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Quantum stocks are back in the headlines, and back on investors’ radars.
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the federal government will award “$2 billion in grants to nine quantum computing companies in deals that include US government equity stakes, the Commerce Department said.”
I (Chris Wood) don’t need to rehash the specifics. Just know that the report sparked a buying spree in quantum stocks.
With this renewed investor interest in the space, I thought it would be helpful to provide a “power ranking” of my top 10 quantum plays in case you’re interested in getting in on the action.
To come up with this ranking, I screened all the quantum stocks traded in the US across three buckets:
1. Quantum hardware and software “pure plays”
2. “Picks and shovels” suppliers whose tools and gear enable the pure plays
3. Quantum-security plays positioned for the post quantum cryptography migration that’s already underway
The key criteria I gave the highest weights to for my ranking:
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Commercial traction we can measure today (revenue, bookings, contracts)
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Strategic position in the value chain (defensibility, vertical integration, irreplaceability)
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Catalyst density over the next 12 months (product launches, government awards, earnings inflections)
A quick note before moving on to my Power Rankings: If you’re new to quantum computing and want to get up to speed, you might want to check out a few of the dozen or so pieces I’ve already written on the subject, which you can find under the “Frontier Tech” tab on our Grow or Die Substack home page.
Let’s get started with #10, and we’ll work our way up to #1…
#10 Veeco Instruments (VECO)
Veeco makes the specialized heavy-duty machines used to grow and shape exotic semiconductor materials—the gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and similar compound semiconductors that don’t show up in your laptop, but do show up in lasers, optical transceivers, and a lot of quantum research.
Why Veeco lands at #10: The compound semiconductors built by its equipment are foundational to photonic quantum computing approaches and many quantum sensing platforms.
This is more “AI photonics with a quantum tailwind” than a true quantum play. But at this stage of the cycle, paying for the AI optics story and getting the quantum optionality thrown in for free isn’t a bad deal.
#9 Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC)
Lattice makes small, low-power chips called FPGAs. They’re like programmable Lego blocks that sit inside servers, telecom gear, and other machines and act as the smart “glue” that allows them to boot up securely and run smoothly.
Why Lattice Semiconductor lands at #9: In October 2025 it launched the industry’s first secure control FPGA family with full post-quantum cryptography support. And it’s on track to exit 2026 at a $1 billion-plus annual revenue run rate.
Lattice is a Q-Day defense story riding inside a much larger AI-server infrastructure story. But if the post-quantum migration moves faster than expected, this is a clean way to play it.
#8 SEALSQ (LAES)
SEALSQ is the second quantum-defense play on this list. But while Cloudflare protects internet traffic, SEALSQ’s secure microcontrollers protect physical devices like smart meters and IoT sensors. They’re like bouncers at the door of connected devices, checking IDs before letting any data in or out.
Why SEALSQ lands at #8: Its flagship Quantum Shield QS7001 launched commercially in November 2025 as the first secure microcontroller with PQC baked directly into the hardware, running about 10X faster than software-only implementations.
QS7001 revenue isn’t expected to ramp until late this year, and execution risk is real, but this is the cleanest play on putting post-quantum security directly into silicon.
#7 Rigetti Computing (RGTI)
Rigetti is one of the original superconducting quantum computing companies—the same broad approach as Google and IBM, but with one important twist. Instead of trying to build one giant chip with all the qubits on it, Rigetti uses a “chiplet” strategy: build smaller, easier-to-manufacture chips and stitch them together.
Why Rigetti lands at #7: It’s chiplet approach just paid off. Last month (April 2026), Rigetti launched Cepheus-1-108Q—a 108-qubit system built from twelve 9-qubit chiplets—for general availability on its own cloud and Amazon’s and Microsoft’s quantum clouds. It’s the largest modular quantum computer commercially available, and the first gate-based system over 100 qubits on Amazon’s platform.
Historically, Rigetti’s tech roadmap has been more aspirational than realistic, but the bones of this story are finally lining up.
#6 D-Wave Quantum (QBTS)
While everyone else races to build general purpose “gate-model” quantum computers, D-Wave specializes in something narrower called quantum annealing. These systems excel at one thing—finding the best answer among billions of possibilities. That’s the math behind delivery routing, drug discovery, portfolio construction, and a bunch of other real-world problems.
Why D-Wave lands at #6: It’s the only company in the world selling real, working quantum annealing computers at commercial scale today. And its bookings just inflected hard. D-Wave booked new business totaling $33.4 million in Q1 2026 alone—more than all of fiscal 2025 combined and nearly a 2,000% jump year-over-year. D-Wave is now also a gate-model player thanks to the January 2026 Quantum Circuits acquisition.
Quarterly revenue is lumpy, and the gate-model business won’t produce meaningful revenue until the 2030s, but D-Wave’s bookings story is real and underappreciated today.
