IONQ Inc

IonQ jumped roughly 12% in premarket trading on September 23 after testing the industry's first real-time quantum error decoder, then extended gains on news that its Superion quantum processor would be integrated into NVIDIA's Accelerated Quantum Research Center, with Rigetti Computing trading up in sympathy. IonQ's second-quarter revenue came in at $80 million, up 287% year-over-year, and management boosted its 2026 projection to $280-290 million, with combined revenue after closing the SkyWater foundry purchase potentially reaching $460 million for the year. The company held roughly $2 billion in pro-forma cash, cash equivalents and investments following the SkyWater acquisition, dwarfing Rigetti's approximately $540 million. IonQ's market capitalization is around $17.48 billion against combined 2026 revenue guidance of $450 million to $460 million, putting its forward price-to-sales multiple in the 39x range, while Rigetti trades at a trailing price-to-sales ratio of 391.65x. Since September 2024, insiders at IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantum Computing Inc. have collectively sold around $895.1 million more stock than they bought, and short interest stands at 10.15% of IonQ's shares versus 19.07% for Rigetti.

IonQ announced a real-time quantum error correction decoder that runs complex workloads without slowing quantum computations. The company reported new deployments at the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, integrating its hardware into NVIDIA's quantum research stack, and disclosed a partnership with SDT in South Korea to support quantum computing access for regional enterprises and researchers. IonQ said the decoder handles benchmark circuits with up to 408 logical qubits and more than 31.5 million quantum operations with just 0.02% added time, running on a single off-the-shelf CPU while the quantum system keeps operating. IonQ, a US semiconductor player valued at about $17.4b, builds quantum computing systems for clients in the United States, Switzerland, and other regions. Investors will watch how many Superion 256 deployments move from contract to installed and active systems at sites like NVIDIA's research center, FIU and SDT's data center from 2027.

MarketsandMarkets projects the global post-quantum cryptography market will grow from $0.42 billion in 2025 to $2.84 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 46.2%. The forecast is a third-party projection, not a guarantee, and timelines for quantum capability remain debated, though large infrastructure vendors have started publishing migration dates and quantum hardware companies are reporting rapid revenue growth off small bases. Among this week's developments, Vancouver-based Quantum Secure Encryption Corp. appointed Joseph Hall as Chief Intelligence Officer, adding more than 20 years of frontline cybersecurity and threat intelligence experience, with prior roles including Director of Threat Intel R&D at Infoblox and Principal Security Consultant at Fortinet; he will work with Chief Technology Officer Michael Massing, who previously led Dell SonicWall's Unified Threat Management business unit. QSE also announced grants of 350,000 stock options and 350,000 restricted share units to employees. Separately, Cloudflare announced plans to become a public certificate authority issuing post-quantum Merkle Tree Certificates with production issuance scheduled for the first quarter of 2027, IonQ reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $80.1 million, up 287% year over year, and raised its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to $450 million to $460 million, Akamai announced an $11.6 billion multi-year agreement with Anthropic to supply distributed AI infrastructure and cloud computing services over seven years, and Okta reported second quarter fiscal 2027 total revenue of $805 million, up 11%, guiding to fiscal 2027 revenue of $3.216 billion to $3.226 billion.

Bank of America initiated coverage of IonQ on September 28 with a Buy rating and a $60 price target, calling the company the largest public pure-play quantum company by revenue. The call lands as IonQ reported $80.1 million of Q2 2026 revenue, up 287% year-over-year, its strongest quarter on record and a fifth consecutive quarter of record results, with organic revenue up 132%. Management raised full-year 2026 IonQ revenue guidance to $280 million to $290 million and maintained its expectation for approximately 100% organic growth, while remaining performance obligations reached $485 million, up from $122 million a year earlier. Following its $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater, IonQ said it received its first fully integrated quantum processing units from the foundry and plans to begin commissioning 256-qubit systems in 2027, and it announced Superion 256 deployments at Florida International University and NVIDIA's Accelerated Quantum Research Center. BofA also pointed to IonQ's semiconductor-enabled approach to scaling qubit counts and its expansion across quantum computing, communications and sensing.

