3 Quantum Computing Stocks With More Upside Than SpaceX

The article highlights IonQ's 755% Q1 revenue growth to $65 million and D-Wave's roughly $20 million in quantum computer orders, framing both as improving quantum computing investments. It also argues Nvidia is building infrastructure to connect traditional and quantum computing via NVQLink and CUDA-Q, reinforcing its long-term positioning. The piece is primarily a bullish opinion article rather than a new company-specific catalyst.

Analysis

The setup is less about which quantum company wins outright and more about who monetizes the ecosystem first. IONQ has the clearest re-rating path because accuracy is the gating function for enterprise adoption; if fidelity keeps improving, the market can start underwriting a software-like multiple on bookings rather than a hardware-like multiple on revenue. That said, the stock’s upside is now tied to a narrow execution window: commercialization delays of even 2-3 quarters could compress the premium quickly because the current narrative is already discounting meaningful adoption before broad ROI is proven.

QBTS is a different animal: it offers near-term utility in optimization, which matters because it creates a revenue bridge before fault-tolerant QC exists. The second-order effect is that early customers become integration anchors, which can reduce switching probability later if QBTS successfully migrates them to more general-purpose systems. But the addressable market is still smaller and the product mix is more vulnerable to being framed as a niche workflow tool rather than a platform, so any order slip or weak renewal cadence would likely hit the multiple harder than the headlines suggest.

NVDA is the quiet structural winner. The market is likely underestimating how much quantum commercialization will still depend on classical GPUs, networking, and developer tooling, which means NVDA can capture the picks-and-shovels layer regardless of which QC architecture wins. The contrarian angle is that the biggest beneficiary may not be the pure plays at all: if quantum remains pre-scale through 2027-2030, the durable cash flow accrues to NVDA while the pure plays continue to dilute for R&D.

Key Decisions for Investors

• Long IONQ vs short a basket of speculative quantum pure plays into the next 1-3 quarters: thesis is that best-in-class fidelity should attract incremental capital, but concentration risk is high if the company misses on deployment milestones.
• For investors seeking lower beta exposure, prefer NVDA as the quantum picks-and-shovels leader; use a 6-12 month horizon and treat any pullback tied to AI/quantum skepticism as an accumulation opportunity.
• Consider a pair trade long IONQ / short QBTS for the next 6-9 months: this expresses a preference for platform credibility over niche utility, with the main risk being a surprise commercialization inflection at QBTS.
• If holding QBTS, use call spreads rather than outright equity to cap dilution risk and binary execution downside; the payoff is asymmetric but the capital structure can overwhelm operating progress.
• Watch for a catalyst break in 2-4 quarters: if enterprise bookings do not accelerate, cut pure-play exposure and rotate toward NVDA, where quantum upside is additive rather than existential.