Cryogenic, Control & Photonic Components

Bank of America initiated coverage of IonQ with a Buy rating and a $60 price target, putting the quantum computing firm in focus on Monday. Shares fell 0.8% in premarket trading. Analyst Vivek Arya wrote that IonQ has used recent M&A to accelerate its quantum-compute roadmap and expand into quantum networking, security, sensing, space and foundry services, adding nearer-term products and revenue, enterprise and sovereign customer relationships, and additional commercialization paths while fault-tolerant computing develops. Arya noted that the recently closed SkyWater acquisition adds an operating merchant-foundry business while bringing process development, wafer fabrication and advanced packaging in-house to support and accelerate future Superion systems built with semiconductor manufacturing. He added that IonQ's Superion 256 system, comprised of the electronic qubit control from Oxford Ionics and SkyWater fab and packaging, replaces much of the optical complexity seen in silicon manufacturing.

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.

At the 2026 Hangzhou Apsara Conference held on September 22, Alibaba's T-Head unveiled the self-developed AI chip Zhenwu V900, boosting computing power to three times that of the Zhenwu M890. A single cluster can scale to 500,000 cards. The chip is scheduled for volume production and market launch in the first quarter of 2027, and will be deployed at scale first in Alibaba Cloud data centers. Alibaba also announced that the Qwen4 large model, based on a new-generation architecture, is already in training, and future versions such as Qwen4.5 and Qwen5 will expand to 5 to 10 trillion parameters. Alibaba Cloud aims to operate more than 20 gigawatts of global data center capacity by 2032. T-Head also publicly revealed for the first time the update roadmap for its Yitian series server CPUs, completing a full-stack self-developed product portfolio spanning computing, storage, and networking. On the same day, the State Administration for Market Regulation pushed forward the formulation of a batch of national standards for core quantum devices, releasing two new national standards, the Technical Specification for Quantum Squeezed Light Sources and the Test Method for Performance of Periodically Poled Lithium Niobate Quantum Frequency Conversion Devices, and newly approving four national standard projects. Li Chao, deputy director of the Policy Research Office of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the commission's September press conference that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will push the BeiDou industry to exceed 1 trillion yuan in scale within five years, achieve new breakthroughs in marketization, industrialization, and internationalization, and accelerate the introduction and implementation of the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Satellite Navigation. A report released by the China Electricity Council on September 22 shows that China's electrification rate has surpassed 29 percent and will rank first among major global economies by 2030. An Omdia report shows that global semiconductor revenue exceeded 425 billion US dollars in the second quarter of 2026, up 31.4 percent quarter on quarter. An IDC report shows that in the first half of 2026, the global market size for industrial-grade quadruped robot applications grew 125.1 percent year on year.

IBM finalized a $1 billion Commerce Department award for its Anderon subsidiary, adding federal backing to its domestic quantum-chip manufacturing push. The company is putting another $1 billion of its own capital behind Anderon's 300-millimeter Albany foundry, taking the disclosed funding package to $2 billion before counting previous investment at the site. Early wafers are already moving through production, targeting superconducting qubits alongside the signaling and readout hardware needed to connect them, with more quantum architectures expected to follow. Shares fell 0.5% to $228.46, a price 5.91% below IBM's GF Value estimate of $242.80. Washington is covering half of the newly disclosed $2 billion commitment, but IBM has not disclosed outside customers, purchase commitments, expected utilization or revenue targets for the foundry.

CUbIQ Technologies and Coherent Corp. announced a successful proof-of-concept quantum key distribution demonstrator that puts a CV-QKD transceiver in a standard QSFP-28 pluggable form factor running alongside Coherent 200G FR4 OSFP56 optics. The link was tested over an NVIDIA DGX Spark host system via its ConnectX-7 interface with no changes to the existing network, and the companies say the pluggable approach cuts power consumption, cost and footprint by a factor of 100 compared with conventional rack-based QKD systems. CUbIQ said the module derives keys from the quantum properties of the optical signal itself, so an interception attempt leaves a measurable fingerprint and compromised keys are detected and discarded before use. CUbIQ CEO Aaron Albores Mejia said the work with Coherent proves quantum-safe networking can be demonstrated on the AI infrastructure operators are already deploying. The demonstrator is being shown at ECOC 2026 in Málaga, Spain, from 21 to 23 September 2026 at Booth 1051 in the Dutch Pavilion, and the two companies said they are also working toward a next generation of secure, high-capacity optical pluggable transceivers.