IonQ agreed to deploy its first on-premise Superion 256 quantum computer for Florida International University in Florida. The Superion 256 system will anchor a secure quantum research and education facility intended to serve FIU and partner institutions. The FIU hub is expected to support work in material science, artificial intelligence, health, logistics and other scientific applications using IonQ hardware. IonQ develops quantum computing systems for customers in the US, Switzerland, and other regions, so placing a Superion 256 machine at FIU gives the company a physical foothold inside an academic research pipeline that can stress test its hardware on real scientific workloads. The deployment is IonQ's first Superion 256 university installation.

IonQ announced it will deploy its Superion 256 quantum computer on-premise at NVIDIA's Accelerated Quantum Research Center, alongside an end-to-end real-time quantum error correction decoder that runs on a single off-the-shelf CPU with minimal computational delay. The deployment ties IonQ's Superion 256 hardware to CUDA Q and GB200 NVL72 infrastructure in a real on-premise environment, giving investors a concrete setting to watch whether the error correction decoder and Walking Cat architecture can scale into larger finance and chemistry workloads. IonQ's narrative projects $700.4 million revenue and $53.4 million earnings by 2029, requiring 55.3% yearly revenue growth and a $255.1 million earnings decrease from $308.5 million today, with a $68.41 fair value implying 61% upside. Before this news, the most optimistic analysts already assumed IonQ could grow revenue about 85.5% a year and reach roughly US$31.8 million in earnings by 2029. The company's biggest risk remains execution against its aggressive hardware and fault tolerance roadmap, with cash burn potentially staying high for longer than expected.

IonQ announced it successfully developed and tested what it calls the industry's first end-to-end real-time quantum error correction decoder running on a single standard off-the-shelf central processing unit, sending its shares up 12% in morning trading. The news lifted the broader quantum computing trade, with QTUM, the largest ETF tracking the sector at about $5.7 billion in assets, up 41% year to date. IonQ was the top trending ticker on the Yahoo Finance platform following the announcement. The decoder addresses one of quantum computing's central obstacles, the errors that make current systems unsuitable for commercialization, and is seen as a significant step forward for the industry. The discussion also noted that IBM has made quantum a major part of its technological push and plans to spin off its quantum unit, while government investment in the field continues.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said at Splunk's .conf26 conference that CPUs, GPUs and quantum processors will likely work together across different applications, citing error correction as an area where the technology still needs to advance. Days later, IonQ said it had tested a real-time quantum error-correction decoder running on a single standard CPU, with the system tested on simulated workloads representing up to 408 logical qubits and more than 31.5 million operations. IonQ said the decoder added as little as 0.02% to execution time under standard operating-noise assumptions, though the research used simulated workloads rather than a quantum computer operating with 408 logical qubits, so it does not establish that the technology is ready for commercial-scale deployment. Still, the test illustrates how conventional computing could handle error correction while quantum processors perform specialized calculations. INTC shares rose 1.7% Tuesday to $123.86, while IonQ has drawn renewed attention from investors following the milestone, and the next catalyst is whether IonQ can demonstrate the decoder on increasingly large, real quantum systems.

IonQ said it tested the industry's first real-time quantum error decoder, sending its shares up 12% in premarket trading and lifting the broader quantum sector, with Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum each up more than 5.5% and Infleqtion rising a similar amount. Worthington Enterprises surged about 16% after first-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue surpassed Street estimates, with CEO Joseph Hayek citing rapidly growing demand for the company's engineered American Society of Mechanical Engineers tanks used in liquid cooling systems for data centers. KB Home fell more than 1% after projecting fourth-quarter deliveries below expectations and housing gross margins of 16% to 16.6%, short of the 17.2% analysts polled by LSEG sought. Six Flags Entertainment rose 1% after a Wall Street Journal report that activist hedge fund Jana Partners was encouraging the company to explore a sale, following the fund's disappointment with Six Flags' second-quarter earnings report. Maplebear, the Instacart owner, gained more than 3% after announcing that customers on its grocery platform can use Meta's personal AI agent Muse, joining OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini as AI partners.

