IONQ vs RGTI vs QBTS: Which Quantum Computing Stock Should You Buy in November 2025?

The quantum computing space has been heating up rapidly, but we’re still in the early stages. This means IonQ (NYSE:IONQ), Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI), and D-Wave Quantum (NYSE:QBTS) have all been lifted by the rising tide.

But if that tide continues rising, or once commercially viable quantum computing (or QC) becomes a reality, not every QC startup has the buoyancy to rise all the way to the top. Almost every quantum computing startup has its own way of trying to make QC commercially viable.

There will only be a handful of direct QC winners. And it is debatable whether or not the biggest winner will be from the current batch of QC companies that are publicly tradable. OpenAI was the first AI company to achieve a breakthrough, despite public companies having their own AI teams with deeper pockets.

With that in mind, it requires careful consideration before you pick between the popular quantum computing stocks in the market right now. If you’re in it for the long run, it’s even more important to research them individually and determine which one will ultimately prevail. Let’s take a look.

IonQ (IONQ)

IonQ has historically led the quantum computing startup space, and it does have very impressive tech. It has the lowest error rates in the QC business, with 99.99% fidelity on two-qubit gates. As of today, it has Forte, with 36 physical qubits. It already has customers. Namely, Airbus (OTCMKTS:EADSY), Hyundai, and the U.S. Air Force. IonQ Tempo has 64 algorithmic qubits.

IonQ has a lower error rate than its competitors due to its trapped-ion being steered with ultra-stable laser pulses instead of the microwave pulses used in superconducting chips. However, that laser-steering approach comes with a trade-off that investors and technologists need to keep in mind: speed and scalability bottlenecks.

A single two-qubit laser gate takes a few microseconds, whereas superconducting circuits finish the same operation in ~10-20 nanoseconds. When you finally do need millions of gates to run an error-corrected algorithm, total run-time balloons.

Worryingly, competitors with superconducting platforms are closing the fidelity gap faster than IonQ is closing the speed gap, and they’re doing it with volume-manufacturable, wafer-scale processes that trapped-ion machines simply can’t match today.

Nonetheless, if you step back and look at what customers actually pay for today, IonQ still owns the highest-value slice of the early quantum market. This slice is growing fast enough to fund the company while it races to solve the speed/scaling puzzle. IonQ expects $91 million in revenue this year. It is also big enough to self-fund for years, with ~$546.8 million of liquidity accessible as of Q2.

In short, if you believe the first commercially useful quantum computer will be the one with the lowest-error qubits rather than the fastest clock, IonQ is the pure-play way to bet on that thesis.

Rigetti Computing (RGTI)

Rigetti Computing is the only publicly traded, full-stack, made-in-America superconducting quantum shop. It has a 36-qubit “Cepheus-1” with 99.5% two-qubit fidelity, a 100-qubit system due this year, and a 336-qubit system slated for 2026.

Rigetti posted $2 million in revenue in Q2 and $40 million in losses. The balance sheet, however, is ballooning. Cash (plus highly liquid assets) totaled $427.4 million in Q2 and is sufficient to fund operations for years. Many believe Rigetti may be able to break even by then or get so large that at-the-market offerings will be able to fund operations for longer.

If you want a levered play on “quantum foundry” scarcity and you believe superconducting still has the faster clock, Rigetti is the purest small-cap stock you can buy now.

At the same time, you’re holding a pre-revenue foundry that has yet to prove it can beat IBM’s (NYSE:IBM) 2023 133-qubit “Heron” on either fidelity or yield

D-Wave Quantum (QBTS)

D-Wave Quantum is the world’s only pure-play on quantum annealing. It is a specialized, analog approach that solves optimization problems but cannot break codes or run the full, general-purpose quantum programs that rivals promise.

However, its management has been able to run an immaculate PR offensive. It has been highly successful, and the stock is up 3,396% in the past year. For example, the company’s CEO claimed “quantum supremacy” in March, which dramatically added to the momentum. This was for one narrow, synthetic benchmark that is disputed.

The company’s promise is the mirror image of IonQ and Rigetti. It does not have a “universal market” potential if an error correction breakthrough happens, and is focused on optimization.

But despite all that, the company’s stock has been explosive. D-Wave has used that to raise massive amounts of cash, which was $819 million in Q2. It can use that cash to possibly buy a universal-qubit start-up whenever it chooses.

The bear case is that the optimization market is only so big. Once IonQ or Rigetti perfects error-corrected chips, they can solve the same routing/scheduling problems, and D-Wave’s special edge disappears.

IONQ vs RGTI vs QBTS: Which Quantum Computing Stock Should You Buy Now?

All three stocks are on the extreme end of the speculation scale. But if you were to set aside a small portion of your portfolio for it, I would earmark ~70% into IONQ stock, 20% into RGTI stock, and 10% into QBTS stock.