Quantum Stocks Today (Dec. 9, 2025): IonQ, Rigetti, D‑Wave and Arqit Cool After Huge 2025 Rally

New York — December 9, 2025 — After one of the wildest years on record for quantum computing stocks, U.S.-listed pure‑play names took a breather on Tuesday as traders digested fresh earnings, analyst calls, insider moves and leveraged ETF activity.

IonQ, Rigetti Computing, D‑Wave Quantum, Arqit Quantum and Quantum Computing Inc. — along with the leveraged ETFs that track them — ended the session mostly flat to modestly lower, even as the broader narrative around quantum heading into 2026 turned more bullish.

At the same time, new research from Zacks highlighted IonQ and D‑Wave as key stocks to watch into 2026, while a high‑profile Evercore ISI “buy” on D‑Wave and fresh hedge‑fund filings for IonQ, Rigetti and D‑Wave underscored just how institutional this once‑niche trade has become. ^[1]

Below is a roundup of how U.S. quantum stocks traded today (December 9, 2025), and the most important news, forecasts and analysis investors are reacting to.

How U.S. Quantum Stocks Traded on December 9, 2025

Pure‑play U.S.-listed quantum names were mostly in consolidation mode after massive runs over the last 12–24 months:

IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) closed around $54.35, essentially flat on the day.
Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) ended near $27.90, off roughly 1–2% from Monday’s close.
D‑Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) slipped to about $27.99, also down around 1–2%.
Arqit Quantum (NASDAQ: ARQQ) fell more sharply, closing near $28.94, down a bit over 2%. ^[2]
Quantum Computing Inc. (NASDAQ: QUBT) bucked the trend with gains, ending around $13.21, modestly higher on the session.

These mild moves come after eye‑popping multi‑year gains. For example, Statmuse data shows IonQ has returned roughly 313% over the last two years, far outpacing even gold’s triple‑digit gains over the same period. ^[3]

D‑Wave is up more than 220% year‑to‑date, while Rigetti has surged about 3,750% since January 2023 and D‑Wave around 1,770% since January 2024, according to recent coverage of hedge‑fund and insider activity. ^[4]

Big‑Picture: Wall Street Turns From “Science Project” to 2026 Milestone Trade

A widely read Zacks Analyst Blog published this morning, carried by Nasdaq, argued that 2025 marked a turning point for quantum: big‑tech operators finally put more concrete roadmaps and hardware on the table, and private capital followed. ^[5]

Key developments highlighted there include:

IBM unveiling a new IBM Quantum data center and a multi‑year path toward fault‑tolerant systems, which helped convince investors that the company’s timetable is more than marketing. ^[6]
Amazon Web Services (AWS) rolling out its first in‑house quantum chip, Ocelot, designed to cut error‑correction overhead by up to 90%, potentially speeding the path to practical machines. ^[7]
Honeywell’s Quantinuum raising about $600 million at a near‑$10 billion valuation and securing a DARPA quantum benchmarking contract, underlining strong private‑market conviction. ^[8]
Google’s 105‑qubit “Willow” chip reportedly achieving a verifiable quantum advantage on a molecular‑simulation task, with performance roughly 13,000× faster than classical supercomputers — one of the first widely cited “real‑world” quantum applications. ^[9]

In that same note, Zacks singles out IonQ and D‑Wave Quantum as pure‑play stocks entering 2026 with stronger roadmaps and growing customer traction, while stressing that true fault‑tolerant systems remain years away and that quantum equities should still be treated as high‑risk, high‑reward bets. ^[10]

Company‑by‑Company: Today’s Most Important Quantum Stock Headlines

IonQ (IONQ): Hedge‑Fund Buying and Aggressive 2026 Growth Forecasts

Price today: ~$54.35, roughly flat.

Fresh institutional interest. A new MarketBeat alert shows Jump Financial LLC disclosed the purchase of 152,368 IonQ shares, bolstering the list of hedge funds taking positions in the name. ^[11]

That same filing recap notes:

A consensus “Hold” rating across Wall Street.
A consensus price target around $66, implying meaningful upside from current levels. ^[12]

Fundamentals and roadmap. Zacks’ quantum outlook piece highlights just how quickly IonQ has scaled through 2025: ^[13]

Q3 revenue up ~222% year‑over‑year, beating the top end of guidance by about 37%.
A record 99.99% two‑qubit gate fidelity and the achievement of its “#AQ 64” performance target three months ahead of schedule, meaning its “Tempo” system can tackle a dramatically larger computational space than many commercial superconducting rivals.
After a major $2 billion equity raise, IonQ is said to hold roughly $3.5 billion in pro‑forma net cash to fund its full‑stack platform build‑out.

Zacks currently rates IonQ a Rank #3 (Hold) but models 2026 earnings growth of about 66% on 69% sales growth, underlining how much future revenue growth is already priced into the stock. ^[14]

Other commentators remain divided: some recent articles argue IonQ may be “yesterday’s news” relative to cheaper quantum rivals, while others pitch it as a potential “millionaire‑maker” given its 12‑month gain of about 67%. ^[15]

D‑Wave Quantum (QBTS): New “Buy” Rating, Insider Sale and Big Upside Targets

Price today: ~$27.99, modestly lower.