Worthington Enterprises shares jumped 15% after the company reported an upbeat Q1 FY2027, with revenue rising 13.2% year over year to $343.9M and organic growth reaching 7%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10% year over year, while operating cash flow rose $25.7M to $66.7M and free cash flow nearly doubled to $54M; CEO Joe Hayek highlighted rapidly growing demand for the company's engineered ASME tanks used in liquid cooling systems for data centers, and the company repurchased 335,000 shares for $18.2M and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share. IonQ climbed 11% after announcing a breakthrough in real-time quantum error correction, demonstrating an end-to-end decoder running on a single standard off-the-shelf CPU, tested across simulations of up to 408 logical qubits and more than 31.5M quantum operations with decoding overhead as low as 0.02% under standard operational noise. InnovAge Holding slipped 8% after pricing a secondary offering of 10M shares at $9.25 per share by investment funds affiliated with Apax Partners and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, with underwriters granted a 30-day option for up to an additional 1.5M shares; InnovAge will receive no proceeds from the offering, set to close on September 24. Voyager Technologies fell 6% after announcing plans to offer $350M in convertible senior notes due 2032 in a private placement to qualified institutional buyers, with purchasers able to buy up to an additional $52.5M of notes; part of the proceeds will fund capped call transactions to reduce dilution, with the remainder for general corporate purposes, and the notes mature on Oct. 15, 2032.

B. Riley Securities is maintaining bullish ratings on IonQ, D-Wave Quantum and Rigetti Computing ahead of Quantum World Congress, betting that a shift in government policy from pure research toward commercialization could open a more meaningful revenue path for the quantum-computing sector. The firm kept Buy ratings with price targets of $100 for IonQ, $40 for D-Wave and $35 for Rigetti. Analyst Craig Ellis pointed to the Department of Energy's From Lab to Market session at the September 23-25 conference as a sign that federal policy may increasingly focus on moving quantum technologies into commercial applications. The event will also feature a two-hour National Quantum Updates session with more than 10 governments, participation from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and back-to-back keynotes from Microsoft and IBM. B. Riley's thesis is sector-wide, but the report provides no fresh revenue forecasts, cash-flow estimates, technical milestones or new valuation work behind the three price targets, leaving the stocks dependent on long-term expectations rather than near-term financial evidence.

Rigetti Computing said in its latest technology update that the biggest challenge in its quantum roadmap is no longer adding more qubits but improving the performance of its flagship 108-qubit Cepheus system. During the second quarter of 2026 earnings call, management acknowledged that coherence time has become the primary bottleneck limiting two-qubit gate fidelity, even as Cepheus-1-108Q stands among only three generally available gate-based quantum computers with more than 100 qubits. The system currently operates with coherence times of roughly 25-30 microseconds, a level that constrains the reliability of quantum operations. Rigetti is directing engineering efforts toward chip redesigns, fabrication process improvements and new materials, including tantalum-capped superconducting contacts, and management expects these initiatives to gradually double or even triple coherence times over the next several years. In peer updates, Quantum Computing Inc. signed a three-year Framework Agreement with Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar covering quantum computing, sensing and communications, while IonQ secured an $8.18 million commercial agreement with Congruity360 to integrate quantum-safe networking into its enterprise data management platform.

IonQ has entered a multi-year strategic partnership with Seoul-based quantum software and technology provider SDT, Inc. The deal marks a double milestone for South Korea, delivering both its first IonQ Superion 256 quantum system and its first silicon-vacancy quantum memory module. The Superion 256 unit will be deployed for an SDT client in South Korea to anchor a collaborative effort in designing next-generation hybrid quantum-classical data centers. To support this deployment and future expansion, SDT is establishing a dedicated quantum manufacturing and integration facility in Gumi, South Korea, which will oversee the assembly, packaging, and commissioning of IonQ's SiV quantum memory modules and complete systems. SDT CEO Jiwon Yune said the Gumi facility is slated to become an active operational hub within IonQ's broader global supply chain, and noted the company's role will also extend to a separate in-country cancer center project developing hybrid quantum-classical infrastructure for medical and biomedical research with IonQ. The partnership elevates the two companies' relationship beyond cloud software integration into physical hardware production, assembly, and regional distribution, complementing IonQ's existing partnerships with Hyundai Motor Company, SK Telecom, KISTI, Seoul National University, and Sungkyunkwan University.

