As investors approach the end of 2026 and look ahead to 2026, some are using this time to make resolutions regarding their finances and portfolios. If you have cash to invest in the stock market, money you don’t need for short-term obligations like bills, there are plenty of quality stocks vying for your attention and offering the opportunity to invest.
When investing for the long term, you should focus on quality companies that you would feel comfortable buying and holding shares in for at least three to five years, or even longer. If you’re looking for top growth stocks to buy that could easily see an upside in 2026 and well beyond, here are two names to consider.
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IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) is a pure play quantum computing business. If you’re not familiar with it, the company builds quantum computers using unique trapped ion technology, which uses individual ions (charged atoms) manipulated by lasers to perform calculations. This method offers high precision and can operate at room temperature, setting IonQ apart from its quantum computing competitors, which often use expensive, cryogenically cooled superconducting systems.
IonQ makes its quantum computers available through third-party cloud platforms, including AmazonIt is (NASDAQ:AMZN)AWS Amazon Support, Microsoftof Azure Quantum, and AlphabetIt’s Google Cloud. A significant portion of IonQ’s resources are dedicated to R&D to improve the performance, precision and scalability of its quantum systems. Through strategic acquisitions, IonQ is expanding into quantum networking, security and sensing applications while striving to achieve its goal of creating a comprehensive quantum platform.
IonQ’s revenue streams aim to make its quantum power accessible and applicable to real-world problems. Its main source of revenue is selling access to its quantum computing power on a usage or subscription basis through cloud partnerships and its own cloud service. IonQ also earns revenue from the sale of specialized quantum computing hardware systems to selected customers such as government laboratories and research institutes, as well as associated maintenance and support services.
The company has also secured contracts with various entities (e.g., the US Air Force Research Laboratory and AstraZeneca) for research collaborations, technology development partnerships and consulting services to co-develop algorithms for specific applications such as materials science or drug discovery.
IonQ exceeded its revenue guidance in the third quarter of 2025, thanks in part to recent strategic acquisitions like Oxford Ionics and Capella Space, and generated revenue of $39.9 million. This represents a 222% year-over-year increase. Despite a loss-making business, IonQ ended the quarter with a strong cash and investment position of $1.5 billion.
Perhaps the most notable development of the quarter was that IonQ achieved an algorithmic Qubit score of #AQ 64 on its fifth-generation IonQ Tempo system, three months ahead of its original year-end schedule. #AQ is a benchmark that measures a quantum computer’s ability to run practical algorithms. Reaching #AQ 64 means the system can evaluate more than 18 quintillion possibilities simultaneously.
But what does this mean for practical, real-world applications? Well, on the one hand, reaching #AQ 64 means that IonQ’s quantum computers can solve problems that classical supercomputers can’t. This includes concrete improvements in areas such as drug development and discovery, financial modeling, logistics/supply chain optimization and much more.
Quantum computing is a disruptive technology that could generate trillions in economic value. This is a market that is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 30% or more through 2035. IonQ’s recent push into quantum networking could also expand its addressable market in the long term. For risk-tolerant investors, this growth stock could be an attractive buy for the next decade and beyond.
Amazon remains a powerhouse in e-commerce, cloud computing and other key growth areas that continue to make this company an attractive business to buy and hold. The company’s total revenue for 2024 was more than $638 billion, and its net profit nearly doubled from $30.4 billion in 2023 to $59.2 billion in 2024. The company is investing aggressively in infrastructure, particularly for artificial intelligence applications, and Amazon plans to double its data center power capacity by 2027.
AWS is the company’s most profitable business and a key driver of overall growth. AWS’ third-quarter 2025 revenue grew 20% year-over-year to $33 billion, and generated an annualized run rate of $132 billion. High demand for AI-related services is a key growth catalyst driving a significant infrastructure backlog.
Advertising services are emerging as a high-margin and fast-growing segment for Amazon, with advertising generating nearly $18 billion in revenue in the third quarter alone, a 22% increase from the previous year. The introduction of ads on Prime Video and the expansion of connected TV present significant future opportunities for Amazon to strengthen its presence in the lucrative advertising space.
Of course, it still remains the core business of online retail, which continues to show solid revenue growth. In the third quarter of 2025, online store revenues totaled approximately $67.4 billion, and third-party seller services brought in $42.5 billion. These two segments achieved growth of 8% and 11%, respectively, compared to last year.
The Prime subscription service bundles fast shipping and digital content, and creates a powerful customer loyalty network that strengthens Amazon’s entire retail ecosystem, as well as its entertainment segment.
Additionally, Amazon is integrating AI into virtually every facet of its business, from physical warehouse robots to the digital shopping experience, as management aims to capitalize on operational efficiency and growth in high-margin services.
For example, Rufus, Amazon’s AI-powered generative shopping assistant, is fully integrated into the e-commerce mobile app and allows customers to discover products through natural language conversations. Amazon uses AI to personalize search results, product descriptions, and even online store sessions for individual shoppers based on their intentions and behavior. Increasingly effective agentic capabilities enable robots in its distribution centers like Proteus and Vulcan to understand natural language commands and act autonomously to handle complex tasks.
Amazon is developing its own AI chips, Trainium3 and Inferentia, to reduce the costs of training and deploying AI models compared to traditional GPUs. And AWS’s Amazon Bedrock service lets businesses build their own AI applications using a choice of foundational models, including Amazon’s new Nova family.
Keep in mind that we are still in the early stages of the growth potential that AI stands to unlock, and Amazon stands to be a direct beneficiary of this trajectory. Long-term investors would do well to start or add to a position in this dynamic growth stock.
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Rachel Warren holds positions at Alphabet and Amazon. The Motley Fool holds positions and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, AstraZeneca Plc, IonQ and Microsoft. 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.
