IonQ, Inc. (IONQ - Free Report) has recently been on Zacks.com's list of the most searched stocks. Therefore, you might want to consider some of the key factors that could influence the stock's performance in the near future.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned -30.7%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's -1.2% change. During this period, the Zacks Computer - Integrated Systems industry, which IonQ falls in, has lost 18.5%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.
Revisions to Earnings EstimatesRather than focusing on anything else, we at Zacks prioritize evaluating the change in a company's earnings projection. This is because we believe the fair value for its stock is determined by the present value of its future stream of earnings.
Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.
For the current quarter, IonQ is expected to post a loss of $0.30 per share, indicating a change of +91.6% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate has changed -38.6% over the last 30 days.
The consensus earnings estimate of -$1.26 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of +30.8%. This estimate has changed -40.3% over the last 30 days.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $1.17 indicates a change of +7% from what IonQ is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +19.4%.
Having a strong externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool, the Zacks Rank, offers a more conclusive picture of a stock's price direction in the near term, since it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. Due to the size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, IonQ is rated Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.
In the case of IonQ, the consensus sales estimate of $145.29 million for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +264.4%. The $455.01 million and $810.73 million estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +250% and +78.2%, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryIonQ reported revenues of $80.05 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +286.9%. EPS of -$0.33 for the same period compares with -$0.7 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $66.36 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +20.63%. The EPS surprise was -13.79%.
Over the last four quarters, the company surpassed EPS estimates just once. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationNo investment decision can be efficient without considering a stock's valuation. Whether a stock's current price rightly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects is an essential determinant of its future price performance.
Comparing the current value of a company's valuation multiples, such as its price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), to its own historical values helps ascertain whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, whereas comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of how reasonable its stock price is.
The Zacks Value Style Score (part of the Zacks Style Scores system), which pays close attention to both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics to grade stocks from A to F (an A is better than a B; a B is better than a C; and so on), is pretty helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
IonQ is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about IonQ. However, its Zacks Rank #4 does suggest that it may underperform the broader market in the near term.
While quantum computing holds significant promise as a transformative technology that could improve pharmaceutical discovery, materials science, and artificial intelligence (AI), many quantum computing stocks have failed to deliver lately.
Take IonQ (IONQ -3.47%) and D-Wave (QBTS -3.88%), for example. Their share prices are down 29% and 54% year to date, respectively, despite the companies being widely considered among the top in quantum computing.
So, where can investors find a quantum computing stock winner? Here's the surprising part: You need to look slightly outside conventional quantum computing stocks and choose Microsoft (MSFT -2.23%).
Here's why it's a good quantum computing stock and why it could be a winner next year.
Image source: Getty Images.
How Microsoft is tackling the quantum computing market I know Microsoft isn't the first company people think of when talking about quantum computing, but it's making significant moves in this space that are worth considering.
First, Microsoft developed a topological superconductor, which it calls a topconductor, that is capable of producing more stable qubits (the units of computation for quantum computers). Microsoft then pairs that with its own chip architecture, called Majorana, to help scale those qubits, with the goal of eventually reaching 1 million qubits on a single chip.
The company recently made new advancements with Majorana, releasing the second iteration of its chip architecture, which it says yields a 1,000x improvement in qubit stability.
This is important because all quantum computing essentially has the same endgame: to create a fault-tolerant computer that can scale large enough to solve problems traditional computers can't solve.
But Microsoft's work in this area is more than just theoretical. The company already offers some quantum computing processing to customers through its Azure cloud computing services. The Azure Quantum service is already used by researchers now and could expand further in the coming years.
And this is where I think Microsoft has an advantage over pure-play quantum computing companies. Microsoft's Azure Cloud reached $100 billion in annualized revenue in fiscal 2026, as customers relied more on its artificial intelligence cloud services.
AI will drive Azure sales for years as the AI cloud market is estimated to reach $2 trillion by 2030, according to Goldman Sachs. Growth in Microsoft's cloud business and other services allows it to invest in quantum computing technologies without the same risks that IonQ, D-Wave, or other quantum computing companies face.