IonQ reported second-quarter 2026 sales of $80.1 million, up 287% from a year earlier, with part of that growth coming from a series of acquisitions and the rest from organic quantum revenue. Management estimates organic revenue will double for the full calendar year 2026, helping total sales, including acquisitions and organic growth, reach an estimated $455 million this year, a 60% increase over the company's previous guidance, though the raised full-year revenue guidance came just after IonQ completed its purchase of the chip foundry business SkyWater Technology on July 31. The company's non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $120.3 million in the second quarter from $36.5 million a year earlier, driven by expensive research and development costs and rising sales and general administrative costs, and that loss far exceeded quarterly revenue. IonQ holds cash and cash equivalents of $3 billion, giving it substantial runway despite being unprofitable, while its stock trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 51, well above the tech sector average of about 7, even after a roughly 42% share price decline over the past year.

IonQ shares jumped 10.1% in the afternoon session after the quantum computing company announced joint research with Synopsys showing that quantum algorithms accelerated industrial design simulations by up to 14.6%. According to a company press release, the work embedded an advanced quantum algorithm into Synopsys's Ansys LS-DYNA simulation software to reorganize equations more efficiently and cut calculation time for complex automotive and jet-engine simulations. IonQ said the approach helps relieve computational bottlenecks that slow classical supercomputers, and the joint paper earned a first-place Best Paper Award at IEEE Quantum Week 2026. The stock is down 13.5% since the beginning of the year, and at $40.47 per share it is trading 50.7% below its 52-week high of $82.09 from October 2025. The previous big move came 8 days earlier, when the stock dropped 4.4% after Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh lowered his price target to $52 from $61 while maintaining a Buy rating following the company's Analyst Day.

IBM and IonQ shares rallied Thursday on separate quantum computing developments. IBM's Anderon subsidiary finalized a $1 billion award from the U.S. Department of Commerce under the CHIPS and Science Act, funding research and development at a 300-millimeter quantum wafer facility in Albany, New York, with IBM committing another $1 billion to the project. IonQ, working with NVIDIA, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, developed a generative AI method for producing quantum optimization circuits that maintained a roughly 28-second generation time across tested problem sizes. The two developments mark separate areas of industry progress, with IBM expanding quantum manufacturing capacity while IonQ focuses on reducing computational demands in quantum optimization.

IonQ announced it has received four Best Paper Awards ahead of IEEE Quantum Week, known as QCE 2026, which runs Sept. 13-18. The four winning papers were selected from 857 global research submissions and represent a significant portion of the conference's 27 Best Paper honors. The awards cover joint research with QuantumBasel, NVIDIA, Synopsys, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Kipu Quantum, spanning quantum-classical hybrid systems that accelerate tasks from fine-tuning artificial intelligence models to protein folding and large-scale linear algebra. Among the winners, the Quantum Fine-Tuning for AI paper with QuantumBasel took 1st Place in the Quantum Applications Track, and the Quantum-Accelerated Linear Algebra work with Synopsys took 1st Place in the Quantum End-to-End Hybrid Case Studies Track. The AI-Accelerated Distributed Optimization paper with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NVIDIA placed 3rd in the Quantum-GenAI Co-Design and Co-Discovery Track, while the 64-Qubit Protein Folding study with Kipu Quantum placed 3rd in the Quantum End-to-End Hybrid Case Studies Track. IonQ researchers will present these four award-winning papers along with five additional accepted research papers at IEEE Quantum Week in Toronto.

Rigetti Computing reported second-quarter 2026 revenues of $5.1 million, up from $1.8 million a year earlier, driven mainly by sales of its 9-qubit Novera systems and related products. Customer concentration remains elevated, with one client contributing 64% of quarterly revenues and another accounting for 16%, while the company's $8.4 million C-DAC quantum system for India is expected to be recognized only after installation and acceptance testing in the fourth quarter of 2026. Operating expenses jumped 48% year over year to $30.3 million, including a 53% increase in research and development spending to $20.7 million, producing an operating loss of $28.1 million. Rigetti holds $541.3 million in liquidity, but management expects R&D investments and capital expenditures to remain elevated as it expands cryogenic infrastructure and fabrication capacity. Among peers, IonQ signed an $8.18 million commercial agreement with Congruity360 and launched its sixth-generation Superion 256 platform, while D-Wave Quantum finalized a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $100 million in CHIPS Act funding.