Evercore ISI starts coverage with a bullish call. A detailed note from 24/7 Wall St. reports that Evercore ISI initiated coverage of D‑Wave today with a $44 price target, framing the stock as a “leading” and “well‑funded” player positioned near a potential sector inflection point. ^[16]

The article points out that D‑Wave has rallied more than 50% from its November lows, even as quantum names remain highly volatile and pre‑revenue or early‑revenue in many cases. ^[17]

CFO sells into strength — but still owns a big stake. A separate TipRanks piece notes that after D‑Wave’s 220%+ year‑to‑date gain, the company’s CFO filed a Form 4 showing 400,000 shares sold over two days in early December. Even after the sale, the CFO reportedly still holds roughly 1.58 million shares, and analysts as a group keep a “Strong Buy” consensus with an average price target around $39.40, implying about 46% upside from roughly $27. ^[18]

Long‑term story. Zacks’ analyst blog stresses that D‑Wave’s Advantage2 annealing system — a 4,400+ qubit machine — is now generally available and already generating triple‑digit revenue growth, including a €10 million, 50%‑capacity system deal with a European quantum alliance and deployment at a major U.S. defense subcontractor. ^[19]

For 2026, Zacks models sales growth of about 61% and positive earnings growth, again underscoring how much future progress is baked into current valuations. ^[20]

Rigetti Computing (RGTI): Citadel Buys the Spike, Zacks Flags Q3 Stumbles

Price today: ~$27.90, down modestly.

Ken Griffin’s Citadel takes a stake. CoinCentral reports that Citadel Advisors, led by billionaire Ken Griffin, bought 51,700 Rigetti shares in Q3 2025 along with 122,600 D‑Wave shares, marking a notable hedge‑fund endorsement of the quantum theme. ^[21]

That same article emphasizes just how extreme valuations have become:

Rigetti shares are up about 3,750% since January 2023.
D‑Wave is up around 1,770% since January 2024.
Rigetti trades at roughly 1,080× sales, and D‑Wave around 325×, levels the article describes as raising “unsustainable valuation” concerns, even as Wall Street still sees roughly 42% median upside for RGTI and about 48% for QBTS over the next year. ^[22]

Mixed fundamental picture. Earlier this year, Rigetti announced a 99.5% fidelity milestone on a modular 36‑qubit system, an important step toward more scalable architectures. ^[23]

But a new Zacks note today (which is partially behind an anti‑bot wall) frames Rigetti’s latest Q3 results and a missed DARPA “Phase B” milestone as setbacks that have investors asking whether to “hold or fold.” ^[24]

Put together, the story around RGTI on December 9 is one of high expectations, steep valuations and rising execution risk.

Arqit Quantum (ARQQ): Tiny Revenue, Big Encryption Ambitions

Price today: ~$28.94, down more than 2%.

Fiscal 2025 results and 2026 outlook. Before the market opened, Arqit released detailed fiscal‑year 2025 numbers: ^[25]

FY 2025 revenue: $530,000, in line with prior guidance.
Revenue heavily back‑loaded, with $463,000 in the second half vs. $67,000 in the first.
Income came from seven contracts, including two multi‑year deals with telecom operators and five with government, defense and enterprise clients.
Executed contracts are expected to generate about $1.2 million in FY 2026 revenue, providing a baseline before new business.
Operating costs averaged about $2.5 million per month, and Arqit ended fiscal 2025 with $36.9 million in cash and equivalents.

CEO Andy Leaver framed 2025 as a year of “bottoming and return to growth,” pointing to 12 new demonstration and test licenses signed in the two months after year‑end, particularly in telecom and government. ^[26]

A TipRanks summary today classifies Arqit as a “Hold” with a $46 price target, notes an AI “Spark” rating of Neutral, and flags that weak financials and valuation concerns offset improving technical momentum. ^[27]

Strategically, Arqit is positioning itself as a quantum‑safe encryption play, combining its symmetric key agreement platform with “Encryption Intelligence” tools acquired from Ampliphae to help enterprises detect weak cryptography and migrate to post‑quantum secure architectures. ^[28]

Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT): High‑Beta Sidecar to the Quantum Trade

Price today: ~$13.21, modestly higher.

QUBT is far smaller than IonQ, Rigetti or D‑Wave in market cap, but it has been one of the more explosive names in the space. A recent feature on AOL highlighted that while IonQ’s stock price is up about 67% over the past year, QUBT has climbed more than seven times that percentage, underscoring how speculative flows have migrated into smaller quantum names as the trade matured. ^[29]

The same coverage emphasizes that insiders have been quietly accumulating QUBT shares, framing it as a higher‑risk but potentially higher‑beta way to express a bullish view on quantum’s long‑term adoption.

Leverage, ETFs and Options: How Speculation Is Amplifying Quantum Moves

The quantum theme is no longer just about picking one or two individual stocks; it’s also increasingly expressed through leveraged ETFs and options markets.