And because Microsoft is highly profitable -- it had $19.6 billion in free cash flow in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2026, ended June 30 -- investors don't need to worry if the company will have enough runway to continue operating (which is nearly a concern with some other quantum companies).
MSFT Microsoft$521.08-$11.87 (-2.23%)
NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/22/26
Why Microsoft stock could perform well in 2027 Microsoft's Q4 2026 was its best quarter in 28 years, with revenue rising 18% to $90 billion and operating income rising 18% to $40.6 billion.
The growth was fueled by Azure's accelerating AI revenue, and as I mentioned earlier, it's continuing to grow. Microsoft's management says Azure revenue will rise by 45% in fiscal 2027. Investors will get a glimpse of its growth when the company reports its Q1 results on Oct. 28.
Microsoft's ability to tap into the expanding AI cloud space has helped push the company's share price up more than 20% over the past six months, with the initial surge happening right after the company reported its Q4 results.
There's no guarantee Microsoft stock will continue to climb, of course. But Microsoft is a leading cloud computing company with 21% of the global market, surpassed only by Amazon at 28%, according to Synergy Research Group. The combination of the increasing demand for AI cloud computing and Microsoft's strong position in this space suggests that the company's sales and earnings will continue to benefit from this segment.
And with Microsoft continually expanding its quantum computing technologies and already integrating them into its Azure platform, Microsoft is in a unique position to benefit from two of the most significant technologies to emerge in decades.
Investors view quantum computing as the next frontier hardware play in the wake of artificial intelligence. Many companies in the sector are building quantum computers using different technologies. This makes it difficult to know which of the myriad approaches will prevail as the tech moves from research circles to widespread adoption.
Take IonQ (IONQ -3.47%) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI -4.73%). The former develops ion-based quantum devices, while the latter employs superconducting machines.
Both offer reasons to invest, so which is the better choice? I decided to buy shares in IonQ. Here's a look at each company to help you evaluate them.
Image source: Getty Images.
A look at Rigetti Computing
Rigetti Computing boasts several strengths. It is a vertically integrated, pure-play quantum computer company, laser-focused on superconducting machines, the prevailing industry modality used by tech giants, including IBM. Its capabilities encompass in-house control over the entire end-to-end quantum computer construction process, from chip design and manufacturing to the software that operates the system.
To generate revenue, the company provides access to its quantum machines via the cloud and sells them. In a sign that Rigetti's tech shows promise, the company was awarded $100 million by the U.S. Department of Commerce in September. It's also working with Hewlett-Packard to integrate quantum devices into current supercomputers to create a hybrid computing solution.
$11.48-$0.57 (-4.73%)
NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/22/26
Rigetti is experiencing sales growth in 2026. Its second-quarter revenue reached $5.1 million, up from $1.8 million in 2025.
Despite the substantial increase, Rigetti remains deeply unprofitable. Its Q2 operating loss totaled $28.1 million, up from $19.9 million in 2025, an indication that costs to run its business are rising.
Rigetti's cash burn would be a concern if not for a substantial stockpile of cash, cash equivalents, and investments totaling $541.3 million as of the end of Q2. This sum and the $100 million government award can sustain operations in the short term as it evolves its technology to achieve greater customer adoption.
The case for IonQ
IonQ's ion-based quantum computers are slower than Rigetti's superconducting approach, but possess the world record for fidelity, a measure of the accuracy and reliability of quantum calculations. While speed is important, the output is only helpful if it's accurate, making fidelity a critical success metric.
This accuracy contributed to the company gaining traction with customers. Its Q2 revenue hit $80.1 million, a sum that not only exceeds Rigetti by a wide margin but is also nearly double the second-quarter sales of all other pure-play quantum computer companies combined.
This is no fluke. IonQ has grown revenue every year since it became a public company in 2021. It expects that trend to continue in 2026, with forecast sales between $280 million and $290 million, more than double 2025's $130 million.
