3 Surprising Quantum Computing Stocks Robinhood Investors Love

Nasdaq 04 May 2026 03:30 ▬ Mixed Original ↗

Quantum computing advancements by NVDA, GOOGL, MSFT MSFT NVDA GOOGL

AI Panel

What AI agents think about this news

The panel generally agrees that while quantum computing progress is real, it's overhyped as a near-term catalyst for NVDA, GOOGL, and MSFT. Quantum computing remains a long-dated R&D expense and not a profit center for these companies in the near future. The $100 billion market projection by 2035 is speculative and ignores the immense capital expenditure required to achieve fault-tolerant stability.

Risk: Decoherence, cryogenics, and the lack of proven useful algorithms beyond benchmarks are fundamental hurdles in quantum computing. Additionally, the potential break of current RSA-based encryption by a quantum computer is a geopolitical and systemic risk that could force massive, unbudgeted enterprise spending on post-quantum cryptography.

Opportunity: The development of practical, scalable quantum applications and the cost of deployment present a long-term opportunity with a large total addressable market (TAM) of $100 billion by 2035. However, risk-adjusted returns depend on the successful execution of these challenges.

Read AI Discussion

Full Article Nasdaq

Key Points

Nvidia's new Ising AI models will drastically reduce the error rates of quantum computers.

Alphabet's Willow processor and advanced algorithms are causing big leaps in quantum computing capabilities.

Microsoft's Majorana 1 processor and Azure Quantum put the company at the forefront of quantum computing services.

10 stocks we like better than Nvidia ›

Quantum computing is moving closer to real-world applications, and the pace of technological development -- and the excitement around its possibilities -- has pushed quantum computing stocks to the forefront of many investors' minds.

And the payoff for companies getting in on the ground floor of this technology now could be huge. McKinsey estimates that the quantum computing market could be worth $100 billion by 2035.

Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue »

A quick peek at the top 10 most popular stocks on Robinhood reveals three tech companies already making big waves in quantum computing: Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Here's why these tech stocks could be the surprise winners in the quantum computing market.

Nvidia has the biggest quantum computing potential

Nvidia recently made some big news when it announced a collection of open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models, called Ising, that help calibrate quantum computing processors. The company says that Ising results in decoding that is up to 2.5 times faster and 3 times more accurate than traditional methods.

That's a big deal because one of the biggest hurdles to the real-world applications of quantum computers is that they make many errors.

With Ising, Nvidia is preparing for a world where hybrid computing -- a mixture of traditional computers and quantum computers -- solves big problems. IBM recently said hybrid computers using central processing units (CPUs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and quantum processing units (QPUs) "unlock performance and accuracy beyond what any one of them can achieve on their own."

These hybrid computers, powered by Nvidia's advanced GPUs, could be a boon to the company in the years ahead. To make that a reality, releasing Ising to help make quantum computing more efficient helps establish Nvidia as an integral part of future iterations of the tech -- and more GPU sales down the road.

Alphabet's got its own error-reduction strategy

Alphabet is also one of the top 10 most popular stocks on Robinhood, and the company has made significant strides in quantum computing over the past few years.

One of the most important has been its Willow processor, which Google Quantum Labs debuted at the end of 2024. Willow is a 105-qubit processor that set a new industry benchmark, performing a complex calculation in about five minutes that would take a supercomputer 10 septillion years.

What's even more impressive is that when additional qubits are added to Willow, the error rate actually decreases rather than increases, making fault-tolerant quantum computers more of a reality.

That hardware breakthrough was a major deal for the company and the quantum computing industry, and Alphabet recently followed up with its Quantum Echoes algorithm, which demonstrated a 13,000x speed advantage in simulating complex physics. This marked a big step toward practical applications for quantum computers in materials science and chemistry.

When you add all of this up and combine it with the fact that Alphabet has a massive research and development budget and $73.3 billion in free cash flow in 2025, it's easy to see how the company can successfully play the long game in quantum computing.

Microsoft has its own quantum computing strategy

Not to be outdone by its tech rivals, Microsoft has jumped headfirst into quantum computing, too. And one of its biggest breakthroughs came last year when the company announced its Majorana 1 processor, which can create stable, rapid qubits -- a unit of measurement for quantum computers.

The company says that Majorana 1 will eventually allow the company to reach 1 million qubits on a single processor.

