Shares of IonQ Inc (IONQ +12.46%) jumped 12.5% on Thursday. The move higher came as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both showed modest gains.
China is catching up to the U.S. in the race to build a working quantum computer, according to John Martinis, one of this year's Nobel Prize winners in physics.
NYSE: IONQ
Key Data Points
China is catching up to the US
In September, rumors that the Trump administration was considering direct investments in quantum computing companies sparked a big rally in quantum stocks. That rally faded, but Wednesday's Bloomberg interview with Martinis is renewing hopes the administration will do just that.
Martinis told the outlet that in the quantum race, China has "caught up quickly," and that he is now "worried that maybe we're nanoseconds ahead of them." The scientist has visited the White House several times, including just a few weeks ago. He says the administration is "now moving on to quantum" after having focused on keeping the U.S. ahead in artificial intelligence (AI).
Image source: Getty Images.
Quantum is still a ways off
It's entirely possible that the administration makes direct investments, and IonQ very well could be one of its targets. There is no way to know, nor is it possible to make an educated guess. This rally, like most within the industry, is speculative.
Despite the leaps forward in recent years, quantum computing is still more a matter of research than of hard engineering. We still don't know if they can be built and if they will be much better than classical systems outside of extremely narrow applications. It's also worth noting that IonQ's technology differs considerably from Martinis's research.
I believe there is already far too much future growth baked in, and I would stay away from IonQ and other pure-plays, unless you are particularly risk-tolerant.