IONQ IonQ$31.16-$1.12 (-3.47%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/22/26
Also, IonQ's platform is robust. Its acquisition of SkyWater Technology this year gives it a foundry for the construction of its quantum computer chips. On Oct. 12, IonQ announced it was acquiring cybersecurity business Elisity to strengthen its quantum cryptography.
That said, IonQ's aggressive acquisition strategy has produced rapidly rising costs. It exited Q2 with an operating loss of $337.2 million compared to a loss of $160.6 million in 2025.
IonQ's cash, cash equivalents, and investments totaled a substantial $3 billion at the end of Q2, but ideally, it will look to rein in its acquisitions. The deal for Elisity involves stock valued at up to $1.3 billion, which presents a significant dilution impact for shareholders.
Rigetti or IonQ?
Between Rigetti and IonQ, I think the latter is the better investment. The reason I chose to buy IonQ stock is that it shows a consistent trend of rising revenue, indicating that customers value its technology.
Moreover, Rigetti's share price is sky-high compared to IonQ's, and that's after its price-to-sales ratio has steadily declined throughout 2026.
Data by YCharts.
As the chart shows, Rigetti's sales multiple is more than six times IonQ's, suggesting the latter is the better value. This, combined with IonQ's far larger revenue, comprehensive platform, and a hoard of cash and investments totaling $3 billion on its balance sheet, positions the company for long-term success.
While Rigetti's sales in the first half of 2026 hit $9.5 million, which already exceeds 2025's total revenue of $7.1 million, that sum pales in comparison to IonQ. Until Rigetti can show it can meaningfully increase revenue and sustain that trend over time, its superconducting tech is at risk of being overshadowed by deeper-pocketed rivals such as IBM.
IonQ (IONQ -3.47%) is one of the most popular quantum computing pure plays for a reason. It has incredible technology, and its latest quantum computer model will launch early next year. This could kick-start more interest in quantum computing if it's successful, and a handful of preorders are already lined up.
This bodes well for the stock, but how much upside does it have? Could it make you a millionaire? Let's check the math.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
IonQ could deliver huge growth For any stock to be called a millionaire maker, I think its return threshold should be set at 100x, meaning it could transform a $10,000 investment into $1 million. That's a high bar to clear, but the quantum computing revolution could be huge.
There are at least nine different technological approaches to make the qubits that sit at the heart of a quantum computer, the most common of which involves using superconducting circuits.
That's not the one IonQ is pursuing. Instead, it's using trapped ion qubits; each one is made from a single charged atom, held in place by electromagnetic fields. This technology offers better accuracy than superconducting qubits, but it's slower. However, given that insufficient accuracy is one of the major problems with quantum computing, this approach makes sense. IonQ currently holds the world record for the most accurate quantum computing technology, and it is building its innovative 256-qubit system around it. IonQ is expected to launch that system in early 2027, and it could be a decent revenue driver, further inching the company toward becoming a self-sustaining business.
$31.16-$1.12 (-3.47%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/22/26
By 2035, McKinsey & Company estimates that the quantum computing industry could grow to be worth up to $72 billion annually.
Let's assume the market reaches that lofty projection in 2035 and make the further assumption that IonQ captures 100% of it. If it grows to deliver an impressive 50% profit margin (in line with the margins being delivered by Nvidia, the current king of computing units), that would result in $36 billion in annual profits. If we apply an earnings multiple of 30 to that figure, we get a $1.08 trillion company.
Currently, IonQ has a market cap of about $11.7 billion. So if all the assumptions in that ambitious projection come true, that would mean just over a 90x return.
So even under that highly optimistic bull case, I don't think IonQ has what it takes to deliver a 100x return within a decade. However, I still think it could generate market-beating returns if its quantum computing technology pans out, and over the long term, that could help you build a million-dollar portfolio.
COLLEGE PARK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), the world's leading quantum platform and foundry, today announced that the company will release its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, on Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, after the financial markets close. IonQ will host a conference call at 4:30 PM Eastern Time that same day to discuss its results and business outlook. The call will be accessible by telephone at 1-888-349-0106 (domestic) or 1-412-902-0131 (international). T.
