concept stocks. However, this founder and CEO of NVIDIA seems to genuinely believe in the development prospects of quantum computing and aims to become one of its leaders. This is also why, less than a week after his statement, NVIDIA officially announced the first "Quantum Day" at the GTC conference, and subsequent remarks related to quantum have shown a positive outlook.

Similarly, in January, American tech giant Microsoft also expressed support for quantum computing, stating in its official blog that 2025 is the "Year of Quantum Readiness." Another tech giant, IBM, has been involved in quantum computing for a longer time compared to Microsoft and NVIDIA, but has significantly intensified its efforts in the quantum computing field this year, especially striving to integrate qubits with binary computing hardware infrastructure.

Cisco, known as the "founder of the internet," also recently announced a major entry into the quantum field. Cisco showcased a prototype chip for interconnecting quantum computers and announced the opening of a new laboratory in Santa Monica, California, to further explore the quantum computing field.

It is understood that Cisco's chip uses some of the same technology as current network chips, enabling small quantum computers to connect into larger systems. However, Cisco believes that this chip will have practical application value before quantum computers become widespread, such as assisting financial institutions in synchronizing transaction times or helping scientists detect meteorites. Vjoy Pandi, Senior Vice President of Cisco's Outshift Innovation Incubator, stated, "The application scenarios for this chip are very broad. When processing data snapshots from around the world, we need precise synchronization of clocks and timestamps."

The "Transformer Moment" in the Quantum Computing Field is Approaching

The emergence of the Transformer architecture marks a new paradigm shift in deep learning and artificial intelligence, directly driving the birth of generative AI applications like ChatGPT. It is the Transformer and the hardware computing power system capable of efficiently running this architecture that has brought "generative AI" from Google's AI lab to commercial applications The subsequent AI models of the GPT family, as well as large models like Gemini, Claude, and Llama, are all based on the Transformer architecture, which can be regarded as the "mother of AI large models." Looking ahead to the future of quantum computing, the so-called "Transformer moment" is gradually approaching human society.

The "Transformer moment" in quantum computing refers to "controllable quantum computing application systems built on quantum computing technology that have significant commercial value." Here, quantum computing includes but is not limited to ion traps, quantum annealing, quantum simulation, superconducting qubits, as well as quantum entanglement and topological quantum computing, etc. Currently, human technology cannot achieve precise and stable control of quantum states using a universal computing system, especially facing significant technical bottlenecks in achieving precise and controllable "quantum entanglement."

However, in recent years, breakthroughs have been made in the field of quantum computing, such as ion trap technology (e.g., IonQ, Honeywell's quantum solutions) and D-Wave quantum annealers. IBM strives to integrate qubits with binary computing hardware infrastructure. By December 2024, Google's Willow is set to make a stunning release, along with Microsoft's quantum chip named "Majorana 1" and Cisco's quantum interconnect chip, which were launched in the first half of this year. The quantum computing field seems to be witnessing a significant "paradigm shift," laying an important foundation for quantum computing to gradually transition from pure theory in physics books to "controllable, commercially valuable practical quantum computing application systems."

With tech giants Nvidia and Microsoft, along with Amazon, which previously announced its quantum blueprint, entering the field, and Google and IBM having deeply cultivated the underlying theories and quantum hardware systems for many years, their talent reserves and substantial financial resources, combined with strong support from governments around the world in recent years, may accelerate the trajectory of global large-scale commercialization based on quantum computing.

IonQ's new CEO Niccolo de Masi stated in an interview in May that the company aims to become the Nvidia of quantum computing. Niccolo de Masi said, "We are in the quantum computing business just like Nvidia and Broadcom are in the GPU business. I believe IonQ will become a leader similar to Nvidia, and there will be others who imitate us and follow us." He added, "We are satisfied with our competitive position because, ultimately, we are committed to advancing the development of the entire ecosystem."