This Company’s CEO Said It Wants to Become the Nvidia of Quantum Computing. Should You Buy the Stock Now?

CEO Niccolo de Masi could be correct about IonQ’s positioning to dominate quantum computing, but I disagree. AI models demanded immense computing power. Nvidia captured the AI chip market for two primary reasons:

1. Nvidia’s GPU-based chips were a natural fit because they already excelled at efficiently performing high workloads.

2. The hyperscalers building out AI infrastructure are competing with one another. They decided that moving quickly is more important than messing around with alternatives, even if it costs more.

Like AI models and applications, quantum computing will likely operate through the cloud. That’s probably why all the cloud computing companies are developing quantum computers, too. IonQ’s cloud partners will eventually become the competition.

Even if IonQ does have the best quantum technology today, the battle will be won over the next decade and beyond, not this year or even next year. Cloud companies will likely shut IonQ out once they can implement their quantum computers into their cloud platform.

IonQ can win a piece of the market, but it seems unlikely to dominate it like Nvidia in AI accelerator chips.

It isn’t easy to justify buying a nearly $12 billion market cap stock when the business it represents generates only $43 million in revenue. Yes, you’re investing in the future, but it’s a murky future with many potential pitfalls.

The same research from Boston Consulting Group estimates the market opportunity will be just $1 billion to $2 billion before 2030. If that were accurate and IonQ captured the entire opportunity — an unrealistic outcome — the stock trades at six to 12 times revenue it won’t generate for five years.

None of this discussion can even begin to speculate on IonQ’s profit margins or when the business might turn a profit.

The stock can make sense as a long-term bet and a small component of a diversified portfolio, but only at the right price. There isn’t much supporting its $11.8 billion market cap, so now is not the time to buy.

IonQ stock has traded under $7 per share within the past year, which shows how volatile these risky stocks can be. Investors should wait for the stock to fall a ways before circling back.

Before you buy stock in IonQ, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and IonQ wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $651,761!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $826,263!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 978% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 170% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

This Company’s CEO Said It Wants to Become the Nvidia of Quantum Computing. Should You Buy the Stock Now? was originally published by The Motley Fool