IonQ (IONQ -4.38%) is a leader among the pure-play quantum computing cohort -- and for good reason. It looks much more like a real business than some of its peers, and if it can successfully deliver on its promise, its upside could be significant.
But an exciting young technology doesn't automatically make for a good investment, especially when so much of its promise remains unproven.
So, what might a $1,000 investment in IonQ stock made today be worth five years from now? Let's take a look.
Image source: Getty Images.
Quantum computing's promise faces serious engineering challenges The smartphone or laptop you're reading this on stores and processes information using bits -- 0s and 1s. Quantum computers process data with "qubits" -- quantum bits that are governed by deeper and more counter-intuitive physical laws than we deal with in our everyday lives.
Qubits can temporarily exist in "superposition," holding states that are neither 1 nor 0, but complex probability amplitudes. I won't try to explain that further -- but suffice it to say that this means that quantum computers perform calculations in a fundamentally different way from traditional ones. That difference will allow them to solve problems that are either extremely difficult or impossible for a classical supercomputer to handle in any useful amount of time.
The expectation is that this could lead to breakthroughs in materials science, drug development, and logistics, among many other fields.
In short, the ability of qubits to behave in ways that ordinary bits don't could be a very big deal.
But this technology is mostly still unproven, at least on any scale that matters. Qubits are hard to get a handle on, and they are extremely sensitive to any outside interference, which makes quantum computers prone to errors. Every player in the space is highly focused on the problems of error mitigation and error prevention.
There's also a question of scale: Building a system with enough qubits operating together to be useful, and also getting them to perform reliably, is a serious engineering challenge.
Of course, the potential payoff is huge -- much bigger than just "a faster computer" -- which is a common misconception. Real, practical quantum computing could help us solve currently unsolvable problems and would represent a massive leap forward in human technology.
$30.87-$1.42 (-4.38%)
NYSE · As of 2:56 PM ET 10/22/26
How IonQ's trapped-ion quantum computers work There are numerous ways to make a qubit, and it's far from clear at this point which versions of the technology will deliver most effectively.
IonQ builds its systems around trapped-ion qubits. It uses electromagnetic fields to "trap" individual electrically charged atoms (ions) in place in a vacuum, and then uses lasers to cool and manipulate them. This approach has the major advantage of making the qubits highly stable -- at least relatively. The downside is that it is generally harder to scale than some other approaches.
IonQ's revenue is growing, but losses remain steep Though the technology is still a long way from maturity or real commercial viability, IonQ already has a business. Sales reached $80.1 million in the second quarter, up 287% from a year earlier.
The company sells its early quantum computers and rents access to them via the cloud, but they have real limitations and are largely only useful for research at this point. After a string of acquisitions, the company now also sells quantum networking, security, and sensing equipment, along with space-grade hardware.
Its largest acquisition just closed in July: chip manufacturer SkyWater Technology. That deal helped boost its full-year revenue forecast by about $170 million to between $450 million and $460 million.
Of course, the top line is only half the picture. IonQ's operating loss reached $337 million in Q2, far exceeding its sales. It does have a strong balance sheet, however, with about $2 billion in cash and investments left over after the SkyWater acquisition.
What could IonQ stock be worth in 2031? So what could IonQ look like five years from now?
A bullish scenario IonQ makes real progress, and its systems are starting to be used in real-world work. Demand grows across its product lines. Sales grow at 50% annually, reaching $3.5 billion in 2031. The company is closer to profitability but continues to operate in the red as it scales. A bearish scenario Its quantum computers are still mostly relegated to research and experimentation. Sales of its other product lines grow, but at a much slower pace. Revenues grow at 15% annually, reaching $915 million in 2031. The company is still operating deep in the red, and management uses dilutive stock sales to cover the funding gap. I suspect that practical quantum computing is still much further off than the bullish scenario assumes, and I see IonQ looking more like the latter case five years from now. And in this scenario, I think investors won't be willing to pay the same sort of multiple they are now.
