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Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, has shut down today, following a fire last night at a nearby electrical substation that caused a major power outage. The closure has disrupted at least 1,350 flights, according to Flightradar24, with some aircraft diverted to alternate airports like Gatwick, Amsterdams Schiphol, and Pariss Charles de Gaulle. What caused the fire? While the cause of the fire is still under investigation, British officials have stated that there is no evidence of foul play. According to the London Fire Brigade, the fire broke out at an electrical substation around 11:20 p.m. on Thursday, involving a transformer containing 25,000 liters of cooling oil “that was fully alight.” The blaze posed a serious risk due to “live high-voltage equipment and the nature of an oil-fueled fire,” the brigade said. Around 70 firefighters responded to the incident. As of the latest update, about 10% of the fire remains burning. The incident left 67,000 homes without power, with 5,000 still affected. Both Heathrow Terminals 2 and 4 are without power. Additionally, around 150 people were evacuated to a rest center for safety. Firefighters and emergency services are continuing to address the situation. “This was a very visible and significant incident, and our firefighters worked tirelessly in challenging conditions to bring the fire under control as swiftly as possible, Pat Goulbourne, assistant commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said in a statement. What should I do if I have a flight from Heathrow Airport today? Heathrow Airport confirmed that it would remain closed until at least 11:59 p.m. on Friday, warning passengers not to attempt to travel. Authorities have warned of continued disruptions and advised travelers to check with their airlines for updates. The U.K.’s Department for Transport travel guide includes a detailed breakdown of passenger rights covered by law when something goes wrong at a U.K. airport.
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E-Commerce
The blue Twitter bird sign that once was once mounted on the exterior of the San Francisco headquarters of the social media company now known as X sold Thursday at auction for $34,325, failing to reach an estimated bidding price of $40,000. Nicknamed “Larry,” after Boston Celtics star Larry Bird, the 560 lb. logo was one of two displayed on the building before the company rebranded. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a “special government employee” overseeing aggressive cuts to the federal government for President Donald Trump, bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X the following year complete with a new, worse logo. The rebrand and new ownership has proven abysmal for the company’s worth. As of last December, the value of X had fallen 72% from what Musk paid for Twitter, according to a valuation from Fidelity, an investment services company. The lost brand equity that’s come from removing the blue bird logo and old name have also proven costly. It’s AP style to refer to the social network on first reference as “X, formerly known as Twitter.” As “X” is both new and less distinctive than “Twitter,” readers may be less familiar with its new single-letter name. The same can be said of the old versus new logos. RR Auction, the auction house that sold the sign, likened the old Twitter logo to the logos of some of America’s most iconic brands. “Although Twitter and its light blue bird have since retired, the symbol remains an icon of tech and social media history, an instantly recognizable emblem in the same league as Nike or Apple Computer,” the auction house says in its listing. It’s a symbol that represented the company “from 2012 to 2023, an 11-year span representing Twitters most popular and influential period.” After buying the social network that would become X, Musk turned the app into a pro-Trump site that amplified his own posts, ended unpaid verification, and became a more accommodating platform for right-leaning news influencers and a less accommodating one for news sites. In a bit of mutual admiration this month, Trump has promoted Musk’s cars on the White House grounds while Musk’s political action committee has run more than $200 million in pro-Trump ads on X. X as it is now is associated with Musk, Trump, DOGE, and MAGA while Twitter is now nostalgia, associated with a previous era when it was publicly owned and public opinion of social media was more positive. The giant sign that just sold is now a piece of history (not to mention one that the new owner is now responsible for paying shipping costs on, per its listing). But it’s also a reminder of a time before social networks felt as politicized and as heavily influenced by their partisan owners as they do today.
