D-Wave surges 52% as Nvidia quantum news fuels sector rally

Nvidia's new quantum computing initiative triggered a sector-wide rally, but famed short-seller Andrew Left points to a little-known stock as the real winner.

D-Wave Quantum shares surged over 50% this week after Nvidia unveiled a suite of AI tools on April 14 designed to accelerate quantum computing development, signaling to investors that the technology is moving closer to commercial viability.

"The smallest public quantum company by market cap was selected the most by the most important AI infrastructure company on earth," Citron Research's Andrew Left said in a post on X, referring to Infleqtion, not D-Wave. "The stock market hasn't caught up yet."

The rally was broad, with IonQ also gaining over 50% and Rigetti Computing climbing more than 30%. The surge was ignited by Nvidia's launch of its Ising AI models, which improve quantum error correction and calibration, and its NVQLink architecture for integrating quantum processors with GPUs.

The announcements from the AI chip leader, which has seen its own stock climb 13% this year, are being interpreted as a major validation for the quantum sector. This has pushed valuations to extreme levels, with companies like Rigetti and D-Wave trading at over 1,025 and 325 times sales, respectively, raising questions about a potential bubble.

The Surprise Winner

While D-Wave, IonQ, and Rigetti captured headlines with triple-digit gains, Left argued the market was misinterpreting Nvidia's endorsements. He pointed to Infleqtion, a quantum company that went public in February, as the most undervalued play. Left's reasoning is that Nvidia's press release named Infleqtion as a partner for two separate initiatives—Ising calibration and Ising decoding.

"Infleqtion is the only company NVIDIA selected twice for both Calibration AND Decoding, yet trades at half the market cap of Rigetti, a company NVIDIA didn't select at all," Left noted. He disclosed that he is betting against both Rigetti and D-Wave. Infleqtion has also expanded partnerships with several U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories, adding to its credentials.

A Sector Priced for Perfection

The Nvidia news served as an institutional endorsement that lifted all publicly traded quantum stocks. IonQ reported fourth-quarter 2025 revenue of $61.89 million, a 429% year-over-year increase, and guided for up to $245 million in 2026 revenue. D-Wave saw its fourth-quarter bookings jump 471% sequentially.

However, the valuations that followed have drawn comparisons to the dot-com bubble. According to one analysis, Rigetti trades at roughly 1,025 times sales and D-Wave at 325 times. For context, Palantir, one of the most expensive stocks in the S&P 500, trades at around 120 times sales. Projections from Grand View Research estimate the entire quantum computing market will reach $4 billion by 2030, a figure dwarfed by the current combined market capitalization of the sector's public companies.

The core of the story is Nvidia's gravitational pull. By building the tools to connect its dominant GPUs to quantum processors, Nvidia is ensuring it remains at the center of high-performance computing, regardless of which quantum technology ultimately wins. For investors, the question is whether to bet on the broad sector rally or the specific companies Nvidia has chosen to work with directly.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.