And that multiple is already an issue. Even after a stock price decline of more than 50% from the 52-week peak it hit early this summer, IonQ is trading at a lofty price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of more than 45.
Assuming a more bearish case prevails, I'd expect that to contract to maybe 10 times sales.
In that case, accounting for further dilution from likely stock sales, I think IonQ shares will be worth about $15 five years from now, which means a $1,000 investment made today would be worth just $487.
Of course, I could be very wrong. Quantum computing tech could progress much faster than I believe. But people have been claiming that useful quantum computers would be here in just a few years for the past decade or two.
Here's a common misconception: Quantum systems are basically just much faster computers. In reality, what makes this technology so promising isn't really about how fast or powerful they are. In fact, quantum computers are much worse at the sorts of computations your smartphone performs billions of times every day.
What makes quantum computing exciting is its potential to tackle different kinds of problems that are impractical or impossible for normal computers to solve on time frames short enough to be useful -- even very fast supercomputers. A tool that could perform those types of calculations could help us discover and create brand new materials, amazing drugs, better batteries, and all sorts of amazing -- and valuable -- things.
Image source: Getty Images.
Then why wouldn't I want to invest $1,000 in IonQ (IONQ +3.26%), one of the leading companies attempting to develop quantum computing technology? Here's why.
IonQ's revenue growth
Unlike some of its pure-play competitors, IonQ does already have a real business. Its sales reached $80.1 million in the second quarter, up 287% from a year earlier. The company sells its early quantum computers and rents access to them via the cloud -- although these systems are still mostly research tools -- and acquisitions have expanded its business into networking, security, and sensing equipment.
$32.28+$1.02 (+3.26%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/21/26
And its massive acquisition of chip manufacturer SkyWater Technology, which helps it integrate vertically into a one-stop quantum shop, means the company now expects full-year revenue of $450 million to $460 million.
IonQ's growing sales come with steep losses
IonQ is spending heavily to develop its technology. Prior to the SkyWater deal, IonQ's operating losses reached $337 million in the second quarter, more than four times its revenue. SkyWater's business was operating near breakeven, so that ratio should look better when its results are included, but the point is that its core business remains seriously unprofitable.
On a cash basis, the company is losing about $450 million annually, so the $2 billion in cash and investments it has on the books gives it a tough four-year runway to reach profitability.
Why I'm bearish on IonQ stock
This really all comes down to a question of when quantum technology will be ready to take off. The difference between the systems the company sells today and a commercially viable and reliable quantum computer is massive. That doesn't mean that researchers at some of the companies pursuing that goal won't get there, but I think there's a tendency among investors and some insiders to downplay just how much work remains to be done.
I think investors have gotten ahead of themselves, particularly given that the stock trades at a price-to-sales ratio above 40, and it could be a decade before it reaches its primary goal. In the meantime, while IonQ's top line will grow, it will continue to burn cash, eventually forcing it to sell more stock and dilute shareholders. With all that in mind, I think its multiple will compress significantly, and the stock will eventually trade at much lower prices than it's listed at today.
IonQ keeps shattering revenue records while its share price sits near a 52-week low, and that contradiction raises a question worth answering before the next quarterly report forces the market to pick a side.
IonQ (NYSE:IONQ | IONQ Price Prediction) trades at $31.27, well below the level that analysts and the company’s growth rate point to. Shares have fallen 47.83% over the past year while revenue keeps setting records, and that gap is the reason to take a fresh look.
IonQ makes trapped-ion quantum computers. It has also expanded into networking, sensing and security, and into chipmaking through its $1.8 billion SkyWater Technology acquisition. It was the first public quantum company to top $100M in annual GAAP revenue. The stock still slid 20.09% in the past month.
Record Quarters and Raised Guidance Widen the Gap With a $31 Share Price Second-quarter revenue reached $80.05M, up 286.8% year over year and ahead of the $66.42M consensus. Adjusted EPS of -$0.33 beat the -$0.5987 estimate. IonQ has exceeded revenue estimates in all six reported quarters. It also raised 2026 guidance to $280M-$290M, and that range excludes SkyWater. Remaining performance obligations rose to $485 million from $122 million a year earlier.