QPUX: 2× Daily Long Pure Quantum ETF

An August launch from Defiance ETFs, QPUX (Defiance 2X Daily Long Pure Quantum ETF), offers 2× daily leveraged exposure to an equal‑weighted basket of IonQ, Rigetti, D‑Wave and Quantum Computing Inc. ^[30]

The portfolio is rebalanced daily, maintaining equal weight across the four names.
The fund uses swaps and listed options to achieve 200% daily exposure to the underlying “pure quantum” portfolio.
The sponsor explicitly warns that QPUX is designed for experienced traders, and that over periods longer than a day it can lose money even if the underlying stocks rise, due to compounding and volatility drag. ^[31]

IONZ: 2× Daily Short IonQ ETF Reverse Split Effective Today

On the other side of the trade, the Defiance Daily Target 2X Short IONQ ETF (IONZ) — which seeks twice the inverse of IonQ’s daily move — executed a 1‑for‑6 reverse split effective before the open on December 9, 2025, according to OCC and Nasdaq Trader notices. ^[32]

The reverse split consolidates shares and adjusts listed options deliverables, but doesn’t change the fund’s underlying strategy: delivering twice the opposite of IonQ’s daily performance. It’s another reminder that short‑side leverage in quantum is now widely accessible.

Options Frenzy in IONQ, RGTI and QBTS

TipRanks reported last week that bullish options activity drove double‑digit intraday gains in IonQ, Rigetti and D‑Wave, with: ^[33]

IonQ seeing roughly 12.5% stock gains and nearly 50,000 call contracts traded — more than double its 20‑day average.
Rigetti up about 13.6% with 65,000+ calls traded, almost equal to its full 20‑day average call volume.
D‑Wave climbing around 13%, aided by positive Evercore commentary and a sharply lower put/call ratio, showing traders leaning heavily bullish.

That options‑driven rally is part of why today’s relatively calm price action looks more like consolidation after a surgethan the start of a meaningful breakdown.

Smaller Capital Flows: Stock Trend Capital and Sector‑Wide ETFs

Beyond the headline names, smaller investment firms are also reshuffling toward quantum:

Stock Trend Capital, a micro‑cap investment company listed in Canada, issued an update today outlining plans to deploy up to $1 million into quantum technology and mining investments, signaling continued interest from speculative capital pools. ^[34]
An ETFTrends piece today framed quantum computing as a “relatively young” investment thesis, noting that some related stocks have been embraced “at a fever pitch” by retail investors and suggesting that diversified funds may help filter the noise. ^[35]

What Today’s Action Says About Quantum Stock Risk and Opportunity

Pulling all of this together, here’s what December 9, 2025 tells us about the quantum trade:

The technology narrative is getting stronger…
Big‑tech milestones (IBM’s data center, AWS’s Ocelot chip, Google’s Willow demonstration) and rising government and enterprise contracts suggest quantum is moving closer to real‑world use cases, not further away. ^[36]
…but valuations already reflect a lot of success.
Rigetti at roughly 1,000× sales and D‑Wave at several hundred times sales, with price targets still implying 40–50% upside, highlight how much optimism is embedded — and how quickly these stocks can rerate if execution slips. ^[37]
Volatility is structural, not a bug.
Leveraged ETFs like QPUX and IONZ, extremely active options markets, and high‑profile insider transactions (like D‑Wave’s CFO sale) all amplify daily swings. These are not buy‑and‑forget blue chips; they’re instruments that can move 10–20% in a single session on headlines or flows. ^[38]
Execution risk is real.
Zacks’ cautionary take on Rigetti’s weak Q3 and DARPA miss, and TipRanks’ neutral stance on Arqit due to its tiny revenue base and heavy cash burn, show that not every quantum stock will grow into its valuation — or survive. ^[39]
A barbell approach is emerging.
Many analysts suggest pairing small, speculative allocations to pure‑play names like IONQ, RGTI, QBTS, ARQQ and QUBT with broader exposure to large‑cap enablers (IBM, Amazon, Google, Microsoft) that are integrating quantum into existing cloud and AI franchises. ^[40]

Takeaways for Investors Following Quantum Stocks Today

Today’s modest pullback looks more like digestion than reversal. After massive 2025 rallies and a recent options‑fueled spike, a quiet session with small declines is unsurprising.
Fundamentals are improving — especially for IonQ and D‑Wave — but are still early‑stage. Revenue bases remain small, and timelines to fault‑tolerant systems are uncertain.
Leverage cuts both ways. The rise of QPUX, IONZ and heavy options trading means gains can be spectacular — and losses just as fast.
Stock‑specific risk is high. Items like Rigetti’s DARPA setback or Arqit’s tiny revenue vs. cost base can quickly reshape the story for individual names.
Diversification and position sizing matter. Many analysts and research notes emphasize treating quantum exposure as a small, speculative sleeve within a broader portfolio rather than a core holding. ^[41]

Important: This article is for information and news purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, stock recommendations or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Quantum stocks and leveraged products are highly volatile and can result in rapid losses. Always do your own research and consider speaking with a qualified financial adviser before investing.