What Is the Smartest Quantum Computing Stock to Buy in 2026? | The Motley Fool

One of the hottest pockets of the artificial intelligence (AI) realm in 2025 was quantum computing. Shares of pure-play quantum developers such as IonQ , Rigetti Computing , and D-Wave Quantum each handily trounced the S&P 500 this year. What many investors might not fully realize is that several members of the "Magnificent Seven" are also exploring quantum computing technology alongside their existing generative AI efforts. While Alphabet , Amazon , and Microsoft have received some notoriety around their custom quantum processors, I think there's a more lucrative opportunity hiding in plain sight. I'll detail how Nvidia ( NVDA 0.32%) is quietly building a full-spectrum quantum computing suite, and explain why this could be a major catalyst for the company as the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure era begins. Image source: Nvidia. Nvidia is laying the foundation between quantum and accelerated computing At the moment, quantum computing is an exploratory pursuit. While some businesses are assessing how the technology may be integrated within their existing AI framework, quantum technology has little use at the enterprise level today. Against this backdrop, pure-play developers are primarily focused on research and development right now. IonQ and Rigetti specialize in gate-based approaches leveraging trapped ions and superconducting techniques . D-Wave, for its part, is more niche -- focusing on quantum annealing processes for optimization tasks. The main takeaway is that quantum pure plays are currently engaged with the actual physics behind the creation and configuration of quantum bits -- known as qubits -- within new computing architectures. As mentioned, the big three cloud providers have each designed their own quantum processors -- dubbed Willow (Alphabet), Ocelot (Amazon), and Majorana (Microsoft). While quantum computing is not a meaningful contributor to their respective businesses at this time, it's clear that big tech is fascinated by how this emerging technology may eventually impact the broader AI opportunity. Nvidia's approach is entirely different from that of its megacap counterparts, as well as the pure plays. Instead of building its own quantum computers, Nvidia is seeking to become a bridge between the software and hardware investments necessary to build these systems. Nvidia offers a software platform called CUDA-Q , within which developers can write applications that work across a network of CPUs, GPUs, and QPUs (quantum processing units). On the hardware side, Nvidia has built a high-speed interconnect called NVQLink . NVQLink represents a pathway for QPUs and GPUs to seamlessly communicate without straining latency and bandwidth. Essentially, Nvidia's decision to provide a software and hardware ecosystem allows programmers to easily test their AI workloads across a hybrid quantum-classical computing environment. This is a particularly smart move because it positions Nvidia to be a beneficiary regardless of which quantum processor designs or qubit architecture emerges as the market standard down the road. NASDAQ: NVDA Key Data Points Will 2026 be a big year for Nvidia? Nvidia's growth trajectory is directly tied to the budgets of big tech. As the slope of the lines in the chart illustrate, AI hyperscalers are...

Preview: ~500 words