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.

Anderon, an IBM subsidiary, finalized a $1 billion research-and-development award from the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The funding will support Anderon's efforts to advance quantum wafer manufacturing at its facility in Albany, New York, where a 300-millimeter quantum wafer foundry serves customers across the quantum industry. IBM has put up $1 billion of its own money alongside the federal award, and production is underway with quantum wafers already in process. The Anderon award is part of a broader $2 billion package distributed across nine quantum computing companies under the CHIPS and Science Act, with GlobalFoundries in line for $375 million and D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, and Infleqtion each expected to receive $100 million; each of the nine firms will give the federal government a minority ownership stake in exchange for the funding. The finalization follows a letter of intent between IBM and the Commerce Department announced in May, and last week Rigetti Computing, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantinuum each finalized $100 million deals with the department. IBM stock fell 3.3% on Wednesday and has declined nearly 19% this year.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that two of its research and development projects have been selected through a public solicitation by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, or NEDO, for support under an initiative to advance quantum computing and other information technology in the post-5G era. The NEDO project is officially known as the Research and Development Project to Strengthen Post-5G Information and Communication System Infrastructure, Accelerating the Development and Demonstration of Next-Generation Quantum Computers to Solve Societal Issues. Following the selection, Mitsubishi Electric will launch its two projects aimed at scaling up quantum computers: Research and Development of Multi-Qubit-Control Laser Systems, and Development of Ultra-Compact, Multi-Channel, Low-Noise Amplifier Modules for Large-Scale Superconducting Quantum Computers. The company said quantum computers are expected to revolutionize computing infrastructure by enabling larger-scale simulations and optimization than conventional computers in fields including medicine and drug discovery, finance, logistics and energy. Because qubits are fragile and highly susceptible to noise, technologies that combine multiple qubits are needed to correct errors, making scaling to the level of one million qubits a key challenge.

IBM is expanding its quantum computing footprint by establishing a new quantum innovation hub at ETH Zurich in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, with plans to bring an IBM Quantum System Two to the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre in Lugano. Under an offset agreement with armasuisse, Switzerland's Federal Office for Defense Procurement, IBM will operate the quantum computer, powered by its Quantum Nighthawk processor, supporting research in chemistry, materials science, optimization and financial services while giving Swiss businesses, startups and academic institutions access to the technology. IBM will also support quantum education through courses, certifications, workshops and hackathons. The Lockheed Martin collaboration will explore quantum technologies for aerospace and defense through two planned joint development projects, one examining quantum sensing for navigation and another targeting improvements in additive manufacturing involving metallic alloys. The venture strengthens IBM's long-standing relationship with ETH Zurich and supports a new 10-year effort to develop foundational algorithms for AI and quantum computing.

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.

Xanadu Quantum Technologies and ASML have announced a collaboration to develop advanced lithography processes for Xanadu's photonic quantum hardware, aiming to reduce optical losses in quantum computing chips and accelerate the path to utility-scale quantum computing. The partnership will explore how lithography innovations can improve patterning control and lower-loss photonic structures, addressing the technical challenge of optical loss influenced by line edge roughness. Xanadu's CEO, Dr. Christian Weedbrook, emphasized the importance of fault tolerance and error correction, while ASML's Stan Baron expressed enthusiasm for supporting next-generation photonics applications. This collaboration marks a significant step for Xanadu in advancing its photonic quantum technology and solidifying its position in the semiconductor and quantum computing ecosystem.

