Quantum computing is drawing increased attention from Wall Street this year as a wave of public listings pushes the technology beyond research laboratories and toward commercial deployment. Several companies in the field have gone public in recent months, including Quantinuum, whose stock market debut marked a shift toward commercial use rather than purely experimental work.

Unlike classical machines, quantum computers use qubits, which can represent multiple states at once and allow certain classes of calculations to run far faster — the technical distinction that underpins the commercial interest now forming around the field. Large technology companies are also expanding their quantum programs. Microsoft opened a new quantum research center in Maryland last month, while IonQ said its newest system will be installed at Nvidia's quantum research center. Adding to the momentum, a technical paper claimed that International Business Machines Corporation's (IBM) Nighthawk processor completed a task in 19 seconds that would take a supercomputer 110 years.

Healthcare Companies Testing Quantum Systems

Drugmakers and medical institutions are among the first organizations to apply quantum computing practical work. Amgen, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, is using the technology in an effort to shorten the time required to develop new drugs. Drug development is among quantum computing's most frequently cited applications, because simulating how molecules interact strains classical computers as molecular complexity grows.

Amgen served as a lead investor in Quantinuum's first major funding round and also collaborates with quantum firm QuEra.

Cleveland Clinic has operated a quantum program for five years. What began as a small initiative has grown into a partnership with IBM that covers more than 60 projects spanning artificial intelligence, computing, and quantum research. Researchers from Cleveland Clinic, IBM, and Japan's Riken institute were nominated for the ACM Gordon Bell Prize for their work on protein modeling. Cleveland's chief research information officer said the nomination helped validate quantum research as a serious investment.

Government Funding and Security Concerns

The federal government is also channeling money into quantum research. In May, the Commerce Department announced a $2 billion package aimed at accelerating the technology and establishing a system at a national laboratory by 2028.

Part of the urgency comes from encryption concerns. A quantum program known as Shor's algorithm could one day break current encryption methods, although it has not yet been used to do so. The risk has already shaped policy planning: the National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized its first post-quantum encryption standards in 2024, giving organizations a path to migrate away from vulnerable algorithms. Cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft now allow developers to test quantum computing without owning hardware, and Booz Allen's quantum lead has said that access could speed up both helpful and harmful uses of the technology.

Public Companies in Focus

Among publicly traded companies, IonQ continues to attract analyst interest. Bank of America initiated coverage of the stock with a Buy rating and a $60 price target, citing the company's trapped ion technology and its purchase of chip maker SkyWater Technology.

IonQ reported record second quarter revenue of $80.1 million, an increase of 287% from a year earlier. Its net loss per share widened to $5.08 from $0.70 in the same period last year — a gap that highlights how early the sector remains in its commercial development, even as revenue scales quickly.

The company has also announced a string of new partnerships this fall. IonQ agreed to supply a quantum computer to South Korea's SDT and said it will carry out the first on-premise quantum deployment at Nvidia's research center.

Other names in the sector include Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, and Xanadu Quantum Technologies. Xanadu went public in March through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company and has seen its stock fall more than 39% over the past six months. The company reported second quarter revenue of $1.5 million, down from $2.8 million in the first quarter, and said it held $312.8 million in cash and liquid assets as of June 30.

With fresh listings, corporate pilots, and federal funding all converging, quantum computing companies are moving closer to real-world use and continue to draw sustained attention from analysts and investors across the sector. The Commerce Department's 2028 national laboratory target and upcoming quarterly reports give the industry near-term markers against which progress can be measured.