Microsoft’s New Program Sparks Quantum Stock Rebound

Microsoft’s New Program Sparks Quantum Stock Rebound

Key Takeaways:

• Quantum stocks rebounded Wednesday following Microsoft’s announcement of its “Quantum Ready” program.
• The program aims to prepare industries for the quantum era through collaborations and strategic initiatives.
• Microsoft’s support helped offset recent bearish remarks by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

Quantum stocks made a strong comeback Wednesday after Microsoft (MSFT) unveiled its "Quantum Ready" program, calling 2025 "the year to become quantum-ready." The initiative aims to collaborate with industry leaders through workshops and forums while providing access to reliable quantum computers for experimentation.

The announcement helped shares of quantum companies rally sharply:

• Rigetti Computing (RGTI) rose 15%.
• D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) jumped 14%.
• IonQ (IONQ) surged 30%.
• Quantum Computing (QUBT) soared 40%.

The program marks a positive turn for the sector, which had been under pressure after Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang offered bearish outlooks on quantum computing. Zuckerberg’s remarks followed Huang’s claim that practical quantum computers are still 15 to 30 years away, which triggered steep declines in quantum stocks earlier this week.

For example, Rigetti Computing saw its stock price plunge two-thirds to $6.05 over three sessions. By Wednesday afternoon, however, it had recovered to $10.30, fueled by optimism around Microsoft’s initiative.