It was the spring of 1942. America’s back was against the wall.

The Japanese Navy ruled the Pacific. Pearl Harbor was still in ruins.

In a dim basement beneath Pearl, Commander Joseph Rochefort shuffled to his desk.

A brilliant but eccentric officer, Rochefort would go days without emerging from his bunker. He often wore a bathrobe and slippers and would only take breaks to either sleep or make a fresh pot of coffee.

Rochefort, an expert Japanese linguist and cryptanalyst, was in charge of a small band of Navy intelligence staff at Station HYPO.

And for months, he had been racing to unlock Japan’s top-secret naval code.

They’d already cracked part of it, enough to glimpse bits of messages, fragments of numbers and letters. But not the full picture.

One code kept reappearing: “AF.”

One of Tokyo’s orders mentioned “AF” was running low on supplies, and that an attack was being planned there.

But what, or where, was “AF”?

Washington thought it might be the Aleutians. Others guessed Fiji.

Rochefort had a different hunch: Midway Island, that tiny atoll halfway between Asia and America.

If he was right, the U.S. could turn the tables and ambush Japan’s fleet.

If he was wrong, another defeat for the U.S. Navy could be in the cards, and the war in the Pacific might be lost.

Now, Rochefort was often misunderstood by the upper brass. But he had a believer in Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief of the US Pacific Fleet.

So, he devised a clever test to prove his theory.

Midway sent an unencrypted message, easy for Japan to intercept, claiming its freshwater system had broken down.

A day later, the Japanese transmitted a coded update. The translation read: “AF reports water shortage.”

That was it. Proof. “AF” was Midway.

Armed with that knowledge, Admiral Nimitz set a trap, and the U.S. Navy turned the tide of the war at the Battle of Midway.

The Japanese Navy never recovered.

New War, New Technology

Fast-forward to today. America is once again fighting for information dominance.

Only this time, the battlefield isn’t the Pacific. It’s the digital world.

Back then, cipher machines were misunderstood by many, but they proved key to the war effort.

In the era of hybrid warfare, the next decisive weapon could be quantum computing.

Just this week, reports emerged that the Trump administration was negotiating equity stakes in several U.S. quantum computing firms, including IonQ, Inc. (IONQ), Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI)and D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS), among others.

The Commerce Department quickly walked that back, saying it isn’t currently in active negotiations.

The bottom line here is that the market didn’t wait for confirmation. Those same quantum stocks jumped double digits on the headlines alone.

But the bottom line is Washington now views quantum technology as vital to America’s security and competitiveness, and eventually, the funding will follow.

Why? Because when quantum computing fully arrives, yes, it will unlock a new frontier for innovation – drug discovery, materials science, and artificial intelligence among them. The possibilities are truly astounding.

But it also means that the current encryption technology that protects banks, governments and cryptocurrencies could fall in seconds. And it could create a new, unbreakable class of cryptography in its place.

The U.S. government understands this. And because of this, it can’t afford to lose the race for quantum supremacy. 

So, in today’s Market 360, I’ll give a short breakdown of what quantum computing is, the companies testing it… and where investors can learn more about the stocks that I expect to profit from it. Because the reality is that the investors who understand this – and position themselves early – could reap the biggest rewards.

Understanding Quantum Computing

Imagine a computer that doesn’t think in 1s and 0s, but in every possible outcome at once.

A system so powerful it can test billions of combinations instantly, finding solutions that today’s most advanced supercomputers couldn’t solve in a lifetime.

That’s quantum computing.

These computers operate with subatomic particles such as electrons or photons. Quantum bits (known as “qubits”) allow the particles to exist simultaneously in more than one state, which increases processing speeds.

Quicker processing speeds mean that computers can tackle more complex problems, which will improve predictive analytics, pattern recognition and complex optimization tasks.

The implications here are hard to understate. While classical computers have made tremendous gains over the decades, with quantum computing, we’re talking about a complete paradigm shift. 

In other words, if you thought the innovation of the last 25 years has been mind-boggling, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Quantum computing is already being tested by the biggest names in tech — NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN).

Now, out of those companies, I expect NVIDIA to be the winner because it is quietly working on the tech that will make quantum computing possible. This tech is called quantum processing units (QPUs). Given that NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPUs) fueled the AI Revolution and helped turn NVIDIA into a $4 trillion powerhouse, I predict its QPUs will lead the quantum revolution and power NVIDIA to even greater heights.

That’s why it already has a quantum cloud simulator up and running now.

But here’s the thing…

Quantum computing has problems that even NVIDIA can’t solve alone. So, it’s going to need a partner to get there. That’s why I’ve published a special report in my Growth Investor service, giving a full rundown on quantum computing – and the company that’s helping build the chips and algorithms that will power the quantum age.

I also have a special report that reveals my favorite smaller player in quantum computing. This other stock has the chance to deliver outsized returns if it becomes the “next NVIDIA” of quantum.

I published this research because, while quantum computing is still in its early stages, the progress of innovation in this field is astounding.

It’s clearly got the attention of Washington. And it’s only a matter of time before a transformational breakthrough happens, and the rest of the Wall Street crowd catches on.

By then, it may be too late.

You can learn more about quantum – and how to get your hands on my research – by clicking here. 

Sincerely,

Louis Navellier

Editor, Market 360

The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owns the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below:

D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) and NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA)