Quantum computing continues to excite data scientists and raise eyebrows on Wall Street, and for good reason. Innovations in qubit technology and high-profile partnerships involving some of the tech sector’s leading lights are fueling high hopes in the last quarter of 2025.
Sector experts say it’s okay to get excited about quantum’s long-term prospects, but advise holding back across the board on breakouts. Yes, shares of quantum companies like Rigetti Computing Inc. (ticker: RGTI) and IonQ Inc. (IONQ) are skyrocketing in 2025, but not every industry company can make the same claim.
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“The quantum computing market is still highly speculative, since many of the pure-players in the space are either pre-revenue or pre-profitability,” says Josh Kaplan, head of research and investment strategy at MarketVector Indexes. “However, given the incredible promise of the technology, national security interests, and growing pipeline of public and private quantum-focused companies, short of a major global financial collapse, these companies will continue to find ample liquidity and capital from both public and private markets.”
That doesn’t mean investors should start flinging dollar bills at the quantum stocks. “At the moment, while there are some market leaders, the future is so uncertain that stock picking is probably futile, and investors should look to diversify their exposure,” Kaplan notes.
Another vexing issue is ongoing tariff maneuvering, which has recently spilled over into the quantum computing (QC) realm.
“The trade wars, specifically those related to the Chinese economy, are definitely not absent in the quantum computing sector,” says Oliver Wagner, founder at 1040 Abroad, a New York-based financial services firm. “China is also competing in quantum technology and has long been making research and development investments.”
Consequently, the likelihood of a protracted trade war between China and the U.S. is all too real, with quantum companies in both countries facing potential supply chain disruptions, increased production costs and even market failure. “Most quantum computing firms depend on a web of intricate global collaboration, since parts and ingredients are manufactured in different countries like China, and, therefore, tariff or trade embargos can shatter the cycle of innovation and development,” Wagner notes.
Additionally, geopolitics, especially as practiced between China and the U.S. right now, represent a real risk to quantum technology investment, at least for the short term. “Not all investors are willing to invest in a company that is subject to such uncertainty,” Wagner says.
With both potential and peril in play, what quantum stocks can thrive in the current market climate? These “elite eight” industry stocks check some big boxes for investors heading into 2026:
| QUANTUM COMPUTING STOCK | 1-YEAR PERFORMANCE | 3-YEAR PERFORMANCE* |
| Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) | 23.3% | 25.3% |
| Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) | 27.4% | 31.6% |
| D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) | 3,638.3% | 61.2% |
| IonQ Inc. (IONQ) | 678% | 141.4% |
| International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) | 29.5% | 37.6% |
| Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) | 42.3% | 150.2% |
| Rigetti Computing Inc. (RGTI) | 5,450.1% | 183.9% |
| Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) | 2,790.9% | 108.1% |
*Annualized as of the market close on Oct. 8.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
Amazon had been leaning heavily on its Amazon Braket quantum computing service, which has been widely adopted by computer scientists, research analysts and software engineers, making it easier than ever to run quantum algorithms across various technology platforms and leaving Amazon to manage the back end.
While Braket is still going strong (it released Braket Direct, a subscription-type service that provides enterprises with access to high-powered quantum devices, in 2023), Amazon has been cranking things up in the past year. It brought aboard Rigetti’s 84-qubit Ankaa-2 processor, Amazon’s most powerful quantum processor to date, while releasing Ocelot, its new error-reducing, first-ever quantum chip, created by the AWS Center for Quantum Computing.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s stock has been stuck in neutral in 2025, only up 2.7% year to date. Expect that equation to shift in 2026, as advancements in artificial intelligence and cloud computing are expected to stabilize the situation in Seattle and bring AMZN shares back to the forefront.
Rigetti Computing Inc. (RGTI)
Berkeley, California-based Rigetti’s shares have gained momentum in the second half of 2025, with the stock price up 223.1% over the past 90 days and 183.3% year to date. Oh, and add another digit to RGTI’s one-year return, for a dizzying 5,450.1%.
The stock is riding high after Rigetti unleashed its 36-qubit multi-chip quantum computer in August, slightly behind schedule, and is prepping its 100-plus qubit quantum computing platform for commercial release within the next six months. The company also recently announced the imminent sales of two Novera 9-qubit quantum computing systems for a reported $5.7 million.
With big brand partners like NASA, Microsoft Azure, Nvidia and Quanta Computer Inc. (OTC: QUCCF), Rigetti is developing a high-flying, if sometimes volatile, quantum computing brand.
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
With a massive market capitalization of $4.7 trillion, Nvidia sits high in the saddle among the Magnificent Seven technology titans. In most cases, investors acknowledge Nvidia as a semiconductor supernova, but it’s making great strides in the quantum computing market.
“Nvidia’s venture arm made a decisive strategic pivot in 2025, investing in all three major quantum hardware approaches: Quantinuum’s trapped ions, PsiQuantum’s photonics and QuEra’s neutral atoms, effectively placing bets across the entire technology landscape,” says Prineha Narang, a physical sciences professor at UCLA.
Nvidia isn’t just writing checks; it’s pouring foundations in quantum education, too. “The company opened a Boston-based Accelerated Quantum Research Center integrating its GB200 supercomputers with leading quantum hardware to advance hybrid quantum-classical computing,” Narang says.
With its share price up 40.8% so far in 2025, Nvidia is gaining backers at an accelerated rate. Goldman Sachs just reaffirmed its “buy” call on Nvidia stock, with a $210 price target (the stock is currently trading at $189). Despite inroads by OpenAI, a Morgan Stanley analyst said Nvidia “remains the incumbent” among AI semiconductor supplier giants.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)
IBM is a bread-and-butter play in a sector that highly favors leaders in quantum hardware and software development.