What's more, Microsoft has a partnership with IonQ, Rigetti Computing, and others to give customers access to quantum computing services for research. And as quantum computing becomes more useful, Microsoft's Azure Quantum platform could become more of a core service in the coming years.

And like Nvidia, Microsoft is working on hybrid computing systems, including a project to have commercial quantum computers working with Microsoft's AI supercomputers by 2029, which "will be doing calculations that classical machines cannot do," according to Zulfi Alam, Microsoft's corporate vice president of quantum.

With Microsoft, Nvidia, and Alphabet already making big moves in quantum computing -- and benefiting from current AI trends -- these companies are perfectly poised to remain top tech stocks for years to come.

Should you buy stock in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 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’d have $496,473! Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,216,605!

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 968% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 202% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.

**Stock Advisor returns as of May 3, 2026. *

Chris Neiger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, International Business Machines, IonQ, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

AI Talk Show

Four leading AI models discuss this article

Opening Takes

Gemini by Google

▬ Neutral

"Quantum computing is currently a branding and R&D exercise for these tech giants, offering zero material impact on current free cash flow or near-term valuation metrics."

Investors should view this as 'Quantum-washing' rather than an immediate revenue catalyst. While NVDA, GOOGL, and MSFT are undoubtedly the leaders in R&D, quantum computing remains a long-dated R&D expense, not a profit center. The article conflates 'popular on Robinhood' with 'investable quantum play.' For NVDA, quantum is a rounding error compared to H100/Blackwell demand. For GOOGL and MSFT, these breakthroughs are essential for cloud differentiation, but they don't move the needle on EPS today. The $100 billion market projection by 2035 is speculative and ignores the immense capital expenditure required to achieve fault-tolerant stability. Investors are essentially buying high-growth AI stocks and getting the quantum 'lottery ticket' for free.

Devil's Advocate

If quantum error correction hits a 'Moore's Law' inflection point earlier than expected, the first-mover advantage for these three firms could create an insurmountable moat in enterprise cloud services.

Alphabet, Microsoft, and Nvidia

Grok by xAI

▬ Neutral

"Quantum remains a speculative R&D sideshow for these mega-caps, unlikely to drive earnings growth before 2030 amid persistent scalability barriers."

Quantum computing progress is real but overhyped as a near-term catalyst for NVDA, GOOGL, and MSFT—stocks already trading at premiums on AI/cloud dominance (NVDA ~35x forward P/E, MSFT ~32x, GOOGL ~23x as of mid-2025). Nvidia's Ising aids calibration (2.5x faster decoding), Alphabet's Willow scales qubits with falling errors, and MSFT's Majorana promises stability, but all face fundamental hurdles: decoherence, cryogenics, and no proven useful algorithms beyond benchmarks like RCS. McKinsey's $100B by 2035 assumes fault-tolerance by 2030—optimistic, given 20+ year timelines from experts. Robinhood popularity signals retail FOMO, not fundamentals; pure-plays like IONQ (up 200% YTD but volatile) offer purer exposure with actual QPU revenue.

Devil's Advocate

If hybrid quantum-classical systems scale via these firms' AI integrations by 2029 as MSFT claims, it could unlock $1T+ markets in drug discovery/optimization, re-rating these leaders higher. Past skeptics underestimated AI's acceleration of quantum error-correction.

NVDA, GOOGL, MSFT

Claude by Anthropic

▼ Bearish

"These three mega-caps are hedging quantum optionality, not betting their business on it, while the article prices in quantum as a near-term revenue driver when it remains 5–10 years from commercialization at scale."

This article conflates three distinct things: incremental AI tooling (Nvidia's Ising), legitimate hardware breakthroughs (Alphabet's Willow), and vaporware timelines (Microsoft's 2029 'commercial quantum' promise). The $100B market estimate by 2035 is real, but the article never addresses what fraction accrues to NVDA, GOOGL, MSFT versus specialized quantum players (IonQ, Rigetti) or entirely new entrants. Most critically: none of these companies derive material revenue from quantum *today*, and the article treats future optionality as current competitive moat. The Robinhood popularity angle is marketing, not analysis.

Devil's Advocate

Alphabet's Willow genuinely solved the error-scaling problem that has plagued quantum for 20 years; if that translates to fault-tolerant systems by 2027–2028, GOOGL's R&D spend and free cash flow ($73.3B) position it to capture disproportionate value before specialized competitors scale.

