Quantum computing could be the next area of explosive growth in the tech sector. The consultants at McKinsey Digital have estimated that the industry could be worth as much as $1.3 billion by 2035, though there’s a lot of uncertainty.

If that huge number becomes reality, successful quantum computing companies are going to make their investors very happy. Here are two picks to consider buying this month.

Image source: Getty Images.

IonQ is a high-risk, high-reward company

Quantum physics experts Christopher Monroe and Jungsang Kim started IonQ (IONQ 3.68%) in 2015. Six years later, it became the first pure-play quantum computing company to go public.

Since the technology is still in the early stages, and it’s IonQ’s only business, the company isn’t profitable yet. Its revenue nearly doubled to $43.1 million last year, but its costs also increased, leading to a net loss of $331.6 million.

Profitability is likely still several years away. CEO Peter Chapman believes it will happen by 2030 and is projecting sales near $1 billion at that point. Fortunately, IonQ has a strong balance sheet and recently sold $1 billion in common stock, giving it nearly $1.7 billion in cash and equivalents it can tap.

What makes IonQ unique compared to other quantum computing companies is its trapped-ion technology. These computers store data using quantum bits, or qubits for short. The most widely used quantum computing method is superconducting qubits. IonQ’s computers use trapped ions that are controlled with precise laser pulses.

Trapped-ion technology has a few notable advantages. It delivers high fidelity, a term that refers to the accuracy of a quantum computer. One of the major quantum computing challenges is eliminating errors. No company has solved this yet, but IonQ achieved a significant breakthrough in September 2024, when it reported it had the first trapped-ion quantum system to surpass 99.9% fidelity.

Trapped-ion qubits also have longer coherence times. Qubits decay over time and lose their quantum properties. Coherence time refers to the amount of time a qubit can maintain its quantum state. With solid-state quantum computing systems, coherence time is normally measured in microseconds to milliseconds. Trapped-ion systems measure coherence time in seconds to minutes, so it’s a sizable difference.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that IonQ has the best quantum computing method; if so, everyone would be using trapped ions. But it has something different that delivers extremely low error rates. It has also picked up several high-profile contracts, including multiple deals with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and one with the Department of Defense, making it worth a look for investors.

IBM is a pioneer in quantum computing

Cloud services, software, and artificial intelligence (AI) may be the core businesses of International Business Machines (IBM 1.44%), but the company also has a long history with quantum computing. It started developing quantum computers over 30 years ago and has been responsible for notable advancements.

It released IBM Eagle, the first processor to surpass 100 qubits, in 2021. Its IBM Condor is currently the second-largest quantum computer in the world as measured by qubits.

The company has released a quantum development road map with ambitious milestones. It plans to demonstrate an example of quantum advantage in 2026, which refers to a quantum computer solving a problem faster than any classical computer can. By 2029, it plans to develop Quantum Starling, a fault-tolerant quantum computer — one that can operate even in the presence of errors.

Because of its size and financial strength, the company can invest much more in quantum computing than a start-up like IonQ can. In April, it announced plans to spend $30 billion on the technology and mainframes as part of a five-year, $150 billion pledge to invest in U.S. computer manufacturing.

IBM reported $14.5 billion in revenue and $8 billion in gross profit for the first quarter of 2025, both slight improvements year over year. Its increase in gross profit margin was more impressive, from 53.5% to 55.2%. The tech company ended the quarter with $17.6 billion in cash and cash equivalents, so it’s well equipped to continue building its quantum computing program.

Its share price has already jumped 29% this year, so it has gotten more expensive. However, it trades at less than 27 times adjusted forward earnings estimates, a reasonable valuation.

Quantum computing investments are still speculative. We don’t know when or if such machines will become widely used. With that kind of uncertainty, it wouldn’t be wise to bet the farm on quantum computing, but you may want to add some exposure by picking up shares of IonQ, IBM, or both.

In the fledgling field of quantum computing, IonQ (IONQ -2.16%) has emerged as one of the leading start-up investment options. It holds key contracts with top players in the quantum computing field, like the Air Force Research Lab, and offers top-notch technology.

Although it’s far from a surefire bet, is this quantum computing start-up the best chance at transforming a meager investment into $1 million? After all, quantum computing has the potential to transform high-powered computing. Let’s take a closer look.

Image source: Getty Images.