IonQ has launched Superion 256, its sixth-generation quantum computing platform and the foundation for future compute products, with customer deliveries set for 2027. The platform moved from early design to trapping ions in under a year, and IonQ fabricated its first fully integrated 256-qubit quantum processing units at its SkyWater subsidiary, with prototype Superion 256 systems now trapping ions at multiple U.S. facilities. IonQ and SkyWater jointly designed and fabricated the chip, completing six tapeouts in the first half of 2026 and cutting the design cycle to two months from nine months, while delivering 12 times more wafer lots over six months than at a previous foundry. At the core of Superion 256 is IonQ's Electronic Qubit Control, which controls trapped-ion qubits with electronics integrated directly into the chip rather than with laser systems, using the same technology behind IonQ's 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity world record in October 2025. The platform scales from 256 qubits to millions of qubits, and Superion 10K is already underway, integrating CMOS into the chip. IonQ is taking orders for Superion 256 now and pre-sold its first system in the first quarter of 2026, while production-grade systems will also run on its cloud.

IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi said on CNBC that a 2,000-qubit quantum computer could break Bitcoin's elliptic-curve encryption in under 26 days, reiterating his expectation for "Q-Day" in 2028. He noted the capability "is not here yet" but argued the timeline is compressing, citing a four-order-of-magnitude drop in qubits needed to break encryption over the past 15 years. IonQ is accelerating its path to 10,000 qubits in 2027 and plans to commission 256-qubit systems that year, after reporting Q2 revenue of $80.1 million, up 287% year over year, with full-year 2026 guidance of $280 million to $290 million. De Masi acknowledged IonQ's dual role as a quantum security solution provider, having launched the ClavisXG Multiplex QKD product, while Bitcoin traded near $79,530 and Strategy resumed buying with a $370 million purchase. IonQ shares last traded at $39.17, down 11.84% over the past month.

Quantum computing stocks rallied Tuesday after three companies secured $100 million each in U.S. government funding, while IonQ raised its 2026 revenue forecast. D-Wave, Rigetti, and Quantinuum each received $100 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce through the CHIPS and Science Act, with the government taking minority equity positions. The funding is earmarked for research and development, not immediate sales, helping recipients tackle technical challenges as they scale quantum systems. IonQ separately lifted its 2026 revenue outlook to $450 million to $460 million from $280 million to $290 million, and introduced its Superion 256 platform with customer deliveries planned for 2027. In trading, D-Wave Quantum gained 6%, Rigetti Computing rose 4%, Quantum Computing added 2.6%, and IonQ climbed 2% even as the broader market fell.

IonQ shares jumped 9.5% in afternoon trading after the quantum computing company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between $260 million and $270 million, representing over 100% year-over-year organic growth, excluding any impact from its pending acquisition of SkyWater Technology. The company also introduced its sixth-generation quantum computing platform, Superion 256, built on integrated chip-based 256-qubit quantum processing units manufactured through its partnership with SkyWater, with customer orders now open and initial deliveries planned for 2027. Additionally, IonQ secured a commercial quantum security contract worth $8.18 million with Congruity360 to deliver its Clavis quantum key distribution pairs and Solteris network appliances for enterprise data protection. IonQ shares are down 8.4% year-to-date, trading at $42.83, 47.8% below their 52-week high of $82.09 from October 2025.

IonQ has appointed two new board members, Dr. Eric Ball, a veteran finance executive, and Timothy Baxter, former SkyWater chairman and Samsung North America CEO, bringing deep capital markets and semiconductor leadership experience to its governance. The combination of Ball's large-scale financing and M&A track record with Baxter's chip industry and go-to-market expertise could be important as IonQ integrates SkyWater and scales its merchant quantum supply ambitions. The new board members do not materially change the near-term catalyst of converting government and defense programs into durable revenue, but may help with governance around execution and integration risks. IonQ's narrative projects $700.4 million revenue and $53.4 million earnings by 2029, requiring 55.3% yearly revenue growth and a $255.1 million earnings decrease from $308.5 million today, with a fair value estimate of $68.41, a 63% upside to its current price.