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E-Commerce
Quantum computing stocks got pummeled yesterday, with the four most prominent public quantum computing companiesIonQ, Rigetti Computing, Quantum Computing Inc., and D-Wave Quantum Inc.falling anywhere from over 9% to over 18%. The reason? A lot of it may have to do with AI chip giant Nvidia. Again. Stocks crash yesterday on Nvidia quantum news Yesterday was a bit of a bloodbath on the stock market for the four most prominent publicly traded quantum computing companies. Heres a breakdown of how they performed, according to data from Yahoo Finance: IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ): down 9.27% to $21.14 per share Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq RGTI): down 9.24% to $8.99 per share Quantum Computing Inc. (Nasdaq: QUBT): down 11.71% to $7.39 per share D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS): down 18.02% to $8.69 per share All four of these quantum computing stocks tumbled on the day that AI chip giant Nvidia kicked off its two-day Quantum Day event. In a blog post from January 14 announcing Quantum Day, Nvidia said the event brings together leading experts for a comprehensive and balanced perspective on what businesses should expect from quantum computing in the coming decades mapping the path toward useful quantum applications. But thats not all that Nvidia did. Besides bringing quantum experts together, the AI behemoth also announced that it will be launching a new quantum computing research center in Boston. Called the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center (NVAQC), the new research lab will help solve quantum computings most challenging problems, ranging from qubit noise to transforming experimental quantum processors into practical devices, the company said in a press release. The NVAQCs location in Boston means it will be near both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Quantum computing will augment AI supercomputers to tackle some of the worlds most important problems, from drug discovery to materials development, Nvidias CEO, Jensen Huang, said. Working with the wider quantum research community to advance CUDA-quantum hybrid computing, the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center is where breakthroughs will be made to create large-scale, useful, accelerated quantum supercomputers. It’s not the first time stocks reacted to Nvidia’s CEO Nvidias announcement of the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center apparently sent shivers down the spines of many quantum computing investors, with shares of QBTS, RGTI, IONQ, and QUBT all crashing. Before Nvidias announcement yesterday, IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantum Computing Inc. were the leaders in the nascent field of quantum computing. And while they still are right now (Nvidias quantum research lab hasnt been built yet), the fear is that Nvidia could use its deep pockets to quickly buy its way into a leadership spot in the field. With its $2.9 trillion market cap, the company can easily afford to throw billions of research dollars into quantum computing. As noted by the Motley Fool, the location of the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center in Boston will also allow Nvidia to more easily tap into top quantum talent from Harvard and MITtalent that may have otherwise gone to IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantum Computing Inc. Nvidias announcement is a massive about-face from the company in regard to how it views quantum computing. Its also the second time that Nvidia has caused quantum stocks to crash this year. Back in January, shares in prominent quantum computing companies fell after Huang said that practical use of quantum computing was decades away. Those comments were something quantum computing company CEOs like D-Waves Alan Baratz took issue with. Its an egregious error on Mr. Huangs part, Bartaz told Fast Company at the time. Were not decades away from commercial quantum computers. They exist. There are companies that are using our quantum computer today. According to Investor’s Business Daily, Huang reportedly got the idea for Nvidias Quantum Day event after the blowback to his comments, inviting quantum computing executives to the event to explain why he was incorrect about quantum computing. Quantum Computing Inc. Q4 results may also play a role But it wasn’t just the Nvidia news that may have contributed to yesterday’s quantum sell-off. Also yesterday, Quantum Computing Inc. (QCi) (Nasdaq: QUBT) announced its Q4 2024 results. Those results were not good news for the company. The company announced it had $62,000 in total revenue for the quarterdown from $75,000 in the quarter a year before. It also had a net loss of $51.2 million versus a net loss of $6.8 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Announcing its Q4 results, Quantum Computing Inc.’s CEO, William McGann, said “QCi made meaningful progress in the fourth quarter strengthening our financial position to support the continued advancement of our quantum solutions and foundry services. With a significantly bolstered balance sheet, we are well-positioned to scale operations and accelerate commercialization efforts.” He also noted that the company is still on track to launch its foundry that will produce quantum photonic chips “in early 2025.” Still, that news was not enough to mitigate investor disappointment over its Q4 results. As The QuantumInsider noted, Quantum Computing Inc. The stock fell over 11% yesterday and is down over 10% in pre-market trading today. Quantum stocks sometimes rise and fall in unison, so when one company posts bad results, it can tend to drag the stock prices of other quantum computing companies lower, too. How quantum computing stocks are trading today After the announcements above, including Huang announcing Nvidias intention to launch the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, quantum computing stocks tankedand they arent doing much better today. As of the time of this writing, the four most prominent quantum computing stock prices are all down in premarket trading: IONQ: down 1.09% RGTI: down 3.00% QUBT: down 10.4% QBTS: down 4.83% Since the start of 2025 three of those four quantum computing stocks have been hit hard. As of yesterday’s close IONQ had lost more than 49% of its value, RGTI has lost 41%, and QUBT has lost 55%. Only QBTS has seen a modest gain of 3.45% for the year to date, though that gain has been wiped out in premarket trading this morning as of the time of this writing. However, despite these quantum computing stocks being in the red for 2025, over the past 12 months, all have shown impressive returns, with IONQ up over 120%, RGTI over 425%, QUBT over 495%, and QBTS over 323% as of yesterdays close. As for Nvidia, investors seem not to care much about its quantum announcement. Yesterday, NVDA stock closed up just 0.86%, and today, the stock is currently down a paltry 0.76% in premarket trading. Since 2025 began, NVDA stock has been down almost 12%, while it has been up over 31% over the past 12 months, as of yesterdays close.
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