Quantum computing stocks soar: IonQ, D-Wave, Rigetti, and QUBT are rising today. But why—and will it last?

The stock prices of the so-called Quantum Four are back on the rise today, after already accruing significant gains yesterday as well.

The upward trend is a reversal for IonQ, D-Wave, Rigetti, and Quantum Computing Inc., which have all seen their shares decline since the beginning of the year.

Why are they on the rise again? Here’s what you need to know:

What’s happened?

Yesterday, the stock prices of America’s four largest publicly traded quantum computing companies all rose significantly. As of yesterday’s close, here’s where the quantum computing companies’ stock prices stood: 

• IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ): up 6.23% to $33.59
• D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS): up 5.31% to $19.65
• Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI): up 6.98% to $17.63
• Quantum Computing Inc. (Nasdaq: QUBT): up 7.03% to $8.68

But the upward momentum hasn’t stopped there. Currently in premarket trading, the stock prices of all four quantum companies are surging again.

According to Yahoo Finance data, as of the time of this writing in premarket trading, the four companies’ stock prices are up the following amounts:

• IONQ: up around 15%
• QBTS: up around 7%
• RGTI: up around 5.5%
• QUBT: up around 5.5%

The last two trading days have marked (so far) a dramatic reversal for the stock prices of these four companies. Since the beginning of the year, shares of all four companies had tumbled between 15% and 25% as of yesterday’s close.

From a great 2025 to a rough 2026

No doubt about it, most quantum computing stocks had a great run in 2025. During the year, most saw their prices surge.

• IonQ rose from around $32 in the beginning of the year to over $73 per share by September.
• D-Wave saw its price jump from around $6 per share in early 2025 to over $46 by October.
• Rigetti saw its stock go from around $9 per share in early 2025 to as high as $58 in October. 

Even Quantum Computing Inc., which started the year down significantly from its 2024 highs, at around $9 in January 2025, saw its price surge to more than $25 by late September.

But by late 2025, the mood surrounding quantum stocks had shifted.

Yes, individual investors began feeling more apprehensive about the prospect of massive returns, particularly after the stock performed so well throughout most of 2025, because quantum computing is still a nascent technology with few real-world use cases yet—meaning massive profits for these small companies are still years away.

But quantum stocks also took a hit due to factors beyond the companies’ control, particularly thanks to general fears of a worsening economy, an increasingly likely AI bubble, and uncertainty around inflation, interest rates, and geopolitics.

These factors cause many investors to pull money from highly volatile assets—including AI stocks, cryptocurrencies, and, yes, quantum stocks—and park it in safe-haven assets like gold and bonds to protect gains they had made in those volatile assets until that point.

This quantum selloff continued into 2026. Even with yesterday’s stock price rises, the Quantum Four have declined significantly year to date.

Why are quantum stocks back on the rise?

The recent share price rise indicates that investor appetite for quantum computing stocks is also on the rise again. The question is why?

The most likely answer seems to point to one quantum computing company in particular: IonQ. Yesterday, the Maryland-based company announced its fourth-quarter 2025 financial results.

And those results equated to a blowout quarter. 

For Q4 2025, IonQ announced revenue growth of 429% year over year. In Q4 2024, IonQ brought in $11.7 million in revenue, and in Q4 2025, that revenue leaped to $61.9 million.

The company also reported a 202% rise in full-year fiscal revenue. For its fiscal 2025, IonQ brought in $130 million in revenue, up from $43.1 million in 2024.

Of course, those revenue numbers are still small change compared to what the legacy tech and AI giants bring in every quarter—but they do show that there is growing demand for the quantum technologies that IonQ is developing.

As for why the three other Quantum Four companies are seeing their stock prices rise too, it’s likely a case of “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Historically, when one of the Quantum Four announces good news (such as revenue increases), the stock prices of the other companies tend to rise.

The investor logic behind this is that if there is increasing demand for quantum technology solutions, that demand will likely benefit all companies operating in the space.

Of course, it’s worth noting that quantum stocks are still highly volatile, so while they are up significantly over the past 24 hours, there’s no guarantee that the bumpy ride for Quantum Four stocks is over.