Shares rose as much as 13% after IonQ demonstrated what it called the industry’s first end-to-end real-time quantum error decoder. Deployment of its 256-qubit systems remains on track for the first half of 2027. None of the revenue from the Anduril and Sandia relationships is in backlog or guidance yet.
Heavy Losses and Falling Estimates Could Keep Shares Under Pressure Quarterly operating income came in at -$337.2M, and stock-based compensation alone ran $141.8M. Analysts project a 2026 loss of $4.03 per share. Over the past 30 days, 2027 estimates drew four downward revisions against one upward.
At 50.59 times trailing sales, the valuation leaves little room for error. IonQ is absorbing SkyWater, Nexus Photonics, Oxford Ionics and Vector Atomic at the same time. Last quarter, Point72 and Cerberus exited their positions.
SkyWater’s First Combined Numbers Could Settle the Debate Management has not yet given combined guidance. About $120 million of intercompany SkyWater spending will be eliminated in consolidation, which makes the next few reports harder to read. Clean combined guidance with steady cash burn would favor buyers. A slip in the 256-qubit timeline would favor sellers. Until then, $1.24B in cash and minimal debt give IonQ room to execute.
Analysts See Roughly 105% Upside as Shares Trail the S&P 500 IonQ trades below its 50-day average of $40.76 and its 200-day average of $42.92. Its 52-week range runs from $25.89 to $73.65, and its beta is 3.361. Analysts’ consensus target stands at $64.06, suggesting 104.86% upside. Targets are one data point, and they carry no guarantee for a stock this volatile. Here is how the 14 covering analysts rate it:
Strong Buy: 1 Buy: 11 Hold: 2 Sell: 0 Year to date, IonQ is down 30.31% while the S&P 500 is up 12.78%. Over one year, the comparison is -47.83% against 14.56%.
IonQ’s Fundamentals Outrun the Selloff Ahead of Key Tests At $31.27, IonQ faces near-term tests that could reset the stock.
The first test is the third-quarter report. Consensus calls for revenue of about $141.2 million and a loss of $0.80 per share. Combined guidance that supports SkyWater adds to growth would ease the biggest uncertainty weighing on the stock.
The second test is 256-qubit commissioning in the first half of 2027. Analysts already expect 2027 revenue of about $808 million. Meeting the hardware schedule would back that estimate up with working machines.
The stock now stands closer to its 52-week low than its high, even after a string of record quarters. A guidance cut, a hardware delay or sharply faster cash burn would break the case. For investors trying to spot the next monster run in frontier tech early, we reverse-engineered what the biggest winners looked like years before the headlines in a free playbook here.
At $31.27, the stock trades well below the consensus analyst target while revenue continues to set records.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
IonQ, Inc. (IONQ - Free Report) ended the recent trading session at $31.26, demonstrating a +1.56% change from the preceding day's closing price. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.28%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 1.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq depreciated by 0.02%.
Heading into today, shares of the company had lost 24.02% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 2.28% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.67%.
The upcoming earnings release of IonQ, Inc. will be of great interest to investors. The company is predicted to post an EPS of -$0.3, indicating a 91.62% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $145.29 million, up 264.41% from the year-ago period.
IONQ's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of -$1.26 per share and revenue of $455.01 million. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +30.77% and +249.97%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for IonQ, Inc. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 40.28% lower within the past month. IonQ, Inc. is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
The Computer - Integrated Systems industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 56, finds itself in the top 23% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
Classical computers process information using bits, generally illustrated by 0s and 1s. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, to tackle extraordinarily complex calculations that today's supercomputers struggle with. Quantum computing is promising to transform critical industries such as drug discovery, materials science, cybersecurity, and financial services. Naturally, investors are looking for the next big winner in this pocket of the artificial intelligence (AI) realm.