GlobalFoundries has finalized a definitive agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce's CHIPS Research and Development Office for a $375 million award to accelerate its Quantum Technology Solutions business, which aims to scale domestic quantum semiconductor manufacturing. The company is eligible to receive up to $375 million over five years, tied to achieving specified milestones. Shares rose more than 3% pre-market. This award is separate from a previously announced $300 million letter of intent for silicon photonics R&D. The agreement supports establishing a secure U.S.-based ecosystem for quantum chip development and manufacturing.

IBM announced today that it has completed its acquisition of HRL Laboratories, a leading research and development institution specializing in quantum computing, quantum sensing, advanced communications, electronics, manufacturing, and materials science. The deal brings together HRL's expertise in silicon-spin qubits with IBM's leadership in superconducting quantum computing, and adds capabilities in quantum sensing, quantum materials, cryogenics, control electronics, packaging, and interconnect technologies expected to strengthen IBM's quantum hardware roadmap. IBM's roadmap includes its fault-tolerant quantum computer IBM Quantum Starling, expected by 2029 to perform 100 million quantum operations, followed by Blue Jay, its next-generation fault-tolerant quantum computer targeted for the mid-2030s. HRL's silicon-based quantum technologies will also support collaboration with Anderon, IBM's pure-play quantum wafer foundry, to advance scalable manufacturing. Boeing and General Motors, HRL's former owners, will continue to partner with IBM and HRL on quantum applications and advanced technology development. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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).

Quantum Computing Inc. reported second-quarter revenue of $5.6 million, more than 9,000% higher than the $61,000 it posted a year earlier, according to its SEC filing. Revenue grew 51% from the first quarter's $3.7 million, driven by photonics product sales across government, educational, and commercial customers. Net loss narrowed to $11.8 million from $36.5 million a year earlier, helped by a shrinking paper loss on warrant derivatives, while the company ended the quarter with a $42.5 million order backlog and $1.3 billion in cash. The quarter also included the acquisition of NHanced Semiconductors, which launched a second chip fabrication facility and contributed to a 114% rise in operating expenses to $21.8 million. The stock traded near $9 on Friday, Aug. 21, part of a rally that lifted seven quantum computing stocks, including D-Wave Quantum, Rigetti Computing, IonQ, Infleqtion, IQM Quantum Computers, and IBM.

IBM has integrated two modular cryogenic systems into a shared environment, marking a significant engineering milestone toward building a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer. The new cryogenic architecture provides the ultra-low-temperature environment needed for quantum computing while offering greater capacity for wiring and processor connections, and the company's L-coupler technology will enable separate quantum chips to communicate and operate together. IBM plans to install its Quantum Nighthawk processors in the new cryogenic modules later this year for performance testing, aiming to connect multiple processors to support a quantum computer with at least 1,000 programmable qubits, with future modules expected to accommodate thousands of qubits. The modular design will allow IBM to test and upgrade different components independently, helping improve system performance and speed up development, as the company targets launching Quantum Starling, its planned fault-tolerant quantum computer, by 2029. IBM faces competition from Microsoft, which is advancing its Majorana 2 chip for scalable quantum computers, and Alphabet, whose Google Quantum AI division is developing advanced quantum processors and error-correction technologies.

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.

GlobalFoundries reported second quarter 2026 revenue of $1.786 billion, up 9% sequentially and 6% year-over-year, exceeding the high end of its guidance. Non-IFRS gross margin reached approximately 29.9%, up 470 basis points year-over-year, and the company guided third quarter revenue to $1.885 billion plus or minus $25 million with gross margin of approximately 30.5%. Communications infrastructure and data center revenue surged 62% year-over-year, driven by silicon photonics and silicon germanium demand, and the company now expects full-year 2026 growth of 50% to 60% for that end market, up from prior expectations of high 30s percentage growth. CEO Timothy Breen highlighted a $375 million U.S. Department of Commerce grant for quantum manufacturing, a $300 million award for silicon photonics development, and the completion of the Synopsys ARC processor IP acquisition, while CFO Sam Franklin announced a quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share payable October 9, 2026.

