Though they’ve recently had a bumpy ride, quantum computing stocks stacked cash overall in 2025, with industry exchange-traded fund Defiance Quantum ETF (ticker: QTUM) up 42% year to date as of Dec. 9.
As outperformers like Rigetti Computing Inc. (RGTI) and D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) have seen their hot streaks interrupted by an industry-wide correction and sentiment shift, it’s become obvious that it is not just a few dynamic companies powering industry growth. The global quantum computing market is expected to grow from $1.6 billion in 2025 to $7.3 billion by 2030, according to BCC Research. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 34.6% over the next five years.
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“The quantum computing market remains one of the most fascinating frontiers in technology, and importantly, it’s still very well funded,” says Chris Gannatti, global head of research at WisdomTree. “In just the past few months, we’ve seen a billion dollars raised by PsiQuantum, $600 million for Quantinuum and $300 million for IQM.”
That’s just getting things started, as Nvidia Corp. (NVDA), through its venture arm, places bets across trapped-ion, photonic and neutral-atom systems. “NVDA is signaling that even the world’s most important chip company views quantum as an ecosystem play, not a single-technology story,” Gannatti says.
Public markets are also rewarding companies as they hit milestones. “Rigetti surged more than 80% in September on the back of a U.S. Air Force contract, and IonQ Inc. (IONQ) jumped nearly 45% after hitting performance targets early,” Gannatti notes. Meanwhile, D-Wave Quantum demonstrated commercial traction in Asia “through pilots in drug discovery and telecom optimization,” he adds.
Commercial timelines are also bifurcated. “In the near term, we’re seeing hybrid workflows in finance, telecom and pharma that deliver measurable gains,” Gannatti adds. “The medium term should bring quantum advantage in targeted industries. And IBM’s 2029 goal (200 logical qubits and 100 million gates) remains the north star for fault-tolerant systems.”
All that means quantum is on track for widespread commercial use, which is the holy grail for industry players and their investors. “Even so, we need to separate hype cycles from the very real foundation being built,” Gannatti says.
Amid market turbulence, which quantum computing stocks will continue to thrive? These “elite eight” industry stocks still check some big boxes for investors heading into 2026:
| STOCK | 1-YEAR PERFORMANCE* | 3-YEAR RETURN* |
| Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) | 0.8% | 36.8% |
| Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) | 11.1% | 26.9% |
| D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) | 509.3% | 130.3% |
| IonQ Inc. (IONQ) | 59.0% | 129.9% |
| International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) | 37.9% | 31.0% |
| Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) | 33.3% | 121.6% |
| Rigetti Computing Inc. (RGTI) | 531.3% | 205.3% |
| Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) | 76.8% | 86.7% |
*As of Dec. 9 market close. Three-year return is annualized.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)
Amazon shares are up only 0.8% over the past year after recent market volatility, but this company’s quantum story is more about future growth than current growth, which should only encourage more investors to snap up shares of AMZN. Also, Amazon’s growth drivers are artificial intelligence and Amazon Web Services, among other projects, and it’s not dependent on its quantum computing ambitions. In the near term, Amazon Braket, through AWS, already offers quantum computing services, including hardware access, simulators and developer tools, which have significantly expanded its quantum ecosystem brand.
Yet perhaps more meaningful news is that Amazon’s quantum results give the tech giant a solid stake in a potential “next frontier” of broad-based computing. If quantum commercializes more quickly than anticipated, Amazon’s Braket hardware push should trigger more upside in the share price down the road.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)
With a modest 11% return over the past year after the recent tech pullback, Microsoft launched its “Majorana 1” quantum chip in February, leveraging a “topological qubit” approach that curbs error rates and enables better quantum computing scalability. That followed Microsoft’s Quantum Ready introduction in January, which made it easier for companies to harness quantum/hybrid applications, thus taking quantum out of the laboratory and into the Seattle-based company’s impressive cloud-based artificial intelligence ecosystem.
While that suggests Microsoft’s share price strength is more about AI and the cloud, the stage is being set for the company to lead a quantum computing charge in the next decade. That charge will most likely be fueled by fully operational fault-tolerant quantum, the advancement of topological qubits, further reductions in qubit cost and error rates, and full-scale Azure integration.
Buoyed by a robust $3.6 trillion market capitalization and reported revenues of $281.7 billion in fiscal 2025, the software giant has the technological expertise and financial resources to expand in the quantum computing market, without investors having to worry too often about quantum-only returns.
D-Wave Computing Inc. (QBTS)
With its share price up 509% over the past year, D-Wave is a high-octane speculative play that has amply rewarded investors. The company has a nearly $10 billion market cap and is making international inroads now, with a new deal that secured a 10 million-euro ($11.5 million) commitment from Swiss Quantum Technology to deploy a D-Wave Advantage2TM annealing quantum computer in Europe.
QBTS, however, may have been burning too brightly for risk-averse market investors before its recent pullback. Regardless, it’s up over 230% year to date as of Dec. 9. QBTS is “currently up big annually, but profitability lags and its addressable market remains narrow,” says John Murillo, chief business officer at New York-based B2Broker, who adds that “recent share issuance raises dilution concerns.”
IonQ Inc. (IONQ)
IonQ has lost momentum in 2025, but it has a 30% return year to date and has surged 59% over the past year as of Dec. 9. Craig Ellis, senior equity research analyst at B. Riley Securities, makes the case for more growth for this College Park, Maryland-based quantum computing manufacturer: “We believe significant (trailing-three-month) technology developments are led by IonQ’s two roadmap meaningful deal closures to enable further computing’s dramatic five-year scale-up.” He adds, “Commercial progress also seems substantial, as IonQ’s Vector Atomics deal lifted government deals from $100 million-plus to (a projected) $300 million.”
