Quantum computing is expected to grow into a $72 billion market by 2035.
Startups operating in the quantum computing industry offer a lot of potential, but also a lot of risk.
Nvidia, IBM, and Alphabet are all into quantum computing, too, but they don’t come with any of the risks of a startup.
10 Stocks We Like More Than Nvidia ›
Quantum computing was one of those things you only read about in a science fiction novel, along with faster-than-light travel or teleportation. It might be part of everyday conversation on the Starship Enterprise, but it’s not real, right?
Turns out it’s very real and it’s one of the fastest growing industries. McKinsey estimates that the quantum computing market could grow from about $4 billion today to $72 billion by 2035.
Image source: Getty Images.
The technology is as science fiction as it sounds, and quantum computers are capable of solving complex math problems in minutes that would take the most advanced supercomputers longer than the universe has existed.
There are a lot of young start-up companies working on this technology that you could invest in, and if one of them takes off, that’s great. But start-ups are often high-risk, high-reward. However, with quantum computing, there are a lot of big names developing their own quantum machines and software. You can reap the rewards of quantum computing with the safety of investing in a top stock.
The three companies featured below offer investors ways to capture a piece of the $72 billion quantum computing industry.
Up first is Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA). The graphics processing unit (GPU) company was perhaps the biggest stock story of 2025. Its world-class hardware has propelled Nvidia to its current market cap of $4.57 trillion.
But Nvidia isn’t resting on its laurels; the company is also a leader in quantum computing.
While quantum computers do some things very well, better than any classical computer, in fact, they are not particularly good at doing normal computer things like surfing the internet.
The solution is to hybridize quantum computers with conventional computers. And Nvidia’s NVQLink architecture does just that. The hardware, paired with Nvidia’s CUDA-Q software, allows the hardware and operating system of a quantum machine to play nicely with a classical computer.
Essentially, Nvidia is bridging the gap between classical and quantum computing. And you can invest in Nvidia without worrying about the problems that startups face. Nvidia probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. It has a net income margin of 53% and its revenue has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87% over the past three years.
Before the Magnificent 7, before the dot-com boom and bust, and before the Macintosh II, it existed International Business Machines(NYSE: IBM). Founded in 1911, it’s truly America’s original tech giant, and it’s still going strong over a century later.
IBM has been working on quantum computing since the 1970s. As of 2016, it has never missed a single goal in its published roadmap for the development of quantum machines. And the company’s Nighthawk quantum processor is the latest result of IBM research.
Today, Nighthawk has 120 qubits. But the chip is scalable, and systems using it are expected to get bigger and faster by 2028, when IBM expects systems using Nighthawk to be able to support up to 15,000 two-qubit gates with more than 1,000 connected qubits and long-range couplers.
Given IBM’s history of sticking to the schedule in its quantum development, it seems like a safe bet to me that they’ll stick to that schedule going forward. And while IBM’s revenue growth is slow and steady compared to Nvidia, the company has a net income margin of 12% and a gross margin of 57.8%, and pays a dividend that yields 2.17% at current prices, with a 26-year history of growing that dividend. IBM isn’t going anywhere.
Finally, I want to talk about Alphabet(NASDAQ: GOOGL)(NASDAQ: GOOG)the parent company of Google.
Alphabet is already emerging as a leader among the Magnificent 7 in the AI space, but the company has $98 billion in cash, so it has plenty of resources to invest in more projects. Quantum computing is one such project.
Remember that quantum computer I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the one that solved that math problem in minutes? This was Alphabet’s Willow quantum computer, and it solved a complicated math problem in five minutes that would have taken even the most advanced classical supercomputer 10 septillion years to solve.
Additionally, Willow’s error rate (a serious problem with quantum computing in general) has been halved. This is an exponential reduction in the error rate of a quantum computer and the first time a quantum machine has been “below the threshold”.
Finally, while most quantum computers have a higher error rate the more qubits they use, Willow actually becomes more accurate with more qubits.
Alphabet is pioneering the quantum hardware frontier and has more resources to solve any problem than anyone else in the industry. And again, Alphabet is pretty far from a start-up, so it’s a quant stock you can invest in with confidence.
Before buying Nvidia stock, consider the following:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor the analyst team has just identified what they think they are 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you would have $474,578!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you would have $1,141,628!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock advisor the total average return is 955% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 196% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock advisorand join an investor community created by individual investors for individual investors.
See the 10 stocks »
*The Equity Advisor returns as of January 19, 2026.
James Hires has positions in Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Alphabet, International Business Machines and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
These 3 Giant Tech Stocks Are Poised for Explosive Quantum Growth was originally published by The Motley Fool
