Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang admits mistake: First event where a CEO invites guests to…

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang backtracked from his comments in January, where he cast doubt on the timeline for useful quantum computers. Speaking at Nvidia’s "Quantum Day" event, part of its annual GTC Conference, Huang acknowledged that his remarks had been misleading. “This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong,” Huang said.
Back in January, Huang caused a stir in the quantum computing industry when he suggested that a 15-year timeline for useful quantum computers was “on the early side.” At the time, he said 20 years was a more realistic estimate, a view shared by many in the tech industry. His comments led to a drop in quantum computing stock prices.
On Thursday (March 20), Huang expressed surprise that his words had moved markets and joked about not realizing some quantum computing firms were publicly traded.
“How could a quantum computer company be public?” he quipped.
During his speech, Huang compared the current state of quantum computing to Nvidia’s early struggles in the semiconductor industry. He reminded the audience that it took Nvidia over 20 years to develop its software and hardware business into what it is today.

Although quantum computing is still in its early stages, Nvidia has a stake in the field. As researchers develop quantum computers, they use powerful traditional systems—such as those made by Nvidia—to run quantum simulations.
Additionally, many experts believe that future quantum computers may require traditional computing systems to function efficiently. Nvidia is working on developing the technology and software to integrate its GPUs with quantum chips.
“Of course, quantum computing has the potential and all of our hopes that it will deliver extraordinary impact,” Huang said. “But the technology is insanely complicated.”

Quantum computing has been a dream of scientists since the 1980s, when physicist Richard Feynman first proposed the idea. Unlike classical computers, which use bits that are either 0 or 1, quantum computers use qubits that can exist in multiple states at once based on probability.
Experts believe that quantum computers could eventually solve complex problems, such as codebreaking, optimizing logistics, and simulating chemical reactions or weather patterns.
However, no quantum computer has yet outperformed a classical computer in solving a real-world problem. Google, however, claimed last year that it had made progress in quantum error correction, a key hurdle for the field.