Wall Street analysts pay close attention to hot technology trends. That's an important part of their jobs. Unsurprisingly, quantum computing is receiving intense attention from many analysts these days.
But which quantum computing stock does Wall Street love the most? You might be surprised.
Image source: Getty Images.
A process of elimination
S&P Global (SPGI 2.10%) regularly monitors analyst recommendations and price targets to gauge what Wall Street thinks about a long list of stocks. However, analysts don't cover every quantum computing stock on the market, so we can cross those off the list. I also weeded out the stocks of companies that have less than four analysts covering them, since it would be misleading to claim that "Wall Street" likes such thinly covered stocks.
Analysts don't appear to be all that bullish about some quantum computing stocks. For example, only 13 of the 24 analysts surveyed by S&P Global in September rated Honeywell (HON 0.43%) as a "buy" or "strong buy." The numbers were even worse for IBM (IBM 2.71%), a bona fide quantum computing pioneer, with eight of 21 analysts rating the stock as a "buy" or better.
The majority of analysts gave positive ratings for Alphabet (GOOG 0.20%) (GOOGL 0.41%), which has achieved two major quantum computing milestones. However, the consensus price target for the Google parent is below the current share price. That makes it easy to eliminate the tech giant from consideration.
It's a similar story for several rising stars of quantum computing. All 10 of the analysts surveyed by S&P Global in September who cover D-Wave Quantum (QBTS +2.74%) rated the stock as a "buy" or "strong buy." All six of the analysts covering Rigetti Computing (RGTI +2.65%) did the same. Six of 8 analysts recommended IonQ (IONQ +2.53%) as a "buy" or better. But the average analyst price targets for all of these stocks are lower than their current share prices.
Wall Street's favorite quantum computing stock
That leaves three companies that are investing heavily in quantum computing with overwhelming support from analysts and price targets reflecting solid upside potential. All three are familiar names to most investors: Amazon (AMZN +2.05%), Microsoft (MSFT 0.59%), and Nvidia (NVDA +2.59%).
Interestingly, analysts seem to believe that Amazon and Microsoft stocks will soar more than Nvidia stock over the next 12 months. The consensus price targets for Amazon and Microsoft were both nearly 21% above their current share prices as of the market close on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025.
NASDAQ: MSFT
Key Data Points
However, Microsoft edges out Amazon as Wall Street's favorite quantum computing stock right now. A whopping 57 of 58 analysts (98.3%) surveyed by S&P Global in September rated Microsoft as a "buy" or "strong buy." That's slightly better than the 63 of 66 analysts (95.5%) who had "buy" or better ratings for Amazon.
Microsoft boasts strong quantum computing credentials. The company's topological core architecture holds significant promise in building large-scale quantum computers. Microsoft's topoconductors are a new type of material that is neither solid, liquid, nor gas. They could pave the way for squeezing 1 million or more qubits on a single chip.
Are analysts right about Microsoft?
I don't know if Microsoft's share price will jump close to 21% over the next 12 months, as analysts think. However, I agree with the overwhelmingly bullish take on this stock.
Importantly, though, quantum computing isn't the main reason why I like Microsoft. (It's not the top reason why Wall Street likes it, either.) Instead, the most important story for Microsoft is the company's tremendous growth opportunity related to artificial intelligence (AI).
Microsoft Azure ranks as the second-largest cloud services platform, trailing behind only Amazon Web Services (AWS). This business was Microsoft's biggest growth driver in its latest quarter.
AI is also a critical key to success for the company's other businesses, though. Microsoft has integrated OpenAI's GPT-5 into its products. It also recently announced support for Anthropic's Claude large language model (LLM) in Copilot Studio.
Wall Street doesn't think Microsoft's AI tailwind will wane anytime soon. I agree. The company's quantum computing prospects are just icing on the cake with this magnificent tech stock.
