Many big tech companies, including startups, are foraying into the emerging field of quantum computing. Out of the 300 quantum computing patents issued in 2025, two companies have received the most.
What Happened: International Business Machines Corp. and Alphabet Inc.‘s GOOGL Google appear to have made significant investments in the quantum computing space on a year-to-date basis.
According to the data shared by Martin Shkreli, there was a steep drop-off in issued patents after IBM and Google, suggesting that other companies are either smaller players or not prioritizing quantum computing as heavily.
IonQ Inc., D-Wave Quantum Inc., PsiQuantum, Quantinuum, and Intel Corp., followed the first two firms.
Furthermore, he highlighted that Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, Bank of America Corp. BAC, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM also hold quantum patents, which he describes as “big company spend.”
Large corporations often invest in emerging technologies like quantum computing to hedge against future disruptions, even if they’re not leading the field.
Shkreli also notes that companies like Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO are working on Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and quantum networking patents. QKD uses quantum mechanics to secure communications, offering theoretically unbreakable encryption.
Lastly, Shkreli suggests that Microsoft Corp.’s patent output doesn’t match its spending or public statements, implying they may be focusing more on development or partnerships rather than patenting their work.
See Also: Nvidia, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, And Alphabet’s Institutional Investors Sold 8.4 Billion Shares In Q1, Filings Reveal
Why It Matters: The evolving quantum computing space relies on qubits, which, unlike classical bits in traditional computers, can superpose and entangle 0 and 1 to solve complex problems.
While still in the development stage, many publicly listed firms are involved in their research and development. Here’s a list of a few companies and an exchange-traded fund that tracks such companies.
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