Why Quantum Computing Stock IonQ Soared This Week

Stocks in the quantum computing sector soared in 2024. One of the leaders was IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) with a massive 237% gain. It's been a different story so far this year though. IonQ shares are down by 43% year to date.

But shares are rebounding this week. IonQ stock was up double-digits before paring some of those gains in late trading Thursday. As of that time, shares remained higher for the week by 8.2%, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

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Nvidia's CEO walks it back

Much of the 2025 lull came after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang threw water on the quantum computing fire. He sent quantum computing stocks reeling earlier this year at the CES conference by saying "very useful" quantum computers were still at least 15 years away.

Late last week at Nvidia's GTC developer conference Huang changed his tune. Nvidia held its first Quantum Day sessions with Huang hosting many major quantum computing company leaders, including IonQ executive chairman Peter Chapman.

Huang walked back his earlier comments saying, "This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong." He backed up his support of quantum computing technology by letting investors know that Nvidia is building a quantum computing research center in Boston.

Quantum computing and AI supercomputers

Huang has reasons to want to see the technology work. The CEO of the leading artificial intelligence (AI) company added, "Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the world's most important problems."

Quantum investors jumped back into those names this week confident that Huang's support could bolster the sector. It also helped that IonQ recently announced a new quantum achievement. A project with leading computer-aided engineering company Ansys demonstrated quantum computing outperformed classical computing in designing medical devices.

Investors shouldn't jump the gun, though, just based on this achievement and Nvidia's work with IonQ and others in the industry. It's still early for an investment with quantum stocks likely to see much volatility ahead.

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Howard Smith has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Ansys. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.