Nvidia CEO tries to boost Quantum sector, triggers stock sell-off instead

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang tried to fix a mess he started. It didn’t work. His attempt to walk back his old comments about quantum computing ended up dragging down the same stocks he wanted to help.

On Thursday, at the company’s first-ever Quantum Day, Huang said he didn’t mean it when he claimed quantum was at least 15 years away from being useful. But investors weren’t buying the apology. Instead of rallying, the sector went red.

D-Wave dropped 18% that day. Quantum Defiance ETF (QTUM) lost 2%. Rigetti Computing and IonQ both sank over 9%. That’s after Huang stood on stage trying to show support for the tech he once dismissed. His old comments in January already caused a sell-off. This new attempt just made things worse.

Huang hosts event, but stocks still fall

“This is the first event in history where a company CEO invites all of the guests to explain why he was wrong,” Huang said Thursday, trying to lighten the mood. But nothing about the market response was light. The entire event, held during Nvidia’s big GTC conference, was supposed to build confidence. Instead, it triggered more losses.

Back in January, Huang said quantum computing was at least 15 years out, calling that estimate “on the early side.” That comment sent the whole sector down. His Thursday speech was supposed to clear things up. Instead, it repeated the damage. He said he was surprised that his earlier comment moved markets at all, but this time it did again—and in real time.

The whole idea behind Quantum Day was to show the industry some love. Huang invited executives from several quantum companies to join him on stage. The move looked good on paper. Nvidia’s announcement about the event in January had helped kick off a small rally. But on Thursday, even the companies that showed up saw their shares slide.

Needham analyst Quinn Bolton pointed out one big issue: branding. “Jensen raised the idea that quantum computing might be poorly positioned, as calling a quantum system a computer sets unrealistic expectations,” Bolton told clients. He said this was one of the most contested parts of the whole event. Huang seemed to be suggesting that quantum tech should be pitched as a companion to traditional systems—not a full replacement.

Huang made it clear that the technology is still complicated. “Of course, quantum computing has the potential and all of our hopes that it will deliver extraordinary impact,” he said. “But the technology is insanely complicated.”

Nvidia expands research efforts while ETF keeps falling

Despite the chaos in the market, Nvidia is still pushing into the quantum space. The company announced plans to build a new research center in Boston. The facility will be a space for quantum startups to work with researchers at Harvard and MIT. It’s also part of Nvidia’s strategy to blend classical and quantum systems together.

The company already makes GPUs, which are used to run quantum simulators. That hardware is a key part of how current quantum research is done. Now Nvidia is developing tools to integrate those GPUs with quantum chips. No exact timeline was given, but the company is clearly trying to stay relevant in the space it once called decades away.

But none of that helped market confidence. The Quantum Defiance ETF is now down over 4% for the year. That’s after already getting hit hard in January when Huang made his original comment. Investors don’t seem ready to forget it, even if the CEO is.

Meanwhile, the broader stock market saw a small rebound on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.08%, closing at 5,667.56. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.52% to settle at 17,784.05, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved up 32.03 points, ending at 41,985.35. That marked the end of a four-week losing streak for the S&P 500, which posted a 0.5% weekly gain. The Nasdaq climbed 0.2% for the week, and the Dow was up 1.2%.

Friday was also a quadruple witching day. That’s when options and futures on stocks and indexes all expire on the same day. According to Goldman, over $4.7 trillion in notional options exposure expired. That added more noise to an already messy trading week.

Markets were also reacting to comments from Donald Trump, who hinted at some “flexibility” on tariffs. Still, he said the April 2 deadline for reciprocal tariffs would stand. Countries that tax U.S. goods will be taxed the same way, he said.

The S&P 500 even flirted with correction territory during the recent sell-off. It dropped nearly 8% from its record high. A correction is defined as a 10% drop. The benchmark tried to recover multiple times this month, including a 1% bounce on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it would likely cut rates twice this year.

But none of that helped the quantum sector. Even with a tech-driven rally in the broader market, the companies tied to Nvidia’s Quantum Day kept bleeding. Huang tried to shift the narrative, but it didn’t land. Instead of fixing things, his public U-turn pushed the stocks even lower. Investors don’t care what the event was called. They care about numbers. And the numbers were bad.

Nvidia stayed quiet on the exact market fallout after the event. No statements, no clarification. Just silence. The company tried to frame the event as a show of unity with the quantum world. But the only thing it united was a bunch of red candles across quantum tickers.

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