IonQ is strengthening its role as a merchant supplier to the broader quantum industry, most recently acquiring Nexus Photonics to add chip-scale integration of lasers, modulators and optical subsystems. The company has already been a key supplier of precision atomic clocks to quantum computing companies and government contractors, and following the $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater in May, IonQ says it has become the world's largest quantum merchant supplier. On its August 2026 earnings call, IonQ announced the Nexus Photonics deal, which supports miniaturization and mass manufacture of quantum systems and brings the company closer to data center-scale distributed quantum systems. IonQ plans to supply these critical components through the industry's first dedicated quantum photonics foundry offering at SkyWater. IonQ shares have dropped 8.1% year to date, significantly lagging the industry's 105.7% growth, and the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

IonQ's Skyloom Global announced that dozens of additional optical communication terminals have been successfully deployed on orbit, bringing the total to 84 installations. The terminals were aboard York Space Systems satellites supporting the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, launched July 16, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. This latest deployment builds on the previous OCTs launched during SDA's first Tranche 1 mission in September 2025, resulting in several dozen OCTs on orbit. The achievement represents one of the largest operational lasercomm payload footprints in low-Earth orbit.

Quantum computing stocks are entering a more demanding phase in the second half of 2026 as investors shift focus from qubit milestones to revenue visibility and commercialization. Quantum Computing Inc. reported second-quarter revenue of $5.6 million, up from $61,000 a year earlier, with a contract backlog of approximately $42.5 million, while Quantinuum's second-quarter revenue rose 279% year over year and it raised its 2026 revenue outlook to $28-$32 million. IonQ posted a 287% year-over-year revenue increase and raised its 2026 outlook to $280-$290 million, but carries a Zacks Rank #4, while D-Wave's first-half bookings surged 1,120% yet second-quarter revenue was only $3.1 million, essentially flat. Analysts' average price targets imply upside of 125.2% for Quantum Computing Inc. and 77% for Quantinuum.

Quantum computing stocks surged on Friday after second-quarter earnings reports showed significant revenue gains across the sector. D-Wave climbed 7% after BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and a $35 price target, citing an addressable market opportunity of $450 billion to $850 billion. Rigetti jumped 9% as system and component sales reached $4.1 million, up from zero a year earlier, while Quantum Computing leaped 8% after revenue rose to $5.6 million from $65,000. IQM Quantum Computers popped 7% after second-quarter revenue increased 27% year over year to $7.8 million and it guided full-year revenue of $49 million to $55 million, and Infleqtion surged 9% on a 112% year-over-year revenue jump. IonQ increased 7.5% after announcing a partnership with the Canadian Microelectronics Corporation to expand quantum computing access to Canada-based researchers and businesses.

Wall Street analysts see significant upside in three quantum computing stocks—Rigetti Computing, IonQ, and D-Wave Quantum—despite their speculative nature and recent volatility. Rigetti leads with an implied upside of about 81.4% based on a $28.81 target versus its $18.67 close, supported by a letter of intent for up to $100 million in CHIPS Act funding and a 185.3% year-over-year revenue jump to $5.14 million. IonQ posted record Q2 revenue of $80.05 million, up 286.8% year over year, raised full-year 2026 guidance to $280–$290 million, and carries a 68.19% implied upside from its $46.84 close. D-Wave's first-half bookings surged to $35.5 million from $2.9 million a year earlier, with AT&T integrating its annealing platform to cut processing time from one hour to under 15 seconds, though its implied upside is the smallest at 19.7%.

IonQ and Quantinuum are emerging as leaders in the quantum computing sector, driven by superior accuracy and strong second-quarter results. IonQ's revenue surged 287% to $80.1 million, beating estimates, with 60% from commercial customers and a backlog of $485 million. Quantinuum's revenue jumped 279% to $8 million, and its partnership with Oracle to integrate its Helios system into Oracle's cloud infrastructure is seen as a game changer. Both companies use trapped-ion technology, achieving over 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, far ahead of rivals like D-Wave and Rigetti, whose accuracy lags significantly.