“Like Google, IBM has a big monetary interest in the quantum research activities and is making the time to focus on research and development as an investment specifically,” Wagner says. “It is an enterprise application, because IBM is an enterprise product company, and its quantum division is a quantum giant in the cloud software sector.”
IBM views quantum computing as a cloud-ready, full-stack technology for enterprises, and plans to steer it into data-intensive sectors like finance and life sciences, and its background as a quantum computing innovator keeps expanding.
A case in point: IBM recently announced a 2029 delivery date for its new “large-scale, fault-tolerant” quantum computer, dubbed IBM Quantum Starling, which will be built at the company’s new IBM Quantum Data Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. Comparing the unit to quantum computers available today, the company expects Starling to be able to perform 20,000 times more operations with “the memory of more than a quindecillion of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.”
Big Blue shares are up 34% year to date, although share growth has slowed to 0.25% over the past three months as of Oct. 8. A new partnership that merges Anthropic’s Claude large language model into IBM’s software playbook looks enticing. The announcement of this mashup on Oct. 7 generated a pop in IBM shares, sending them up to their highest trading level in four months.
IonQ Inc. (IONQ)
This 10-year-old company isn’t performing like a newcomer to the quantum computing market. The College Park, Maryland-based quantum computing manufacturer’s stock has returned 77.9% year to date as of early October and has generated a one-year return of 678%.
IonQ has broken through with a full-stack quantum systems platform available on the cloud (Braket and the IonQ Quantum Cloud are already widely in use in advanced computing circles). The company also continues to expand into new areas, such as building key distribution networks and enhancing long-distance communications. With support from the U.S. Air Force Research Lab, IonQ recently demonstrated a quantum computer-interconnecting network using fiber optics.
That said, high-value quantum computing companies like IonQ have found themselves caught in a unique technology trade war, with barriers being put in place, and that’s a scenario that quantum investors should closely track.
“Allied governments have invested over $40 billion in quantum to secure geopolitical advantage, and American quantum companies have deliberately, and rightly, structured their supply chains to avoid Chinese dependencies,” Narang says.
In recent years, the U.S., the European Union and their allies have imposed export controls specifically targeting quantum computing systems. “These aren’t just tariffs; they’re outright technology transfer restrictions. Companies like IonQ and Rigetti serve the Department of Defense, NASA and intelligence agencies,” Narang adds. “They’re building sovereign quantum capabilities by design.”
[READ: 10 Best Tech Stocks to Buy for 2025]
D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS)
Palo Alto, California-based D-Wave is another fast-tracker in the sector, engaging in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software and services. QBTS shares are on fire, up 307.7% year to date and up 3,638.3% over the past full year.
The full-stack quantum computing company is another sector player with a full dance card. The company has 100 enterprise and business partners and is commercially operating in major industries, including artificial intelligence, materials science and financial services. AI, in particular, is a good fit for D-Wave’s high-end “quantum annealing” problem-solving computers, especially in key areas such as logistics and modeling.
D-Wave is also doing a solid job getting the word out about its quantum systems, hosting major user events (like Qubits Japan this September) and regularly steering product updates that enhance business hybrid workflows to interested customers, who increasingly wind up writing checks to buy those products.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
Microsoft’s stock price is up 25.1% year to date and has generally been trading flat over the past three months. What is rising is Microsoft’s presence in the quantum computing sector, where Azure Quantum, a cloud-based quantum services platform, offers developers a full suite of enterprise software tools, third-party quantum hardware, and cloud computing tools to develop and test new quantum computing applications.
Buoyed by a powerful $3.9 trillion market capitalization and reported revenues of $281.7 billion in fiscal 2025, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant has the technology expertise and financial resources to expand in the quantum computing market, without investors having to worry too often about quantum-only returns.
As quantum businesses continue to move their data to the cloud, Microsoft Azure provides leadership with a built-in profit generator that’s already producing income, with Azure recording 39% revenue growth year over year in the recent quarter. Toss into the mix Microsoft’s “Level 2 resilient” quantum computer (error-correcting) in partnership with Atom Computing, and Microsoft is well positioned to attract shareholder value and build its quantum brand.
Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT)
This Hoboken, New Jersey-based quantum computing solutions developer is heating up right now, with its stock returning 36.6% over the past month and 25.8% year to date. The company made news with its plan to raise $750 million through a private placement of over 37 million shares, in a deal that closed on Oct. 8. The cash is expected to be put to use expanding quantum hardware production, hiring workers and acquiring partnerships to offer more quantum services and solutions.
All told, Quantum Computing has raised $1.6 billion in investment proceeds in the past year, providing what the company’s first-year CEO, Yuping Huang, calls “the strongest balance sheet among publicly traded quantum computing companies.”
Quantum Computing specializes in using photons, otherwise known as light particles, to build robust quantum computer chip calculations and market those chips to public and private enterprises. The U.S. government is a significant client, and Quantum Computing has just secured a major contract with the Department of Commerce. While QUBT remains a speculative play, analysts expect the company’s share price to rise by 32% over the next year, which would significantly boost its market capitalization, currently at $3.9 billion.
Analysts are bullish, with Ascendiant Capital Markets analyst Edward Woo affirming his “buy” call on the stock and pegging a new price target of $40 per share, representing a 90.5% pricing boost from QUBT’s current share price of $21.
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8 Best Quantum Computing Stocks to Buy in 2025 originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 10/09/25: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
