3 AI Stocks That Could Reward Patient Investors for Years to Come

Quantum computing has become the speculative wing of the AI trade, and 2026 has punished believers. All three pure-play names are down sharply year to date, yet revenue is accelerating, sovereign contracts are stacking up, and CEOs keep raising guidance.

For patient investors willing to stomach volatility, here is how IonQ (NYSE:IONQ | IONQ Price Prediction), D-Wave Quantum (NYSE:QBTS), and Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) could deliver outsized 2027 returns.

IonQ: A Path to $60 Per Share

IonQ trades at $31.99, down 28.71% YTD, well off the $84.64 52-week high. Wall Street’s average target sits at $68.41 with 11 Buy or Strong Buy ratings. My $60 bold target implies roughly 88% upside, still below consensus.

The math works on sales: Q1 2026 revenue jumped 755% YoY to $64.67 million, and management raised FY2026 guidance to $260 million to $270 million.

CEO Niccolo de Masi called it “the biggest quarter in our company’s history“, citing the first 256-qubit sale to the University of Cambridge and a $39 million Space Development Agency contract. With RPO growth of 554% and the pending SkyWater foundry deal, the revenue base for a re-rating is already in place.

D-Wave Quantum: The Case for $30

D-Wave sits at $17.11, down 38.13% YTD. The sell-side is arguably the most bullish here, with an average target of $37.05 and 14 Buy or Strong Buy ratings. A round $30 target represents 75% upside, comfortably inside consensus.

Q1 revenue of $2.86 million looks tiny, but bookings exploded to $33.4 million, anchored by a $20 million Florida Atlantic University system. CEO Alan Baratz says D-Wave is “the only quantum computing company pursuing both annealing and gate-model” after acquiring Quantum Circuits. Sentiment is the strongest of the trio at a 62.63 composite score.

With $588.4 million in cash and a roadmap to 175 qubits in 2027, patient holders get a runway measured in years, not quarters.

Rigetti Computing: Reaching $25 Per Share

Rigetti trades at $13.73, down 40.32% YTD, versus a Wall Street target of $29.65. My $25 target implies 82% upside.

Revenue nearly tripled to $4.40 million in Q1, helped by Novera QPU sales, and the 108-qubit Cepheus-1-108Q is now live on AWS Braket, Azure Quantum, and qBraid. CEO Subodh Kulkarni highlighted “improved two-qubit gate fidelity across both monolithic and chiplet-based systems” and guided to “significant first-quarter year-over-year revenue growth.”

A planned $100 million UK investment for a 1,000-qubit system, plus an $8.4 million C-DAC order deploying in H2 2026, sets up catalysts. Rigetti carries $569 million in cash and no debt.

The Bottom Line for Patient Investors

Goldman Sachs notes pledged investments in “AI, semiconductors, quantum computing, space, advanced medicine, and cybersecurity” remain a defining 2026 theme.

IonQ to $60, D-Wave to $30, and Rigetti to $25 would require gains averaging around 80%, and each name has crossed that bar before in single years. Dilution, cash burn, and the absence of fault-tolerant qubits remain real risks. But with revenue accelerating and sovereign demand rising, the blueprint for outsized 2027 returns is in place.

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