MW Quantum stocks are rising. Why they may be the Trump White House's next investment.

By Emily Bary and Christine Ji

The U.S. government is reportedly considering quantum investments. The technology holds promise, but there have been practical roadblocks.

D-Wave's stock has surged this year as investors have bet on quantum computing.

They've been some of the year's most speculative plays. Now the U.S. government might be getting in on the action.

The Wall Street Journal reported late on Wednesday that the Trump administration was considering taking stakes in various quantum-computing companies. D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS), IonQ Inc. $(IONQ)$ and Rigetti Computing Inc. (RGTI) are among those that have held talks with government officials, while Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) is also contemplating an arrangement, according to the report.

Through the potential deals, the quantum companies would get funds and the U.S. government would become a shareholder, the report said, while noting that the deals "haven't been completed and might change."

An IonQ spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. Representatives from D-Wave, Rigetti, Quantum Computing and the Trump administration didn't immediately return MarketWatch's requests for comment.

Shares of the quantum players were up in Thursday's premarket action, with D-Wave ahead 11%, IonQ up 8%, Rigetti up 7% and Quantum Computing up 10%.

Quantum computing makes use of quantum mechanics to solve problems more quickly than can be done through the binary 0s and 1s of traditional computing. Quantum bits, or qubits, have the property of superposition, which is said to be useful for more complex calculations.

That could be why the U.S. government is so interested in the technology. The Wall Street Journal noted that quantum computing has the potential to speed up things like drug discovery and chemical development.

Quantum computing could also play a critical role in national security, according to Elizabeth Goldschmidt, physics professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She told MarketWatch prior to the announcement that quantum navigation systems could provide ways to get location information without GPS.

BofA analysts used glowing language to discuss the promise of quantum computing in a thematic research note published in July. "This could be the biggest revolution for humanity since discovering fire," the analysts wrote. "A technology that can perform endless complex calculations in zero-time, warp-speeding human knowledge and development."

The BofA analysts also saw big political advantages to quantum involvement. "Whoever wins the 'quantum race' will gain an unprecedented geopolitical, technological and economic advantage," they wrote, noting that government funding announcements for quantum equaled at least $42 billion at the time of their writing. More than a third of that came from China, they said.

But the quantum narrative isn't so simple. Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) Chief Executive Jensen Huang made waves in January when he suggested "very simple quantum computers" could be 20 years out. He later softened his stance on quantum.

Even the BofA analysts acknowledged that quantum computers so far have been "noisy," meaning there are "disturbances or inaccuracies that affect the qubits" and prevent the computations from taking place in the proper way.

"Whilst quantum computers may be able to solve certain problems better than a classical computer, the challenge is demonstrating quantum advantage - that a quantum computer can solve a useful real-world problem faster than a classical computer," they noted.

However, advancements are being made in the field. On Wednesday, Alphabet Inc.'s $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$ Google Quantum AI team announced that their Willow quantum chip had achieved the first-ever verifiable quantum advantage, meaning that the outcome can be replicated by other quantum computers or experiments. Willow was able to run an algorithm 13,000 times faster than a classical computer, and the breakthrough is an important step in developing real-world applications of quantum computing.

International Business Machines Corp. $(IBM)$ and Honeywell International Inc. $(HON)$ are among large companies also involved in quantum efforts.

The pure-play public quantum-computing companies are still losing far more money than they bring in. D-Wave, for instance, is expected to generate less than $25 million in revenue this year, while posting a roughly $230 million net loss, according to FactSet estimates. IonQ, which is the largest of the bunch given its $20 billion-plus market capitalization, could lose nearly $500 million this year on just over $90 million in revenue.

That hasn't stopped investors from placing bets on the respective stocks. Even with a recent pullback, D-Wave's stock has more than tripled this year, while Rigetti's has more than doubled and IonQ's is up about 30%. Quantum Computing's stock is down roughly 10% over the course of 2025 to date.

Were the U.S. government to take stakes in quantum companies, it would mark a continuation of a trend, but also an expansion into a new area. The Trump administration recently has invested in a number of companies deemed to be of interest to national security, including Intel Corp. $(INTC)$ and MP Materials Corp. (MP)

See also: Intel agrees to 10% U.S. government stake. It may not be the last chip company to do so.

-Emily Bary -Christine Ji

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October 23, 2025 08:18 ET (12:18 GMT)

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