Why startups and tech giants are racing to build a practical quantum computer

Published

5 months ago

March 21, 2025

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Technology giants Amazon, IBM, Google, Intel and Microsoft are all working on quantum technology, as are various other companies like Rigetti, IonQ, Quantum Computing Inc. and D-Wave Quantum Inc.

The latest entrant into the space is Nvidia, with CEO Jensen Huang announcing in March that the company will build a quantum computing research center in Boston.

“The surge in excitement now is driven by a convergence of technological advancements, funding and clearer pathways to real world applications,” said Matt Langione, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group. “By some estimates, greater than $50 billion have been pledged to quantum technologies, of which quantum computing is one, by governments around the world.”

Experts say quantum computing has the potential to efficiently solve problems that would be taxing if not impossible for classical computers, though this does not mean that the technology will replace classical computers entirely.

“Quantum computing will actually drive more classical computing because they’re very complementary,” Langione said. “Future problems that are solved by quantum computers will always be solved by hybrid setups, where you have a classical computer doing the part of the algorithm where classical computers are more efficient, and a quantum computer performing the part of the algorithm where quantum computers are more efficient.”

For example, quantum systems could be more efficient for things like coming up with new drug therapies or materials for better batteries. Analysts at McKinsey and Company estimate that the four industries likely to see the earliest economic impact from quantum computing are mobility, chemicals, financial services and life sciences, which stand to gain up to $2 trillion in value by 2035.

“It’s a new class of computation that I think can dramatically change most aspects of industry, commerce and science,” said Peter Barrett, founder and general partner at venture capital firm Playground Global, which is also a major investor in quantum computing startup PsiQuantum.

Despite massive advancements in the field in recent years, quantum computers still aren’t able to solve big real-world problems just yet.

CNBC visited Silicon Valley startup PsiQuantum to find out how close we are to having a useful quantum computer and spoke to experts about the major challenges this tech still faces as engineers work to transition the tech from lab experimentation to commercial viability. Watch the video to find out more.

CNBC’s Kate Rooney contributed to this report.

Technology

Circle shares fall after stablecoin issuer says it will offer 10 million shares

Published

14 hours ago

August 12, 2025

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Circle shares fall after stablecoin issuer says it will offer 10 million shares

Circle Internet Group Initial Public Offering at the New York Stock Exchange in New York City, U.S., June 5, 2025.

NYSE

Circle Internet Group stock tumbled more than 5% in extended trading Tuesday after it said it would offer 10 million Class A shares to the public.

Of the total stock being offered, 2 million shares will be offered by Circle. The remaining 8 million shares will be sold by stockholders.

The stablecoin issuer’s shares have soared more than 450% since it went public on June 5.

As part of the offering, Circle is offering its underwriters a 30-day option to buy an additional 1.5 million shares.

Circle shares closed Tuesday up 1.3% after the company reporting its first quarterly results as a publicly traded company. While charges tied to its IPO weighed on its second-quarter results and led to a loss of $4.48 per share, it saw revenue rise 53% on the back of strong stablecoin growth.

Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

Technology

CoreWeave shares drop even as revenue tops estimates

Published

15 hours ago

August 12, 2025

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CoreWeave shares drop even as revenue tops estimates

Mike Intrator, co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave, speaks at the Nasdaq headquarters in New York on March 28, 2025.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

CoreWeave shares fell about 6% in extended trading on Tuesday even as the provider of artificial intelligence infrastructure beat estimates for second-quarter revenue

Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:

Earnings per share: Loss of 21 cents
Revenue: $1.21 billion vs. $1.08 billion expected

Revenue more than tripled from $395.4 million a year earlier, CoreWeave said in a statement. The company registered a $290.5 million net loss, compared with a $323 million loss in second quarter of 2024. CoreWeave’s earnings per share figure wasn’t immediately comparable with estimates from LSEG.

CoreWeave’s operating margin shrank to 2% from 20% a year ago due primarily to $145 million in stock-based compensation costs. This is CoreWeave’s second quarter of full financial results as a public company following its IPO in March.

CoreWeave pointed to an expansion in business with OpenAI, a major client and investor. Also during the quarter, CoreWeave acquired Weights and Biases, a startup with software for monitoring AI models, for $1.4 billion.

In May, management touted 420% revenue growth, alongside widening losses and nearly $9 billion in debt. The stock still doubled anyway over the course of the next month.

CoreWeave shares became available on Nasdaq at the end of the first quarter, after the company sold 37.5 shares at $40 each, yielding $1.5 billion in proceeds. As of Tuesday’s close, the stock was trading at $148.75 for a market cap of over $72 billion.

A CoreWeave data center project with up to 250 megawatts of capacity is set to be delivered in 2026, the company said in the statement.

Executives will discuss the results and issue guidance on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

WATCH: Citi’s Tyler Radke’s bullish call on CoreWeave, upgraded to buy

Technology

White House says it’s working out legality of Nvidia and AMD China chip deals

Published

17 hours ago

August 12, 2025

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White House says it's working out legality of Nvidia and AMD China chip deals

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) invites Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to speak in the Cross Hall of the White House during an event on “Investing in America” on April 30, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images

The Trump administration is still working out the details of its 15% export tax on Nvidia and AMD and could bring deals of this kind to more companies, the White House’s Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

“Right now it stands with these two companies. Perhaps it could expand in the future to other companies,” said Leavitt, the White House’s spokesperson.

“The legality of it, the mechanics of it, is still being ironed out by the Department of Commerce, and I would defer you to them for any further details on how it will actually be implemented,” she continued.

President Donald Trump confirmed on Monday that he had negotiated a deal with Nvidia in which the U.S. government approves export licenses for the China-specific H20 AI chip in exchange for a 15% cut of revenue. Advanced Micro Devices also got licenses approved in exchange for a proportion of its China sales, the White House confirmed.

“I said, ‘If I’m going to do that, I want you to pay us as a country something, because I’m giving you a release,'” Trump said Monday.

“We follow rules the U.S. government sets for our participation in worldwide markets,” Nvidia said in a statement this week.

Trump said the export licenses for AMD and Nvidia were a done deal. But lawyers and experts who follow trade have warned that Trump’s deal may be complicated because of existing laws that regulate how the government can charge fees for export licenses.

The Commerce Department didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

The H20 is Nvidia’s Chinese-specific chip that is slowed down on purpose to comply with U.S. export relations. It’s related to the H100 and H200 chips that are used in the U.S., and was introduced after the Biden administration implemented export controls on artificial intelligence chips in 2023.

Earlier this year, Nvidia said that it was on track to sell more than $8 billion worth of H20 chips in a single quarter before the Trump administration in April said that it would require a license to export the chip.

Trump signaled in July that he was likely to approve export licenses for the chip after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang visited the White House.

The U.S. regulates AI chips like those made by Nvidia for national security reasons, saying that they could be used by the Chinese government to leapfrog U.S. capabilities in AI, or they could be used by the Chinese military or linked groups.

The Chinese government has been encouraging local companies in recent weeks to avoid using Nvidia’s H20 chips for any government or national security-related work, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

WATCH: Access to Nvidia’s H20 won’t hand China an AI advantage: Analyst