1. IonQ’s error correction is among the best

Quantum computing can potentially be an absolute game changer in the high-powered computing world. It lets users tackle problems they’ve never been able to fully model before (like weather patterns and logistics networks), but it also could have massive implications for artificial intelligence (AI). Quantum computing could deliver huge value for whichever company can win the quantum computing arms race, but each competitor must solve a key problem first: errors.

Unlike traditional computing, quantum computing doesn’t have a clear black-and-white answer. While traditional computers use bits to transmit information, which can only be in the form of a 0 or a 1, quantum computing uses qubits. While qubits collapse down to a 0 or a 1 when measured, they can exist in a state between 0 and 1 during the calculation process. This opens up many possibilities within a calculation, which is why quantum computers could perform better at workloads with thousands of possibilities.

The best way most companies have found to deal with this error issue is to let the qubits interact with each other to reduce errors. While many competitors have placed their qubits in a grid-like system to let the qubits interact with their neighbors, IonQ has taken it a step further. They use all-to-all connectivity, which lets every qubit interact with every other qubit. This leads to unparalleled 2-qubit gate fidelity, and IonQ’s process already has greater than 99.9% fidelity.

This shows that IonQ has already made a fantastic start on the most critical problem with quantum computing, which is why it has several key partnerships.

2. IonQ holds several critical contracts

IonQ holds one of the largest contracts in quantum computing with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab, a facility known for testing cutting-edge technologies. This indicates that quantum computing is not just a future technology; it can be used in its current state.

To further support this option, IonQ hardware is available for use on the three major cloud computing providers: Microsoft Azure, Alphabet‘s Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services. With IonQ’s hardware becoming more widely available, it’s making key progress in this race. If it can differentiate itself from its competitors and start to capture a customer base, it could create a foothold that would be hard to disrupt.

3. There’s a huge market opportunity for quantum computing

To circle back to the original question, can IonQ be a millionaire-maker stock? I’m not sure. There’s a huge market for quantum computing in the future, but it’s not that large right now. IonQ estimates that the market opportunity will reach $87 billion by 2035, but it’s unlikely that one company will capture that complete market share.

Even if IonQ captures 50% of it and generates around $40 billion in annual revenue, that’s still less than another key quantum computing competitor, IBM. IBM is about a $270 billion company — about 27 times the size of IonQ.

So, can IonQ transform $10,000 into $1 million? Likely not. But can IonQ deliver strong stock performance if it wins the quantum computing arms race? Absolutely. However, this is far from a surefire bet, as the field is ripe with potent competition, and IonQ still has years to go before proving commercial relevancy.

Quantum computing stocks skyrocketed in 2024, with names such as Quantum Computing and Rigetti Computing surging by more than 1,000%. Investors were eager to get in on what could become the next game-changing technology, and revenue growth as well as scientific progress from some of these quantum specialists boosted optimism.

Even after those gains, it’s very possible that quantum stocks will climb in the second half of this year, and here’s why.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why investors buy quantum computing stocks

So, first, a quick note about why investors see so much potential in quantum computing. This is because this type of computing, based on quantum mechanics, makes it possible to solve problems that today’s classic computers can’t handle.

Quantum computing can do this by using qubits — instead of the bits used by today’s computers — to store data. And while bits store and process data as zeros or 1s, qubits can represent a zero, a one, or both at the same time. This allows for tremendous scaling, and as a result, a problem that would take a classic computer 1,000 years to solve may take a quantum machine about five minutes.

Right now, quantum companies offer hardware and services to customers, but we’re still in the early stages of development. Experts have said that truly useful quantum computers are several years away. The good news is that this means these companies have plenty of room to run when it comes to revenue growth and share price performance. It’s clear that if quantum companies reach their development goals, these computers could revolutionize many industries.

Quantum stocks in 2024 and 2025

All of this helped quantum computing pure-play companies climb last year. The bull market and optimism about the economy ahead offered the perfect environment for growth stocks to excel. But in recent months, concerns about President Donald Trump’s import tariff plan weighed on these players. The idea was that tariffs could lead to higher prices at home, prompting customers of quantum companies to rein in their spending.

But over the past few weeks, progress in trade talks and even initial deals with the U.K. and China have made investors more optimistic about the future. And corporate earnings haven’t suggested any slowdown in spending on technology — in fact, companies continue to reiterate their commitments to such projects.

This backdrop supports the idea of more gains for quantum companies in the second half, especially for certain players such as Rigetti and IonQ, which haven’t yet fully recovered — they’re down 25% and 5%, respectively, year to date. And if they show some growth in revenue in the coming quarters, this could act as a positive catalyst for share performance, too.