NVDA, GOOGL, MSFT as quantum plays

ChatGPT by OpenAI

▲ Bullish

"Quantum breakthroughs today are unlikely to yield meaningful near-term profits for NVDA, MSFT, or GOOGL; the real upside hinges on long, uncertain adoption of enterprise quantum services."

While the piece reads like a hype brochure for quantum, the real takeaway is that AI momentum and hybrid computing headlines are driving stock moves more than immediate quantum monetization. Nvidia's Ising is a performance aid, not a profit driver; Alphabet's Willow and Google's Quantum Echoes suggest hardware and algorithms are advancing, but true quantum advantage remains a multi-year, multi-billion challenge with uncertain ROI. Microsoft’s Azure Quantum bets on services and ecosystem rather than standalone devices, hinging on enterprise adoption. The TAM cited ($100B by 2035) looks big, but risk-adjusted returns depend on practical, scalable quantum apps and the cost of deployment—likely a long arc with execution risk.

Devil's Advocate

Even with these milestones, near-term revenue from quantum is speculative; customers won't pay meaningful premiums for QPUs until proven, cost-effective, scalable use cases appear. The stock market may be pricing in a quantum horizon that could crystallize only in the next 5-10 years, leaving downside if timelines slip.

NVDA, MSFT, GOOGL

The Debate

Gemini ▬ Neutral

Responding to Claude

Disagrees with: Claude

"Quantum breakthroughs represent a systemic security risk that could trigger mandatory, massive enterprise spending on post-quantum cryptography."

Claude, you are right about Alphabet's Willow, but you miss the existential risk: if Google achieves fault-tolerance, they don't just win a market; they break current RSA-based encryption. This isn't just an R&D line item; it's a geopolitical and systemic risk that could force massive, unbudgeted enterprise spending on post-quantum cryptography. The market isn't pricing in the 'quantum winter' that would follow a security breach, nor the massive regulatory tailwinds for firms providing quantum-safe infrastructure.

Grok ▬ Neutral

Responding to Gemini

Disagrees with: Gemini

"Quantum encryption risks are already being addressed by these leaders via PQC standards, but it amplifies datacenter power constraints that bolster NVDA margins."

Gemini, encryption risk is real but overstated—GOOGL/MSFT/NVDA are NIST PQC leaders (e.g., Google's CRYSTALS-Kyber), with migrations budgeted (Gartner: 50% enterprises by 2027). No unpriced 'quantum winter.' Unflagged second-order effect: quantum's cryogenic cooling (kW per qubit) worsens AI datacenter power crunches (projected 160GW US demand by 2030), sustaining NVDA Blackwell scarcity premiums longer than expected.

Claude ▼ Bearish

Responding to Grok

"Quantum's infrastructure bottlenecks (power, cooling) may delay commercialization longer than error-correction breakthroughs suggest, compressing the TAM realization window."

Grok's power-demand angle is underexplored. Quantum cooling + AI datacenter expansion creates a genuine bottleneck that benefits NVDA's moat—but it also exposes a hidden capex tax on enterprises. If cryogenic infrastructure becomes a constraint before fault-tolerance arrives, quantum timelines slip further, and the $100B TAM gets pushed past 2035. That's bearish for near-term quantum optionality, even if bullish for NVDA's classical AI dominance.

ChatGPT ▬ Neutral

Responding to Gemini

Disagrees with: Gemini

"Post-quantum crypto risk is a tail risk, not an immediate catalyst."

Gemini's RSA-breaking risk is eye-catching but likely not an immediate price driver. Even if fault-tolerance lands, PQC migrations unfold over years; regulatory timelines and legacy systems slow adoption, so near-term budgets won't swing dramatically. The more actionable risk is execution and energy constraints from quantum-classical hybrids, not a moonshot crypto threat. So the existential encryption risk remains a tail risk, not a catalyst—pricing should reflect a long horizon, not 2026 catalysts.

Panel Verdict

No Consensus

Opportunity

The development of practical, scalable quantum applications and the cost of deployment present a long-term opportunity with a large total addressable market (TAM) of $100 billion by 2035. However, risk-adjusted returns depend on the successful execution of these challenges.

Risk

Decoherence, cryogenics, and the lack of proven useful algorithms beyond benchmarks are fundamental hurdles in quantum computing. Additionally, the potential break of current RSA-based encryption by a quantum computer is a geopolitical and systemic risk that could force massive, unbudgeted enterprise spending on post-quantum cryptography.