Rigetti Computing reported that its first two 9-qubit systems delivered in 2026 went to commercial customers, marking a notable shift from a year or two ago when commercial demand was largely absent. Management attributed a significant portion of first-half revenue growth to commercial organizations purchasing on-premises quantum systems, while the broader pipeline now spans commercial enterprises, universities, and governments. The company's $8.4 million C-DAC order for a 108-qubit system remains on track for fourth-quarter revenue recognition, and the HPE-Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center collaboration is expected to place a full 9-qubit Rigetti system into an HPC environment in 2027. D-Wave Quantum posted $3.1 million in second-quarter 2026 revenues, essentially flat year over year, with commercial enterprises accounting for roughly 62.4% of revenues, up from 45.1% a year earlier. IonQ completed its acquisition of SkyWater Technology, creating a U.S.-based quantum foundry and strengthening its control over semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging, and supply-chain capabilities.

IonQ reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $80.1 million, up 287% year over year and 20% above its own expectations, driven by deployments of its fifth-generation quantum computing systems. The company also raised its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $280 million to $290 million, reflecting strong first-half performance. IonQ completed its $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater Technology on July 31, 2026, creating a vertically integrated full-stack quantum platform company, and received its first fully featured quantum processing units from SkyWater, which are now undergoing testing. Remaining performance obligations reached $485 million, up from $122 million a year earlier, while GAAP net loss was $1.9 billion, including a $1.6 billion non-cash warrant valuation charge. The company ended the quarter with $3.0 billion in cash and investments, and expects to begin commissioning its 256-qubit systems in 2027.

A new report from ResearchAndMarkets.com projects the global quantum computing market will grow from $1.93 billion in 2026 to $21.86 billion by 2035, a compound annual growth rate of 30.92%. The study highlights accelerating commercial momentum, including IonQ's record $80 million in second-quarter 2026 revenue and D-Wave's 1,120% bookings growth, alongside expanded cloud quantum deployments by Alphabet's Google and Microsoft. Key drivers include rising demand for high-performance computing beyond classical limits, growth of Quantum-as-a-Service platforms, and increasing government funding. North America leads the market, while optimization remains the dominant application and the banking, financial services, and insurance sector is the top end-use industry.

IonQ reported record GAAP revenue of $80.1 million for the second quarter of 2026, up 287% year over year and roughly 20% above the midpoint of its own guidance. Remaining performance obligations jumped to about $485 million, up nearly 300% from a year ago, and management raised full-year revenue guidance to $280 million to $290 million, targeting 100% organic growth in 2026. The company posted a GAAP net loss of $1.87 billion, largely due to a non-cash charge tied to remeasuring earn-outs and contingent consideration from the SkyWater acquisition, while adjusted EBITDA stood at negative $120 million. Cash, equivalents, and investments were approximately $2.0 billion pro forma after the deal. CEO Niccolo de Masi emphasized that the next race is AI plus quantum working together, citing IonQ's research on quantum fine-tuning as an energy-efficient layer on top of classical AI models.

US lawmakers from both parties are seeking to increase annual military spending on quantum computing by 68% to $567 million as part of defense funding legislation expected to be debated in the House later this year. A similar effort is underway in the Senate, building on Trump administration moves including a May announcement of more than $2 billion in direct federal investments and a June executive order to advance quantum research and protect federal IT systems from quantum-based cyberattacks. The push comes as China has established a $10 billion National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences, while Europe and the UK combined have committed nearly three times as much public money as the US, according to industry consultancy QBN. Despite recent breakthroughs, investor skepticism persists, with shares of pure-play quantum firms like D-Wave Quantum Inc., Infleqtion Inc., and Rigetti Computing Inc. falling sharply this year, though IonQ Inc. raised its full-year revenue forecast and recouped most losses after closing its $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater Technology Inc. The four pure-play quantum companies slated for Commerce Department grants have doubled their annual lobbying spending to $2.2 million, and the White House in July hosted a quantum tech summit with industry leaders.

