Shares of quantum-computing companies that skyrocketed in 2024 collapsed by double digits Wednesday after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said practical uses for quantum computing were more than a decade away.

Jensen Huang founded accelerated computing company Nvidia ( NVDA -0.02%) in 1993, and has served as the CEO and president ever since. Nvidia has achieved many breakthroughs under his leadership, but the invention of the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999 was particularly momentous.

Nvidia CEO's comments on quantum computing caused a market drop, erasing $8 billion from companies like IonQ, Rigetti, and D-Wave. Huang suggested useful quantum computing may be 15-30 years away. D-Wave's CEO disagreed,