Can D-Wave keep soaring?

But this doesn’t mean that stocks that have continued to advance, such as D-Wave Quantum (QBTS -0.13%), which is heading for an increase of more than 80%, won’t keep on rising. For example, D-Wave just recently released its Advantage2 quantum computer, which is accessible both on the cloud and on-premises. More than 20 million customer problems have been run through the prototype, and the company says the computer is now ready for use in areas such as materials simulation and artificial intelligence (AI).

Uptake of this new platform and further revenue gains — D-Wave’s revenue last quarter soared 500% to a record $15 million — could offer this highflier an additional boost.

Of course, it’s important to keep in mind that these pure-play quantum companies aren’t yet profitable and are involved in a relatively new, cutting-edge technology, and that involves some risk. Any economic headwinds could hurt investors’ appetite for these sorts of players.

These companies depend on a strong economy, as this increases the likelihood that potential customers will spend on their products and services. And investors generally feel more comfortable getting in on growth stocks when the economy is thriving. So, the economic situation in the second half could determine the near-term direction of these players.

But right now, there’s reason to be optimistic that the U.S. trade talks, along with some better-than-expected economic data, signal better days ahead — and that the worst-case scenario of a recession and tough times for corporate earnings will be averted. With this in mind, quantum computing stocks could be set to soar in the second half as investors look to get in on the next big technology that could deliver explosive returns.

Not for the first time in their relatively brief existences, quantum computing stocks shot well higher in value on Thursday. That wasn’t due to any fresh innovation, discovery, or major business move. Rather, it seemed to have more to do with some grand pronouncements by a single quantum company executive.

Nevertheless, as a writer, I can confirm that words have power, and these were powerful enough to lift the sector as a whole. Industry standard-bearers Quantum Computing (QUBT 14.52%), Rigetti Computing (RGTI 25.91%), and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS 24.22%) all saw their share prices inflate at double-digit rates. The stocks rose a respective 15%, 24%, and 26% on the day.

The king of quantum?

Those market-moving words came from the leader of one of their peers, IonQ (IONQ 37.09%). That morning, Barron’s published an interview with the company’s CEO, Niccolo de Masi, in which he waxed extremely bullish about the prospects for his business. This was clearly taken by the article’s readers as likely prosperity for the wider quantum space.

Image source: Getty Images.

De Masi is clearly not the shy and publicity-adverse type of corporate leader, as he made a series of grand pronouncements about IonQ.

In his eyes, the company is the quantum sector equivalent of graphics processing unit (GPU) king Nvidia or advanced processor specialist Broadcom. As such, IonQ’s ultimate prominence and power will be imitated by businesses hoping to catch some of its magic.

In fact, added the executive, “they have always copied and followed us.”

That isn’t really accurate, as the varied quantum companies currently traded on the stock market are following different paths to hoped-for success. In IonQ’s case, it’s a “full-stack” business, aiming to provide hardware, the software that runs on it, and applications for control and access.

In a way, though, Quantum Computing, Rigetti, and D-Wave are followers. IonQ was among the first pure-play quantum companies to become publicly traded. That pedigree is a factor that has helped drive its market cap to over $11 billion at present. That dwarfs its three peers, as the most richly capitalized of the trio — D-Wave — is currently valued by investors at under $5.6 billion.

Rivers of red ink

Nevertheless, investors should always be wary of hype, especially when applied to an early-stage industry struggling to get on its financial feet — like quantum.

While the technology has indisputably immense potential, getting a quantum business to the point where it’s efficient and profitable is quite the challenge. None of the prominent quantum companies — yes, including IonQ — has yet to stem their often very deep net losses.

There are potentially significant catalysts on the horizon. One that could change the landscape dramatically is Congress’s National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act.

As the name implies, this would restart a federal program aimed at boosting quantum, with public funding for businesses actively involved in such work. Capital for cash-hungry companies on the cutting-edge of new technologies is almost always scarce; passing the act into law would alleviate that nagging and persistent headache.

I have to emphasize here that such industry-boosting factors are only potential at this point, not reality. And that goes double for any talk of a single quantum company or a clutch of them becoming the new Nvidia or Broadcom.

Both of these successful enterprises are the products of years of patient business development and often heavy research and development expenditure. Neither blasted into the world suddenly as cash-gushing winners.

Spread the wealth

At this point, it’s hard to place bets on which quantum company, or companies, will pull ahead with offerings irresistible to customers thirsty for exponential increases in computing power.

