Before the commencement of NVIDIA's annual GTC Summit keynote, stocks of companies involved in quantum computing and artificial intelligence saw significant gains. Investors are eagerly anticipating NVIDIA's announcements on advancements in quantum computing at the event.
As of March 17, D-Wave Quantum's stock surged over 10%, Quantum Corp saw a rise of more than 40%, Quantum Computing gained over 13%, and Rigetti Computing increased by more than 7%. This year's GTC Summit will feature the first-ever "Quantum Day," dedicated to discussing cutting-edge developments in quantum computing, with executives from companies like D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing in attendance to reinforce collaborative ecosystems.
According to NVIDIA's official blog, CEO Jensen Huang will engage in discussions with executives from major quantum technology firms, including Alice & Bob, Atom Computing, IonQ, and D-Wave, exploring the present and future of quantum technology. Despite Huang's previous caution that quantum technology is still decades away from practical application, companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have announced progress in quantum chip development.
Currently, AI chips remain the mainstay in artificial intelligence. Optimistic quantum computing experts believe that quantum computers could one day solve problems that would take current systems millions of years, leading to breakthroughs in medicine, chemistry, and other fields. However, there is ongoing debate about when this vision will materialize.
Gil Luria, head of technology research at D.A. Davidson, noted in a report that quantum computing technology, once powerful enough, could replace some functions of data centers using graphics processors, posing a "significant threat" to NVIDIA. Companies like Google predict that quantum computing will surpass current AI chip capabilities within five years, while IBM expects large-scale quantum computers to be operational by around 2033. Microsoft envisions using quantum computers for AI model training data in the future.
Although quantum computers may soon enable simulations of scientific models involving multiple particles, experts point out that they are not yet capable of practical scientific applications like discovering new drug targets.
An R&D professional from a Chinese quantum computing company expressed interest in attending the GTC Summit to observe NVIDIA's upcoming announcements in the quantum computing field, highlighting NVIDIA's significant investments in this area. The company is developing a technological path that merges quantum and classical computing, with many global quantum computing studies running on NVIDIA's GPUs.
NVIDIA positioned itself as a "key player in the quantum computing field" two years ago at the GTC conference, advocating for the hybrid use of quantum and classical computers. In May 2023, NVIDIA and Germany's Jülich Supercomputing Centre announced a new lab to develop a classical-quantum supercomputer based on NVIDIA's quantum computing platform. NVIDIA also launched the world's first GPU-accelerated quantum computing system, NVIDIA DGX Quantum, enabling researchers to build powerful applications that combine quantum and classical computing.
