Quantum Leap: 7 Computing Stocks to Catapult Your Portfolio

Who would have thought that one of the Magnificent 7 stocks would be a picks-and-shovels play for quantum computing? But that’s the case with Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The company isn’t building quantum computers, but they are designing their own quantum computing chip, Willow, that is made up of 105 qubits.  

The company says Willow addresses a key problem: quantum computers' propensity to commit errors. According to Alphabet, Willow fixes this problem by operating “below threshold,” which means it “can exponentially reduce errors as it scales using more qubits.” 

Analysts still believe Willow is at least 10 years away from commercial availability, so investing in it may not be quite like investing in NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA) before the advent of Chat GPT. But if you have a long time horizon, this is a reason to buy and hold GOOGL stock beyond its ad network and leadership positions in search, cloud computing, streaming and autonomous driving.

As you would expect, Alphabet isn’t the only tech giant vying for dominance in the quantum chip race. That brings us to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). In February 2025, the company introduced its Majorana 1 quantum chip, marking a significant leap forward in quantum computing. 

Microsoft views the Majorana chip’s competitive advantage as coming from its new Topological Core architecture, which leverages the world’s first topconductor—a revolutionary material capable of detecting and controlling Majorana particles. This innovation enables more stable and scalable qubits, addressing one of the biggest challenges in quantum computing.

In fact, Microsoft believes the Majorana chip sets the stage for developing quantum systems that can scale up to a million qubits. At that threshold, quantum computers can begin solving meaningful, industrial-scale problems. The company believes the Topological Core architecture will make that possible in years, not decades. It also positions Microsoft as a company capable of delivering a more refined quantum solution with a broad range of applications.  

For much of the decade leading up to 2024, IBM (NYSE: IBM) was an afterthought in the tech space, seemingly lagging behind industry leaders. However, behind the scenes, Big Blue was making significant investments in quantum technology. And the payoff could be now.  

The company has developed a series of quantum computing processors. But what has many analysts rethinking their outlook on IBM stock is the company’s new Qiskit software platform, a software development kit (SDK) designed for quantum developers. Qiskit can help streamline workflows and code generation via a cloud-based infrastructure that runs across various devices. 

IBM's combination of quantum hardware and software positions the company as an end-to-end quantum solutions provider, which could be a potential competitive advantage. Analysts are starting to understand the company’s quantum narrative and are raising their price targets on IBM stock.  

IonQ Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the first of the pure-play quantum computing stocks on this list. The company addresses one of the key limitations of delivering quantum computers at scale: the need for quantum molecules to operate at sub-zero temperatures. Heat can cause the qubits to become unstable and, therefore, unable to perform their calculations.  

IonQ is developing quantum computers that can run at room temperature. This could turn out to be a competitive advantage if it can deliver its products at scale, particularly for environments such as data centers. 

As of March 2025, the company controls over 900 total issued and pending patents for quantum technologies. IonQ has a market cap of around $4.5 billion, making it a solid mid-cap stock. The company is not profitable, but it does have some revenue coming in. One of the key sources is a $54.4 million quantum system contract it has with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The company also has partnerships with Airbus (OTCMKTS: EADSY) for supply chain optimization and AstraZeneca PLC (NASDAQ: AZN) for drug discovery modeling.  

Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ: QUBT) is another company developing quantum computers that can run at room temperature. It also makes portable quantum computers with lower power needs.  

In addition to offering high-performance computing, imaging, and sensing, Quantum Computing provides QUi—a patented quantum protocols that “eliminate the dependence of classical authentication cryptographic schemes that are vulnerable to quantum algorithms.”  

This makes it the first company to provide a complete solution that can replace public-private key encryption—just as the industry is searching for ways to address the new threats coming from artificial intelligence.  

Quantum Computing has a market cap of just below $700 million and is trading around $5. The company is not profitable and generates very little revenue. It also doesn’t receive extensive analyst coverage, but the one analyst that covers QUBT stock has a price target of $8.50, which would be an increase of more than 72% from the stock’s price as of this writing.  

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) is the last of the pure-play quantum computing stocks on this list. The company’s claim to fame is that it was the first to develop a working 28-bit quantum computer.

In 2011, D-Wave pioneered its quantum annealing technology, which led to the world’s first commercially available quantum computer system—priced at $10 million.  

Unlike a traditional gate-based system, D-Wave's quantum annealing technology analyzes the qubit and finds its optimal state or “ground state” where it will be the most stable to perform the needed calculations. Today, the company offers this technology via cloud-based access or on-premise systems for enterprise customers.

Still, like the other pure-play quantum computing stocks on this list, D-Wave is a small company, with a market cap of around $1.4 billion. It has very little revenue coming in and is not profitable. Despite this, the stock has attracted significant analyst attention. Of the six analysts covering it, all have given QBTS sock a Strong Buy rating. 

As you can see, the race for quantum computing leadership and supremacy is underway and moving fast. If you’re unsure about investing in individual stocks, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an ideal alternative.  

The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (NYSEARCA: ARKW) gives investors broad exposure to the technology sector while also providing indirect access to the quantum computing space.

Critics may argue that only one of the fund’s holdings, Microsoft, is on this list. But that’s primarily because most pure-play quantum firms are still too small to attract fund managers' attention.

ARKW is up 32% in the last 12 months and has $1.69 billion in assets under management. However, investors should note its relatively high expense ratio of 0.89%.