Quantum computing has the potential to be the big tech breakthrough that comes after artificial intelligence (AI). However, it is an emerging field that still has a lot of technological issues that need to be worked through before it can become useful and then commercialized. As such, stocks involved in the field tend to be speculative.
With that said, let's look at two quantum computing stocks that have a lot of potential.
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IonQ
The biggest issue currently facing quantum computing is that the technology is still error-prone. That's why IonQ (IONQ 3.47%) is one of my favorites in the space, because its trapped-ion technology has shown to be among the most accurate, with the company achieving 99.99% 2-gate fidelity. While 99.99% accuracy may sound like a lot, when you're doing billions or a trillion calculations per second, that still leads to a lot of errors. However, this is the threshold for the company to start using quantum error correction to create a fault-tolerant system.
NYSE: IONQ
Key Data Points
Meanwhile, the company has made a lot of smart acquisitions to help it solve pressing problems with scaling and to become a more complete quantum ecosystem player. One of its most important acquisitions was buying Oxford Ionics, which gave it the electronic qubit control technology to better stabilize its trapped-ion system and eventually shrink it. Meanwhile, its pending acquisition of SkyWater will give it control of a leading quantum foundry to help it scale and better incorporate its designs with the manufacturing process.
While quantum computing is still in its very early days, IonQ has seen its revenue skyrocket, as both the private and public sectors become more interested in the technology. In Q4, its revenue surged 429% to $61.9 million, coming in well above its guidance. Meanwhile, IonQ was recently selected for the Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD IDIQ program, which is the procurement backbone of the "Golden Dome" initiative. While the contract has a massive $151 billion ceiling, its true value to IonQ is that it gives the company a seat at the table to compete for specialized Pentagon task orders in quantum sensing, networking, and high-speed simulation.
D-Wave Quantum
Another interesting stock in the quantum computing space is D-Wave Quantum (QBTS 5.55%). The company started out focusing on quantum annealing, which is a more specialized field within quantum computing that looks to solve optimization problems. Rather than trying to build a do-everything machine, its systems instead are trying to determine the ideal state for a particular problem by landing on the best possible solution.
NYSE: QBTS
Key Data Points
It's not as ambitious as a gate-based quantum system, and thus D-Wave is much further along in the commercialization process than companies focused on more universal gate-based systems. With its Advantage II system, it now has a machine that can help organizations solve optimization problems, which can be useful in industries like logistics, finance, and defense. The company is starting to see momentum in this area, announcing that its bookings in January have surpassed its bookings for its entire fiscal 2025. It noted it won a $20 million deal with Florida Atlantic University and that it entered a two-year, $10 million quantum-compute-as-a-service (QCAS) arrangement with a Fortune 100 company.
With the company seeing momentum in quantum annealing, it is also now working on a gate-based system. It will use fluxonium qubits with its gate-based systems, which it believes are comparable to the qubits it uses with quantum annealing. It also recently acquired Quantum Circuits and its dual rail technology. It says this technology combines the speed of superconducting qubits with the fidelity of trapped-ion technology. If true, that would be a game-changer, but at this point, that has not been independently verified. Still, its dual platform approach makes it an interesting option.
