You know a company has made it when it's used as the standard in a given area. Google parent Alphabet (GOOG +0.41%) (GOOGL +0.66%) is such a company. For example, Baidu (BIDU +0.86%) is often referred to as "the Google of China."
When it comes to computer chips, Nvidia (NVDA +1.73%) is the company most used as a comparison. Its GPUs continue to enjoy strong demand for powering artificial intelligence (AI) models. Google makes its own AI chips, but Nvidia is still the king.
But there's an up-and-coming chip market that presents a massive opportunity. Could Alphabet and its Google unit become the Nvidia of quantum computing?
Making quantum leaps
Alphabet's Google Quantum AI introduced its Willow quantum chip in December 2024. Willow notched two major achievements right off the bat.
First, it was able to reduce errors exponentially as more qubits were added. Qubits are the basic unit of information in quantum computing. Second, Willow performed a calculation in less than 5 minutes that Google Quantum AI said would have taken the fastest supercomputers available today 10 septillion years to handle. A septillion, by the way, is one with 24 zeroes after it.
Last week, Google Quantum AI said that it had made another quantum leap (literally). It announced results showing that its Willow chip achieved quantum advantage for the first time on hardware. Google Quantum AI ran a verifiable, practical algorithm 13,000 times faster using Willow than the world's fastest supercomputers.
Google Quantum AI's claims of achieving quantum advantage attracted plenty of naysayers. However, even some skeptics acknowledged that Alphabet's quantum computing unit appears to have achieved an impressive technological advance. Investors might have had the last word on the significance of Google Quantum AI's latest Willow development: Alphabet's share price surged on the news.
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Lots of contenders for the throne
Could Google Quantum AI seriously be on a path to become the Nvidia of quantum computing? Maybe, but there's a long way to go. There are also lots of contenders for the throne.
Microsoft (MSFT 1.33%) introduced its Majorana 1 quantum chip in February 2025. The tech giant's chip uses an innovative new type of material called a topoconductor, which is short for topological superconductor. A topoconductor isn't a solid, liquid, or gas. Instead, it's a topological state. Microsoft believes its chip will pave the way for developing quantum computers with 1 million or more qubits that can address practical, complex challenges.
What's IBM's (IBM +0.00%) response to Google and Microsoft? Hold my beer. The technology pioneer recently stated that it can run quantum error correction on cheap integrated circuits called field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD +11.44%). Perhaps IBM and AMD will be the co-Nvidias of quantum computing by thinking outside the box.
Meanwhile, multiple smaller companies are focusing exclusively on developing quantum computers. The list includes D-Wave Quantum (QBTS +3.00%), IonQ (IONQ +3.63%), Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT +0.10%), and Rigetti Computing (RGTI +3.44%). Unsurprisingly, all of these quantum computing stocks fell after Google Quantum AI announced its achievement.
Being Google's parent will be enough
I think it's far too early to predict whether Alphabet or any other player will become the Nvidia of quantum computing. We'll likely see a back-and-forth race between quantum computing leaders as they try to one-up the competition.
Regardless of how the quantum computing chip market shakes out, I expect that Alphabet will be a big winner for investors. I fully expect Google Search to remain the dominant search engine despite new challenges from OpenAI and Perplexity. Google's integration of generative AI into features such as AI Mode and AI Overviews seems likely to be enough to hold onto its market lead.
Meanwhile, Google Cloud is still the fastest-growing among the big three cloud service providers. The launch of Google Gemini 3.0 Pro large language model (LLM) holds the potential to attract more AI developers to Google's cloud platform.
Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car technology business, is blowing and going in the rapidly expanding robotaxi market. I think this unit will become an increasingly important growth driver for Alphabet.
The bottom line, in my view, is that Alphabet doesn't have to become the next Nvidia in any area. Being Google's parent will be enough.
