Hot Picks: Quantum computing stocks gain as AI investment accelerates

Quantum computing continues to attract investor attention as artificial intelligence spending supports demand for next-generation computing technologies. While the industry remains in its early stages, companies are making steady progress toward commercial applications.

BNN Bloomberg spoke with Antoine Legault, vice president of equity research, hardware, at Wedbush, about the outlook for quantum computing. He discussed how the competitive landscape is evolving and highlighted IonQ, Rigetti Computing and Infleqtion as his top ideas across three leading quantum architectures.

Key Takeaways

• AI infrastructure spending is expected to remain supportive of semiconductor and quantum computing demand over the next year.
• The pace of AI capital spending could moderate over the longer term if enterprise adoption or productivity gains fall short of expectations.
• Investors should expect multiple quantum computing technologies to compete before a long-term industry leader emerges.
• Commercial adoption and enterprise partnerships are becoming increasingly important measures of success for quantum computing companies.
• The competitive landscape is expected to change significantly over the next several years as companies race toward commercially useful quantum computing.

Read the full transcript below:

LINDSAY: It’s time now for Hot Picks, and today we are zeroing in on three plays in the semiconductor space. It’s a sector that’s been seeing momentum on rising demand for memory chips and AI infrastructure. For more insight, let’s bring in Antoine Legault, vice president of equity research, hardware, at Wedbush. Good morning. Great to have you join us.

ANTOINE: Thanks for having me.

LINDSAY: So, let’s just kind of take a wide scope first, talk about the sector in general. Where are we right now in the semiconductor cycle, and how durable is that AI-driven demand right now?

ANTOINE: Well, we think that at least for the next year it will remain healthy. I mean, all signs are pointing to that. So we think that in the near to intermediate term, we don’t really see major risks, particularly given the ongoing spend on capex and the upcoming IPOs from OpenAI and Anthropic.

LINDSAY: Okay, near to intermediate term, but are we seeing any bottlenecks kind of that could slow down AI capex growth, maybe in the longer, longer term?

ANTOINE: That’s certainly a possibility. When we think about the capex, you know, this level of growth is certainly not something we expect to continue for, you know, five to 10 years. Clearly, we’re in sort of the thick of this capex supercycle. A lot of people are calling it kind of a once-in-a-generation event, but yes, there are things that could delay or slow down the capex spend over the next few years, particularly if there’s, you know, as we saw earlier, if AI tools and the usage that we’re seeing decreases or decelerates, or if the productivity gains are not as strong as we expect. Those are all kind of factors that could come into play in the long term.

LINDSAY: Okay, so let’s get into it then. Your first pick is IONQ Incorporated. Tell us more about why you like this one.

ANTOINE: Yeah, well, you know, when I look at our top, I’ll kind of walk you through our top three picks, and I’ll preface my comments by saying that, you know, there are currently less than 10 publicly traded, purely quantum stocks. So naturally, my top three represent, you know, over 30 per cent of the investable universe in quantum. But that said, we tend to look at the quantum space as there are various approaches and architectures being pursued to try to develop, you know, powerful quantum computers, and there’s still no consensus on which approach will win in the long term, even amongst the brightest, most distinguished quantum physicists. So far be it from me to declare a winning one today, but, you know, there are, I would say, a few leading approaches, and our view is you want to own the pure-play leader in each of these three. So that would be, as you mentioned, IONQ in trapped ion, Rigetti in superconducting, and Infleqtion in the neutral atom modality. So that’s our top three picks, so happy to give you a bit more colour.

LINDSAY: Yeah, let’s dive into these in a little more detail. So, IONQ first. Tell us about your investment kind of strategy there.

ANTOINE: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, IONQ, at this point, is a household name in quantum. You know, it’s the largest pure-play company, it’s the most global, it’ll soon be the most vertically integrated. It’s just simply hard to bet against the player with the deepest pockets in the space, and IONQ certainly has the deepest pockets in quantum.

Number two, Rigetti has made significant advancements with their superconducting systems. They have one of the fastest computers out there. They recently deployed a leading-edge system on two public cloud platforms, and, you know, we think it’s the best way to own a superconducting asset right now.

And last, but not least, Infleqtion. It’s the only publicly traded neutral atom player. They have a portfolio of quantum technologies on one platform, and they are generating the second-highest revenue levels behind only IONQ, so we see them as the leader in the neutral atom modality, and that’s how we look at the space. Look again, the space will remain very dynamic going forward. In our view, we expect the quantum landscape to look very different a year or two from now, but that’s our top three picks.

LINDSAY: Okay, I’ll ask you about that if we have time at the end, because I’m curious about that. But your second pick is Rigetti Computing. You say this is one of the earliest and most established independent developers of gate-based quantum hardware. That’s interesting. Tell us more about this one.

ANTOINE: Yeah, Rigetti is a household name too, especially in the superconducting camp. And, as a reminder, the superconducting modality is one approach or one architecture that is being pursued, I would say, globally. Right, the government of China is putting all of its eggs in one basket and trying to develop these types of systems. You’re seeing a lot of players in Europe as well, but Rigetti specifically, they’ve established themselves as the sort of leading pure-play superconducting player here in the U.S. They develop systems that are among the fastest, with gate speeds in the nanoseconds, so very close to kind of what you’ve seen in classical GPUs and CPUs today. And yeah, they’re very well managed, well run, very well capitalized, and we think that, you know, in the near term, they’ll release a 1,000-qubit system in the next year or two, which we see as a big catalyst for the company.

LINDSAY: Infleqtion is your third pick, the ticker INFQ. What opportunities do you see here?

ANTOINE: So, INFQ, Infleqtion, is certainly a leader when it comes to serving the defence and aerospace sector. They’ve made some pretty significant inroads with some large customers, like Safran in France and NASA JPL, some large aerospace and defence customers. They are also the subject of a US$100-million investment, or a proposed investment, by the U.S. government, just like Rigetti, so we, you know, we see them succeeding in the long term in that modality. And they have a platform, so not only do they sell these atomic clocks and sensors, they also are developing a quantum computer itself called the Sqale computer. They also have a software offering, so very, you know, very interesting company, a full-stack platform company, so we like them as well.

LINDSAY: Okay, lastly, I just wanted to loop back. You said the quantum space will look very different in a few years from now. I’m not sure if you can answer this in a minute, but you only have a minute, so if you want to explain what you mean by that.

ANTOINE: What I mean by that is a bit like in the early days of the model makers. You had ChatGPT being kind of ahead of the pack, and then Anthropic at some point made a very strong comeback and is now seemingly in the lead, or very close to OpenAI. And there are also other model makers challenging that lead, and we think the same will happen in quantum. And what I mean by that is we expect different lead changes to occur over the next two, three years as we close in on the end of the decade, which is when we expect quantum advantage, or, you know, quantum usefulness, to arrive and be upon us. And we think that in a few years we’ll really have a better idea of who’s ahead, who has the best systems, and who’s gaining more commercial traction.

LINDSAY: So interesting. Okay, we’ve got to leave it there. Antoine Legault, I appreciate you explaining that very quickly. Vice president of equity research, hardware, at Wedbush. Thanks so much for your time.

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This BNN Bloomberg summary and transcript of the June 26, 2026 interview with Antoine Legault are published with the assistance of AI. Original research, interview questions and added context was created by BNN Bloomberg journalists. An editor also reviewed this material before it was published to ensure its accuracy and adherence with BNN Bloomberg editorial policies and standards.