D-Wave Quantum CEO Alan Baratz said Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is “dead wrong” about quantum computing after comments from the chip giant’s chief spooked Wall Street on Wednesday.
Huang was asked about Nvidia’s quantum computing strategy on Tuesday. He said that Nvidia could make the conventional chips needed alongside quantum computer chips, but that those computers would need a million times the quantum processing units, called qubits, that they currently have.
Bringing “very useful quantum computers” to market could take 15 to 30 years, Huang told analysts.
Huang’s remarks sent shares tumbling in the fledgling industry, s Fall of the D-wave 36% on Wednesday.
“The reason he’s wrong is because we at D-Wave are commercial today,” Baratz told CNBC’s Deirdre Bosa on “The Exchange.” Baratz said companies include MasterCard and Japan’s NTT Docomo “are now using our quantum computers in production to benefit their business operations.”
“Not in 30 years, not in 20 years, not in 15 years,” Baratz said. “But just today.”
D-Wave’s revenues are still minimal. Sales in the most recent quarter fell 27% to $1.9 million from $2.6 million a year earlier.
Quantum computing promises to solve problems that are difficult for current processors, such as decoding encryption, generating random numbers and large-scale simulations. Technologists have been working on it for decades, and companies including Nvidia, Microsoft and IBM today they do, along with researchers at startups and universities.
Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., speaks while holding a Project Digits computer during the 2025 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., Monday, Jan. 6, 2025. Huang announced a range of new chips, software and services, with aiming to remain at the forefront of computing with artificial intelligence. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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D-Wave was among a number of companies that enjoyed a revival in investor interest in December, when Google announced a shift in his own research. Google said it completed a 100 qubit chip, the second of the six steps in its strategy to build a quantum system with a million qubits.
D-Wave shares jumped 178% in December after jumping 185% the month before. Quantum company Rigetti Computingwhich fell 45% on Wednesday, quintupled its value last month. IonQ it fell 39% on Wednesday. Shares rose 14% in December after a 143% gain in November.
Baratz acknowledged that one approach to quantum computing, called the access approach, could be decades away. But he said he uses an annealing approach, which can now be applied.
While Huang’s “comments may not be completely off base for gate model quantum computers, well, they are 100% off base for glowing quantum computers,” Baratz said.
Nvidia declined to comment.
Even after Wednesday’s drop, D-Wave’s stock is up about 600% in the past year, giving the company a market capitalization of $1.6 billion.
Quantum computing has also been fueled by investor interest in artificial intelligence, a technology that has fueled demand for Nvidia’s graphics processing units, which use conventional transistors instead of qubits. Nvidia’s market capitalization has grown 168% in the past year to $3.4 trillion.
Baratz said D-Wave systems can solve problems beyond the capabilities of the fastest Nvidia-equipped systems.
“I will be happy to meet with Jensen anytime, anywhere to help him fill in these gaps,” Baratz said.