Wall Street analysts agree, and Morgan Stanley boosted its target price for IONQ by 81%, to $58 from $32, ahead of the company’s earnings report in November. Third-quarter results showed huge revenue growth but a significant earnings miss due to heavy investment and acquisitions.
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International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)
At a $289 billion market cap, IBM has the heft to compete long term in the quantum realm and has every intention of doing so. Its stock is up 37.9% over the past year as of Dec. 9. Perhaps the biggest news for Big Blue is that it’s getting good share action directly from its quantum hardware and software development strategies.
A case in point: In late October, IBM announced it had deployed microchips from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) to run a quantum error-correction algorithm. Building such algorithms using commonly acquired chips is a big deal in the quantum computing world, and inside investors know it, as IBM’s share price rose over 7% after the announcement.
IBM is also moving on other quantum fronts. It 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 today’s quantum computers, the company expects Starling to perform 20,000 times more operations with “the memory of more than a quindecillion of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.”
Nvidia Corp. (NVDA)
A market cap kingpin at $4.4 trillion, Nvidia’s stock price is up 37.8% year to date despite frequent talk of an AI bubble. Like most tech companies writing big quantum checks, Nvidia is thinking long term, digging deeper into the space with its CUDA-Q stack and alliances that merge robust graphics processing unit, or GPU, infrastructures with quantum workflows.
The company is also investing in quantum firms through its NVentures venture capital division, with Honeywell International Inc. (HON)-owned Quantinuum as one beneficiary. Quantinuum recently raised $600 million in private funding and has crested the $10 billion valuation mark, which is good news for NVDA investors who want to see Nvidia expand further into the quantum computing space.
Nvidia, it seems, is out to prove that it’s not just a GPU outfit anymore; it’s showing all the signs of a quantum-classical convergence play that should add value to NVDA shares going forward. Wall Street analysts concur, with Jefferies’ Blayne Curtis boosting his NVDA price target from $220 to $240 recently, citing $500 billion in orders for the company’s Blackwell and Rubin chips through 2026.
Rigetti Computing Inc. (RGTI)
Berkeley, California-based Rigetti provides full-stack quantum computing services, primarily for global enterprise, government and research clients via its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform. Only 12 years old (the company was founded by Chad Rigetti in 2013), it has grown to an $8.7 billion market cap with a share-price hike of 531.3% in the past year. Impressive as they are, those numbers represent a hit to Rigetti’s valuation, as the stock is not the supernova it was earlier this year.
That may partially be because Rigetti is no longer the underdog and is under more scrutiny from analysts and investors. “Its Cepheus-1-36Q processor achieved a median 2-qubit gate fidelity of 99.5%, halving error rates from previous generations,” Murillo says. “With plans to scale beyond 1,000 physical qubits by 2026 and 100,000 logical qubits by 2030, Rigetti’s modular architecture and cryogenic packaging investments position it as a niche complement to IBM and Google’s quantum ecosystems, particularly for clients seeking lower-latency access and specialized gate-model solutions.”
Benchmark analyst David Williams recently lowered his RGTI price target to $40 from $50 (it’s currently trading at $26 per share). However, Williams has also said that the company’s impressive cash flow, after a $350 million capital add earlier this year, should give RGTI “ample runway to fund its R&D roadmap through anticipated commercialization timelines.” He has indicated that this pullback in RGTI shares could be a buying opportunity.
Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT)
Hoboken, New Jersey-based Quantum Computing has seen its share price recede by more than 20% year to date, although shareholders have been handsomely rewarded with a 76.8% return over the past 12 months.
Can QUBT pick up the pace heading into 2026? Investors certainly think so, with Quantum Computing raising $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.” In early October, Quantum aimed to raise $750 million through a private placement of over 37 million shares, with the offering closing on Oct. 8. The company intended to steer the cash into commercialization, acquisitions and the scaling of quantum hardware production.
Investors essentially took a dim view of the private placement, with the buzz centering on stock value dilution, which likely explains the 18% share-price decline over the past three months. This illustrates to investors, especially those new to the market, that quantum computing is still a nascent, dynamic and volatile industry heading into 2026.
“There’s always the possibility that some dark horse may create a technical breakthrough and take a leading position,” says Doug Finke, chief analyst at Global Quantum Computing Intelligence. “It will still take several years before commercial revenues and profitability grow to substantial amounts and market leadership becomes clearer, and a lot can happen in the meantime.”
However, the stock has perked up by 20% over the past week, which could be a sign that QUBT’s recovery has begun.
Challenges Facing Quantum Computing Growth
No doubt, the industry has some serious short-term headwinds. “Investors should consider supply chains for dilution refrigerators, high-end lasers and optical components, which are global, and any restrictions could slow roadmaps,” Gannatti says. “There’s also the question of talent, as collaborations between Chinese and Western institutions have historically advanced the science, and geopolitical friction may limit that exchange.”
Yet there are positive counterbalances: “The U.S.-U.K. Tech Prosperity Deal, signed in September, explicitly places quantum alongside AI and civil nuclear as strategic pillars,” Gannatti adds. “That tells us Western governments will backstop domestic champions. So while tariff wars may disrupt supply chains, the core listed ecosystem is more exposed to industrial policy tailwinds in the West than to Chinese demand or tariff risks.”
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8 Best Quantum Computing Stocks for 2026 originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 12/10/25: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.