Given that, it’s probably a good move for quantum bulls to spread out their investments among the leading stocks in the space. I feel all of the aforementioned titles can potentially leverage the technology into robust profits eventually — and yes, that includes IonQ, all hype and hot air aside.

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Cardano has become the newest member of the Linux Foundation’s Confidential Computing Consortium (CCC), a move that positions the open-source blockchain alongside heavyweights such as Microsoft and Amazon in the fast-growing market for hardware-based data-protection standards. The announcement emerged during an hour-long “Midnight Booth” fireside chat at Consensus, where Charles Hoskinson, chief executive of Input Output (IO), and Eran Barak, chief executive of the Midnight development company, sketched out how confidential computing will anchor Cardano’s privacy-first sidechain, Midnight.

“We just recently joined the Confidential Computing Consortium, you know, with Linux Foundation, and we’re right there with Microsoft and Amazon with Nitro. They’re talking about confidential computing and trusted hardware enclaves with GPUs for outsourcing AI data,” Hoskinson told the audience. The CCC sets cross-industry specifications for enclave-based security; its membership signals that Cardano intends to align Midnight’s zero-knowledge roll-ups and decentralized-identifier (DID) stack with emerging hardware standards rather than rely solely on purely cryptographic shields.

“So, Midnight basically clicks into all of those different things and it gives you the ability to reason and think about how do I share, who do I share with, what do I own, what do they own, what’s the semantical value of the data that I’m sculpting, and then ultimately what’s the marketplace look like and how do I be an economic agent in that marketplace and I actually get paid for sharing these things as opposed to it all goes to the Magnificent Seven and they just tell me what I get,” Hoskinson added.

Cardano Takes Next Step In Secure Blockchain

Hoskinson traced Midnight’s origins to “a bar in Tel Aviv” during Eurocrypt 2018, describing how a late-night debate about zero-knowledge proofs eventually matured into a sidechain that combines a programmable Stark-based execution engine (“Kachina”), a dual-token economic model (“Knight” for governance and “dust” for metered capacity) and selective-disclosure controls rooted in W3C DIDs. Yet, according to Barak, technological ingenuity alone is not enough; enterprise adoption hinges on hardware-rooted trust. Confidential computing, he said, supplies that final layer.

“When you think about protecting your data, you really need to think about two pieces—protecting the data itself and protecting the metadata,” Barak explained. “Midnight hopes to be the fabric that enables AI to access personal private data in the right way that doesn’t violate our rights.” By joining the CCC, Cardano gains a seat at the table where those fabric threads are woven into chipset specifications, enclave attestation protocols and open-source reference code.

Much of the session focused on Midnight’s two-asset design, which separates volatile, value-accruing governance (“Knight”) from a stable, non-speculative capacity unit (“dust”). Hoskinson argued that splitting consensus incentives from fee predictability sidesteps the tension regulators see in fully shielded currencies such as Monero. “You get your cake and eat it, too… developers can pay in Bitcoin or Ether or Solana through a capacity exchange, and the end user doesn’t notice that they’re using a different system.”

Confidential computing extends that logic to the hardware layer. Enclave-sealed execution protects wallet keys, zero-knowledge circuits and DID registries from side-channel attacks, while at the same time furnishing auditors with cryptographic attestation that regulatory conditions embedded in smart-contract templates are being met. “Selective disclosure is an absolute necessity,” Hoskinson told a questioner who raised compliance fears. “You bake in the capacity to put disclosure at the smart-contract level and then let exchanges decide their suitability guidelines on a case-by-case basis.”

Cardano’s CCC membership arrived as the conversation turned to tokenized real-world assets—a market Hoskinson sized at “ten plus trillion dollars” today and “a hundred trillion” once small-cap and frontier-market issuers join. Midnight, he maintained, must interoperate with both legacy venues such as the New York Stock Exchange and on-chain liquidity pools. Hardware-verified privacy makes that bridging credible. “You want broker-dealers, compliance, circuit breakers, but you also want blockchain stuff… having infrastructure like Midnight is the only way to really do that,” he said.

Barak reported more than 2,000 early builders on Midnight’s testnet, ranging from dark-pool prototypes and medical-record pilots to carbon-credit tracing for jet engines. Because code and state are encrypted, IO’s own developer-relations team cannot inspect what is being deployed; teams volunteer information only in opt-in calls. “I think if we finally bring blockchain technology that encompasses the privacy elements businesses need, the innovation is just unbelievable,” Barak remarked.

At press time, ADA traded at $0.68.

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