7 Billionaires Are Betting Big on This Quantum Computing Powerhouse -- and It's Not IonQ or D‑Wave

Do you want to know the best way to invest in the next big thing? Looking at what the so-called "smart money" is doing is a great place to start.

Quantum computing certainly deserves a spot on the short list of the top candidates to be the next big thing. It holds the potential to be one of the most transformative technologies ever, accelerating advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and revolutionizing drug discovery, financial modeling, materials research, and more.

The smart money appears to agree on the best way to invest in quantum computing. Seven billionaires are betting big on one quantum computing powerhouse -- and it's not IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) or D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS).

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Seven billionaires, one quantum common denominator

If you check out the portfolios of most billionaire investors, you won't find IonQ or D-Wave Quantum listed among their holdings. But there's a good chance you will find another quantum computing pioneer: Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL).

The late, great Charlie Munger called Li Lu "the Chinese Warren Buffett." He even let Li manage a significant chunk of his own family's fortune. What's the top holding in Li's Himalaya Capital Management portfolio? Alphabet. Himalaya's stake in the Class A and Class C shares of the tech giant totaled over $1.59 billion at the end of 2025.

Speaking of Buffett, he regretted not buying Google stock earlier in his career. However, he remedied this mistake last year before stepping down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA) (NYSE: BRKB). Berkshire now owns more than $7.1 billion of Alphabet's shares.

The man who some believe would love to be the next Buffett in the investing world, Bill Ackman, is also a fan of Alphabet. His Pershing Square Capital Management hedge fund owns only 12 stocks. Two of them are Alphabet's Class A and Class C shares.

Four other billionaires have also invested heavily in Alphabet. The stock ranks as the top holding in Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Management fund. Ken Griffin's Citadel Advisors portfolio increased its stake in the stock by roughly 56% in the fourth quarter of 2025 to $913 million. Israel "Izzy" Englander's Millennium Management owns $840 million in Alphabet shares. Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management has $2.1 billion invested in the stock.

Why the smart money loves Alphabet

Admittedly, these seven billionaires almost certainly haven't placed such big bets on Alphabet primarily because of its quantum computing initiatives. They probably prioritize the company's ability to generate solid growth and strong cash flow, as well as its competitive moats.

Alphabet stands at the forefront of multiple key technologies. Its Google Cloud unit is the fastest-growing of the big three cloud service providers. Google Gemini is a top-tier AI model. Alphabet's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) have emerged as a legitimate challenger to Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) market-dominating AI chips. The company's Waymo unit is the leader in autonomous ride-hailing.

However, Alphabet is also one of the key players in the rapidly advancing quantum computing arena. In 2019, its Google Quantum AI team achieved quantum supremacy, when a quantum computer solved a problem that would have taken a classical computer an inordinately long time. Google Quantum AI also demonstrated the first logical qubit prototype in 2023, showing the potential for quantum error correction.

Last year, the company's Willow quantum processor achieved another breakthrough. It became the first quantum computer to successfully run a verifiable algorithm that was beyond the ability of the fastest available supercomputer to handle.

Follow the leaders?

Should investors follow in the footsteps of these seven billionaires and invest in Alphabet, too? It isn't smart to buy any stock solely because another investor has, regardless of how successful that investor may be. However, understanding the underlying reasons wealthy investors buy a stock and agreeing with those reasons is a different story.

I think Alphabet offers investors a way to potentially profit from quantum computing without taking on the significant risk of buying pure-play stocks like IonQ or D-Wave Quantum. That's not to say that these other stocks won't be big winners over the long term. But Ackman, Buffett, Chase, Englander, Griffin, Laffont, and Li didn't become billionaires by betting the farm on high-risk propositions. Investors who aren't super-wealthy don't have to do so either to still make money from what could be one of history's most impactful technologies.

Keith Speights has positions in Alphabet and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Berkshire Hathaway, IonQ, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.