Quantum Gold Rush: The Catalysts Driving Quantum Stocks Higher

Key Points

• D-Wave's focus on near-term commercial application is gaining traction with significant revenue growth and real-world enterprise customer deployments.
• Rigetti took a major step toward building a powerful universal quantum computer by achieving a critical milestone in processor accuracy and error reduction.
• Quantum Computing Inc. validated its disruptive room-temperature technology with its first major commercial sale in the ultra-high-value cybersecurity market.

Stocks across the quantum computing sector have posted strong gains since the start of a summer-long rally, driven by a powerful series of technical and commercial achievements. This progress suggests the quantum computing industry is reaching an inflection point, moving from the research lab toward a commercial reality.

With seemingly assured commercial success, market attention is now turning to quantum computing's potential to transform the entire technology sector fundamentally. This transformation's promise is underpinning the sector's thesis for long-term value creation.

Quantum machines promise to solve unsolvable problems in finance, medicine, and logistics. Investors watching quantum sector tickers might have noticed that the conversation has shifted from abstract promise to tangible progress.

Recent milestones from three key competitors provide the clearest picture yet of the different paths being built, each promising to lead us to a quantum future.

D-Wave: The Practical Pioneer's Path to Revenue

D-Wave Quantum’s NYSE: QBTS stock momentum is tied directly to its strategy of delivering business value today. A recent study commissioned by the company found that 81% of business leaders believe they have hit the limits of classical computing for optimization, highlighting the immediate demand D-Wave aims to fill.

The company’s core technology, quantum annealing, is built to meet this need. It functions like a specialized machine designed to find the optimal solution from many possibilities, making it ideal for streamlining logistics or balancing financial portfolios. 

This practical strategy is delivering precise results. In the first quarter of 2025, D-Wave’s revenue grew 509% year-over-year, boosted by the first sale of its flagship Advantage2 system. Real-world projects with customers like Ford Otosan and Total Transport Logistics show its technology is already solving business challenges.

For investors, this clear path to revenue builds confidence in the company's business model and supports its valuation as a first-mover.

Rigetti: The Play for a Universal Quantum Future

Rigetti Computing’s NASDAQ: RGTI 30% single-day stock surge on July 16 was a direct reaction to a major technical breakthrough. The company announced that it achieved 99.5% two-qubit gate fidelity, a key measure of accuracy that effectively halved the error rate in its quantum computer.

This achievement is critical because Rigetti is pursuing the gate-based model.

This is the ambitious path toward a universal quantum computer. A universal quantum computer would be a machine that, like a modern CPU, could one day run any kind of quantum algorithm. 

Managing and reducing errors is the main obstacle to building such a powerful machine. 

By demonstrating a significant leap in accuracy on its scalable multi-chip system, Rigetti has proven that its engineering strategy is working. For investors, the bet on Rigetti is less about today's revenue and more about its potential to build the industry's most powerful machines.

This winner-take-all potential fuels the stock's growth, which is driven by technical progress. Each milestone moves it closer to the ultimate prize.

Quantum Computing Inc.: The Room-Temperature Disruptor

Quantum Computing Inc.'s NASDAQ: QUBT recent momentum was solidified by its first major U.S. commercial contract: a purchase order from a top-five bank to build a quantum cybersecurity testbed. The deal spotlights the disruptive potential of the company’s core technology, integrated photonics.

Unlike competitors that require massive, expensive cryogenic systems to cool their machines, QUBT’s hardware uses light particles and operates at room temperature.

This fundamentally changes the hardware game. It could make quantum systems dramatically cheaper, smaller, and easier to deploy.

The strategy is to outmaneuver competitors with more practical technology.

The bank contract validates this approach in the ultra-high-value quantum cybersecurity market. Furthermore, QUBT's in-house photonic chip foundry gives it critical control over its supply chain.

For investors, QUBT represents a bet on a disruptive technology that could leapfrog the competition and speed up mainstream adoption.

The Quantum Premium: A New Way to Look at Quantum Stocks

These companies have multi-billion-dollar market capitalizations, yet their current revenues are minimal. This results in extremely high price-to-sales ratios (P/S) that do not fit traditional analysis. The current market valuations for the quantum sector are not and can not be based on last quarter’s profits; they are forward-looking bets on a foundational technology, much like investing in internet stocks in the late 1990s.

The investment thesis is based on capturing a piece of a future market worth trillions. In this context, the recent technical and commercial milestones provide the tangible evidence investors need to justify such forward-looking confidence.

In a Multilane Race, Execution Is Everything

The quantum sector's recent rally is more than market noise; it responds to real-world execution. Each company offers a distinct and now-validated approach: D-Wave with near-term commercial sales, Rigetti with long-term technological power, and Quantum Computing Inc. with disruptive, practical hardware.

The race is heating up, and the focus has firmly shifted from promise to proof for investors.