Thailand has announced the launch of Quantum Club Thailand, a national collaboration platform that brings together the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, Charoen Pokphand Group, Arise, True Corporation, QTRic, and qBraid from the United States. The initiative aims to transform the country from a technology user into a creator and a quantum hub for the ASEAN region. The platform is guided by four strategic missions: workforce development, research acceleration, industry upgrading, and innovation creation. It features three flagship projects: Quantum Academy Thailand, Quantum Industry Lab, and Quantum Innovation Challenge. In the initial phase, the focus will be on expertise in quantum optimization, quantum simulation and digital twin, quantum AI, and quantum security. Professor Dr. Yotsanan Wongsawat, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, stated that quantum technology will be a key mechanism for enhancing the country's competitiveness, and this collaboration represents a step beyond the risk that many organizations are still hesitant to invest in. Mr. Suphachai Chearavanont, Chief Executive Officer of Arise Ventures Group and Chairman of True Corporation, emphasized that the heart of the transition is people, not technology, and that Thailand must shift from being a follower to a co-creator of innovation.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said quantum computing could begin making a measurable contribution to the company's revenue and profit by 2028 or 2029. Speaking on CNBC's Mad Money, Krishna stated that by the end of the 2030s, IBM is now pretty convinced the technology represents a trillion dollars of value. IBM and quantum startup Algorithmiq also unveiled research demonstrating quantum advantage, with Krishna noting the technology revealed previously unobserved material behaviors that could advance battery technology, new materials, fusion energy, and drug development. IBM is increasing its investment in quantum chip manufacturing, including plans for a standalone quantum chip foundry backed by a one-billion-dollar commitment from the U.S. Department of Commerce through CHIPS incentives, matched by another one billion dollars from IBM. Krishna also addressed the company's recent stock sell-off, saying about 40 percent of delayed capital spending deals have already closed in three to four weeks, signaling a deferral rather than a destruction of business.

QTREX Quantum announced that its proprietary printed coaxial quantum interconnect platform exceeded the RF performance requirements established by its strategic partners during qualification. The characterization measured continuous broadband transmission from 10 MHz through 20 GHz with no resonance, crosstalk suppression of at least 68 dB, average channel-to-channel skew of 4.4 picoseconds above 1 GHz, and group delay spread of just 2 picoseconds. Manufacturing consistency showed insertion-loss variation of only 0.33 dB and characteristic impedance variation under 0.3 ohms. CEO Dagi Ben-Noon stated the results remove a critical technical barrier and validate the platform’s readiness for commercial application development, positioning QTREX uniquely in the quantum connectivity market.

A new report from ResearchAndMarkets.com finds that private investment in quantum technology accelerated to approximately US$4.9 billion in 2025, a 192% year-on-year increase, while cumulative investment since 2012 exceeded US$65 billion. The Quantum Investment Report & Company Directory 2026 profiles 313 companies across quantum computing, hardware, software, sensing, and communications and security, including Infleqtion, IQM, Xanadu, Pasqal, and Quantinuum, which filed for a potential US$20 billion initial public offering. Government funding remains central, accounting for an estimated 65% to 75% of total investment, and the report compares national quantum programs across more than a dozen countries. The 342-page publication also analyzes investment by technology subsector, application area, and region, and provides a market forecast through 2036.

The artificial intelligence in spintronics market is projected to expand from $1.84 billion in 2025 to $2.42 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 31.2%. Further projections show the AI in spintronics market soaring to $7.11 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 30.9%. Growth is driven by rising adoption of spintronic memory devices, increased investment in quantum computing, demand for high-speed data processing, semiconductor industry expansion, and magnetic materials research. North America leads the market as of 2025, while Asia-Pacific is poised for the fastest growth. Major companies such as TDK Corporation, Samsung Electronics, and Intel Corporation are developing advanced neuromorphic computing components to improve efficiency and reduce power consumption.