Microsoft Corporation‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) founder Bill Gates said that it could take three to five years to develop logical quantum computing qubits while immediately adding that the timeline could be longer.
What Happened: Gates, who is invested in the quantum computing company IonQ Inc. through his venture Breakthrough Energy, spoke about the quantum computing companies during Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast.
He explained that Huang’s prediction may be incorrect but it’s possible that within three to five years, one of these quantum computing techniques will achieve sufficient logical qubits to solve complex problems.
However, Gates immediately went on to say “But Jensen’s correct, it could take longer, this is both in terms of how you build a quantum computer and what software you write that can solve problems that other computers couldn’t write.”
Rigetti Computing Inc. and IonQ were up on Monday. Quantum computing stocks have declined on a year-to-date basis. The exchange-traded fund that tracks quantum computing stocks Defiance Quantum ETF declined 0.52% on Monday and 0.63% year-to-date. However, stocks were up in pre-market trading on Tuesday, with the exception of IonQ.
| Stocks | Monday’s Performance | Tuesday Pre-Market Performance | YTD Performance |
| Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:RGTI) | 2.28% | 1.56% | -32.65% |
| Quantum Computing Inc (NASDAQ:QUBT) | -4.14% | 2.61% | -46.96% |
| D-Wave Quantum Inc (NYSE:QBTS) | -3.03% | 2.26% | -40.06% |
| IonQ Inc (NYSE:IONQ) | 5.01% | -0.19% | -3.78% |
| Defiance Quantum ETF (NASDAQ:QTUM) | -0.52% | 1.36% | -0.63% |
Why It Matters: Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang during CES 2025 predicted that practical quantum computing is 15-30 years away. This was accompanied by similar skepticism from Meta Platform Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, calling quantum computing "still quite a ways off from being a truly practical paradigm,” during a podcast.
Gates, during the interaction, went on to say “I am thrilled that MSFT is making those investments but there is a great deal of uncertainty there.”
However, he added that rapid and predictable advancements in artificial intelligence over the next three to five years promise significant capabilities.
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