IonQ's stock has more than quadrupled since its October 2021 SPAC debut, driven by rapid revenue growth and bullish long-term forecasts for the quantum computing market. Revenue surged from $2 million in 2021 to $130 million in 2025, and analysts project it will exceed $652 million by 2028. The company's ion-trap technology offers higher gate fidelity than older superconducting systems and does not require cryogenic cooling, helping it secure more commercial and government contracts. Despite deep losses and a valuation of 23 times projected 2028 sales, IonQ remains a leading pure play on a market that Fortune Business Insights expects to grow at a 33% compound annual rate from 2026 to 2034. Near-term gains could be limited by macro headwinds such as interest rate fears.

U.S. stock indices are mixed as weakness in software and technology stocks offsets positive economic data and strong earnings from some companies. The S&P 500 is up 0.17%, the Dow is down 0.03%, and the Nasdaq 100 is down 0.30%. Datadog plunged 15% after reporting Q2 adjusted gross margin below consensus, while AppLovin fell 19% on a revenue miss. Memory chipmakers declined after SanDisk forecast weaker-than-expected Q1 revenue. Gains were supported by better-than-expected weekly jobless claims, Q2 nonfarm productivity, and unit labor costs, along with strong results from Motorola Solutions, IonQ, Paycom Software, Ormat, and Parker-Hannifin. A Financial Times report that Fed Chair Warsh is willing to raise rates in September if inflation firms added pressure.

Several stocks made significant premarket moves following earnings reports and guidance updates. Peloton Interactive sank nearly 14% after reporting a year-over-year decline in active paying subscribers of 8.8%, despite revenue topping expectations. Moderna rose 4% after the FDA approved its mRNA flu vaccine, mFlusiva, for adults 50 and older. Versant Media jumped 5% after raising its full-year outlook and beating top and bottom lines, now expecting 2026 revenue of $6.2 billion to $6.45 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $1.9 billion to $2.05 billion. Warby Parker shed 7% after second-quarter revenue of $235.5 million missed the LSEG consensus estimate of $238 million, though EBITDA topped expectations and full-year guidance was reaffirmed. IonQ rose 3.9% on better-than-expected second-quarter revenue and full-year revenue guidance of $280 million to $290 million, exceeding the FactSet consensus of $268.6 million. Sandisk slid 10% as first-quarter revenue guidance of $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion appeared to disappoint traders, with the LSEG consensus at $10.47 billion, despite fourth-quarter beats. Figma shed 14% after full-year adjusted operating income guidance of $125 million to $135 million came in soft versus the FactSet consensus of $133.2 million. DoorDash added 4% after quarterly revenue of $4.45 billion beat the LSEG consensus of $4.34 billion. Zillow slid more than 11% after expanding CFO Jeremy Hofmann's role to include COO, while also reporting adjusted EPS of 52 cents beating estimates of 45 cents and revenue of $772 million beating estimates of $758 million, a day after announcing about 500 layoffs. Western Digital slumped more than 15% as current-quarter projections underwhelmed, calling for adjusted earnings of $4 a share on revenue of $4.1 billion, versus consensus of $3.81 a share on $4.04 billion. Salesforce fell almost 5% after naming Miguel Milano as operating chief. Duolingo tumbled 7% after current-quarter revenue guidance of $302 million missed the FactSet consensus of $303.9 million. Bumble fell 5% after posting a second-quarter loss of 84 cents per share versus an expected profit of 25 cents, and issuing third-quarter adjusted EBITDA guidance of $56 million to $60 million below the $68.7 million consensus. AppLovin tanked nearly 20% after third-quarter adjusted EBITDA guidance of $1.71 billion to $1.74 billion missed the StreetAccount consensus of $1.75 billion.

IonQ announced new collaborations with Sandia National Laboratories and EPB to advance quantum computing for national security and create a quantum communications research center. The Sandia partnership focuses on quantum co-design for U.S. national security applications, while the EPB deal establishes the Tennessee Quantum Communications Research Center, where IonQ plans to deploy what it describes as the world's first commercial Quantum Memory within an operational grid. The EPB project requires IonQ to fund $15 million over five years, adding to cash needs amid recent shareholder dilution and analyst forecasts of declining earnings. The Sandia collaboration provides access to an impartial test bed and government stakeholders, potentially differentiating IonQ against competitors like IBM, Alphabet, and Rigetti in future federal contracts.