Quantum computing leader IonQ (IONQ.US) successively counterattacks against Huang Renxun! IonQ boasts of quantum revenue exceeding $1 billion by 2030.

The statement made by NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang, that it will take several decades to achieve a "useful" quantum computer, caused a collective plunge in quantum computing concept stocks in the US market. However, recently, leaders in the quantum computing field seem to have launched a full-scale "counterattack" against Huang Renxun. After D-Wave Quantum's CEO Alan Baratz criticized Huang Renxun's views on quantum computing, another leader in the quantum computing field, IonQ CEO, stated in a declaration before the opening of the US market on Friday that the company's quantum computing orders for 2024 are "at a high level," and total revenue, including quantum computing-related businesses, is expected to reach $1 billion by 2030. As a comparison, IonQ's total revenue in recent quarters has been hovering around $10 million. IonQ Chairman and CEO Peter Chapman released the latest performance expectations, stating that he expects the company's actual quantum computing commercial order volume in 2024 to reach the "high-end range" of previous performance forecasts, and predicts that revenue could approach $1 billion by 2030. The market responded positively to IonQ's latest performance outlook. In pre-market trading, the company's stock price rose sharply by over 14%, but later fell significantly following better-than-expected non-farm stimulus alongside S&P 500 index futures. Other quantum computing concept stocks, such as Rigetti Computing (RGTI.US), Quantum Computing (QUBT.US), and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS.US) also saw increases in their stock prices, but then followed the S&P 500 index futures' decline. "We expect our performance in 2024 to reach the high end of our bookings and overall revenue guidance, and we are very excited about the prospects for 2025," Chapman said in a statement. "We believe that by 2030, IonQ will achieve substantial profitability, with overall revenue approaching $1 billion." In addition, IonQ's quantum computing peer D-Wave stated on Friday that the overall order volume for 2024 is expected to increase by about 120% compared to 2023. D-Wave Quantum CEO Alan Baratz stated yesterday that NVIDIA Corporation CEO Jensen Huang's views on the quantum computing field are "completely wrong." Huang had previously told analysts that it could take 15 to 30 years to bring "very useful quantum computers" to the market. Baratz said, "He (Huang Renxun) is wrong because D-Wave is now commercialized." Baratz said companies like Mastercard and Japan's NTT Docomo are currently producing D-Wave's quantum computers to benefit their operations. Baratz said, "It's not 30 years from now, not 20 years from now, not 15 years from now. It's now, today." On Tuesday in Eastern time, NVIDIA Corporation's CEO Jensen Huang said during the analyst day's Q&A session, "A very useful" quantum computer may still be decades away. In the Q&A segment, he said, "If we say a very useful quantum computer will emerge in fifteen years, that might be too early. If we say thirty years, perhaps that's a bit too pessimistic; if we say within a twenty-year timeframe, I think many of us would believe that." Huang Renxun's recent comments sparked a strong global reaction in the capital markets, leading to a drastic drop in the stock prices of companies globally related to the quantum computing concept. In addition to revealing the latest performance outlook, IonQ CEO Chapman also discussed the latest developments in quantum computing itself. "One of the areas that appears very powerful now is classical artificial intelligence, facing the most serious potential disruption. We believe that in the field of strong artificial intelligence, AI systems based on native quantum computing acceleration will far surpass classical AI systems," explained Chapman. "Prudent leaders will invest in projects that are likely to yield returns in the short term." Chapman added that by the end of 2023, investments in quantum computing-related technologies had reached $50 billion, citing statistics provided by the consulting firm McKinsey. He also pointed out that tech giants such as NVIDIA Corporation, Amazon.com, Inc., Alphabet Inc. Class C, IBM, and Microsoft Corporation are already investing and recruiting in the field of quantum computing. The commercial scale of quantum computing is still very small, focusing on "heuristic quantum computing applications." Although D-Wave and its quantum computing peer IonQ management are very optimistic about the future commercial order outlook based on quantum computing, it should be noted that, including Alphabet Inc. Class C, no company has yet achieved any meaningful, precise control of quantum states and the ability to achieve large-scale commercial practical "quantum computing." And the gap to this "final form" of quantum acceleration is very far. This is why Alphabet Inc. Class C CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized the Willow quantum chip as an "important step towards building practical quantum computers" in a post, which also means that Alphabet Inc. Class C is still far from achieving precise controllable and commercializable "quantum computing." The commercialization process of quantum computing needs to address a series of technical challenges such as quantum error correction, stability of quantum bits, and the need for controllable entanglement depth and scale, and the progress towards achieving practical "quantum computing" is still very distant.Accurate realization of the most core special quantum state for commercialization - quantum entanglement. Currently, the scientific research community generally predicts that achieving a controllable level of quantum entanglement will take around 10 years, which also means that commercialization of quantum computing in the most cutting-edge research field will be difficult to expand to the whole enterprise and individual consumers in around 10 years. Achieving "accurate control and large-scale commercialization" of quantum computers or other forms of quantum acceleration applications may indeed require 15-30 years, as Huang Renxun said.D-Wave and IonQ's counterattack against Huang Renxun is that they have already achieved "practical quantum computing applications", which has been proven to be true, but the scope of commercialization is extremely narrow. Currently, quantum computing companies like D-Wave mainly focus on entry-level heuristic quantum computing applications, and the scope of commercial applications is still very limited. Most of them can only solve acceleration problems closely related to specific industries and cutting-edge research and development, playing a supporting role, such as large-scale research and development projects in pharmaceutical biotechnology and physics laboratories. Currently, human technology cannot achieve precise and stable control of quantum states in a universal computing system, especially in achieving precise and controllable "quantum entanglement", there are still significant technological bottlenecks. However, even entry-level "heuristic quantum computing applications" - such as ion traps, quantum annealing, and quantum simulation, have significant significance in accelerating calculations for some research and development projects. However, quantum states still cannot be precisely controlled, and in actual operation, the state of quantum bits is easily disturbed by external environmental factors, leading to quantum decoherence and quantum errors. Quantum computing companies need to repeatedly try and error, and are limited to specific acceleration calculations, making it difficult to control costs accurately.