#5 FormFactor (FORM)
FormFactor’s main business is “probe cards,” which test computer chips for defects before they get packaged and shipped to customers. But the company also builds the cryogenic probe stations and dilution refrigerators needed for superconducting quantum computers—the type of systems being built by IBM, Google, Rigetti Computing, and others.
Why FormFactor lands at #5: It’s the second-best picks and shovels play on the quantum race behind Keysight.
The quantum-relevant “Systems” business segment is only about 12% of total revenue today, but an investment in FormFactor gives you a proven AI winner plus the optionality providing quantum gear.
#4 Keysight Technologies (KEYS)
If you walked into any quantum computing lab in the world—IonQ, Infleqtion, IBM, Google, doesn’t matter—you’d find the same precision tools that “talk” to the qubits, send them commands, and measure what comes back. Keysight makes these tools—and you literally can’t build a quantum computer without them.
Why Keysight lands at #4: It’s the cleanest “picks and shovels” play on the entire quantum race. Trapped ion, neutral atom, superconducting, photonic—whichever approach ultimately wins will still need Keysight’s gear.
Keysight is also an AI infrastructure stock, so the quantum side of the story is just a slice of a much larger pie. But for retail investors who want quantum exposure without the binary tech risk of picking the right qubit horse, this is the stock to buy.
#3 Cloudflare (NET)
Cloudflare isn’t a quantum computing company—it’s the company defending the internet from quantum computers.
See, most of the encryption protecting your bank accounts and everything else online will be crackable once quantum computers get powerful enough. The industry calls that moment “Q-Day.” And many experts now think Q-Day could come as early as 2028 or 2029. That’s terrifying close.
The fix: post-quantum cryptography (PQC)—new encryption designed to resist a quantum attack.
Cloudflare runs the giant network sitting in front of more than 20% of all websites on the planet. It handles the traffic, the security, and the speed for a huge chunk of the internet. It’s already switching that traffic over to the new quantum-resistant locks. And it has a clear plan to make everything fully quantum-safe by 2029.
Why Cloudflare lands at #3: It’s the cleanest large-cap way to play the post-quantum cryptography migration that’s already underway. As of late April 2026, more than two-thirds of human-generated traffic running through Cloudflare is already protected by PQC—well ahead of every other major infrastructure provider. And Cloudflare offers this protection as a default, at no extra cost. That’s a powerful position.
Of course, quantum security is a feature inside a much larger AI and internet-infrastructure narrative for Cloudflare. But of all the ways to play the defensive side of quantum, this is the one with real revenue supporting the story.
#2 Infleqtion (INFQ)
Infleqtion (formerly ColdQuanta) is a pure-play bet on neutral-atom quantum computing—a technology that uses “optical tweezers” made of laser light to control regular atoms with no electric charge and make them perform calculations. Each neutral atom functions as a qubit.
The big advantages of neutral atoms: scalability and room-temperature operation.
Infleqtion is working on full quantum computers, but it also builds precision sensors and clocks using the same core tech, as well as quantum software. This diversification is a genuine competitive advantage. While the quantum side of the business develops, the sensing and software side are already generating real revenue today.
Why Infleqtion lands at #2: It’s the cleanest pure-play other than #1 on this list. And it just hit the public markets in February with over $550 million in cash, $32.5 million in 2025 revenue, and an active customer roster that includes NASA, the US Department of War, the UK government, plus a deep partnership with Nvidia.
Infleqtion has been a volatile stock since it started trading three months ago, but it’s the cleanest neutral-atom bet available to public market investors.
And finally… #1…
#1 IonQ (IONQ)
IonQ builds quantum computers using “trapped ions”—positively charged individual atoms scientists trap in a special electromagnetic field “cage” and manipulate with precise lasers to perform calculations. Each ion functions as a qubit.
Because of their stability, these qubits hold their information longer and make fewer mistakes than other quantum approaches. That’s a structural head start that competitors using superconducting circuits can’t easily close.
The bigger picture: IonQ isn’t just building the computer. The company spent the last year buying up everything around it in the quantum ecosystem, including Oxford Ionics for chip-based qubit control, ID Quantique for security, and SkyWater for US-based chip manufacturing. The result is the only fully vertically integrated quantum company on Earth, owning the whole stack from atoms to applications.
Why IonQ lands at #1: It’s the pure-play quantum stock with the most established real business. Q1 2026 revenue hit $64.7 million, up 755% year-over-year. Full-year revenue guide is now $270 million. Remaining performance obligations—basically backlog, or contracted revenue that hasn’t been booked yet—jumped to $470 million, up 554%.
IonQ became the first quantum pure-play ever to generate over $100 million in annual revenue last year, and it’s compounding from there.
With a $24 billion market cap and trailing twelve-month revenue of $187 million, the stock is far from cheap. But if any quantum pure play is built to last, it’s IonQ.
Thank you for reading, and have a great weekend!