IonQ (IONQ +2.63%) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI +0.51%) are two of the most closely followed pure-play quantum computing stocks. The catch is that neither company has built a consistently profitable business because commercially useful quantum computing remains years away.
Meanwhile, Alphabet (GOOGL -1.54%) (GOOG -1.62%) has achieved some important breakthroughs in the quantum computing landscape. Let's break down what makes Alphabet a unique player in the quantum landscape to understand why the stock looks like an interesting buy right now.
Image source: Getty Images.
IonQ and Rigetti have enormous financial risk
On the surface, it might look like IonQ has made impressive progress in expanding its quantum computing platform. The company has spent the last few years rounding out its business to include quantum hardware, networking, and cybersecurity. During the second quarter, IonQ's revenue surged 287% year over year to approximately $80 million. However, some of that growth reflects acquisitions rather than organic growth from the original operation.
Acquisitions can be expensive, particularly when companies issue stock to finance the transactions. On Oct. 14, IonQ announced a $2 billion equity offering involving common shares and warrants. I suspect the raise is meant to fund product development and further acquisitions. Whatever the case, the opportunity cost for investors is the risk of dilution.
Rigetti faces a different challenge. During the second quarter, the company generated just $5.1 million in revenue while reporting an operating loss of $28.1 million. The company's revenue remains small and lumpy, making it difficult to predict when the business might reach profitability.
Investors considering a position in IonQ or Rigetti Computing need to weigh their upside potential against continuous operating losses, uncertain commercialization timelines, and the likelihood of future shareholder dilution.
Google's latest quantum breakthrough could be a game changer
On Oct. 15, Google's Quantum AI division announced a breakthrough involving its Willow quantum processor. The development addresses one of quantum computing's biggest challenges: error correction. Quantum computers are extremely sensitive machines. Google demonstrated a technique called magic state cultivation, which reduced errors by 40x compared with earlier testing.
This breakthrough doesn't mean Google has built a fully functional, commercially useful quantum computer. However, it represents important progress toward machines capable of performing sophisticated calculations more reliably. Moreover, Google has an advantage over its smaller competitors in that the company can afford to keep experimenting.
GOOGL Alphabet$338.89-$5.29 (-1.54%)
NASDAQ · As of 3:29 PM ET 10/20/26
Alphabet stock looks like a magnificent long-term buy
Alphabet currently trades at a 23 times forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio. While that might not look like a bargain, investors are purchasing a profitable technology giant with multiple opportunities to expand earnings through 2030.
Alphabet already operates several profitable businesses across Google Search, YouTube, Android, and Google Cloud. These operations provide the financial flexibility to support ongoing research that might not generate meaningful revenue for several years.
Nevertheless, quantum computing is yet another component of Google's technology stack that could complement Gemini, custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), and enterprise cloud infrastructure. Unlike IonQ or Rigetti, Alphabet doesn't need investors to assign a premium valuation to businesses generating relatively little revenue and no profits. Instead, its established operations can support continued research while investors benefit from existing earnings power.
For now, the operating losses, financing needs, and uncertain revenue trajectories of IonQ and Rigetti make them heavily speculative investments. On the other hand, Alphabet offers exposure to new quantum technology without depending on its immediate success.
Combined with the company's robust profitability, expanding AI ecosystem, and reasonable valuation, I see Alphabet as the best quantum computing stock to buy and hold through 2030.
IonQ Inc. NYSE: IONQ bulls may have balked when the market responded to the company's mid-October announcement that it would acquire cybersecurity provider Elisity by sending shares plunging by 9%.
IonQ Today
$31.50 +0.72 (+2.34%)
As of 01:19 PM Eastern
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$73.65$63.33
Nonetheless, the response makes sense: investors are likely concerned about the dilutive impact of the deal, particularly in combination with a concurrent $2-billion equity offering, given the potential that the acquisition could increase the number of IONQ shares by a substantial margin.
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IonQ's offering includes warrants for 100 million shares exercisable over a seven-year period. While these could be worth close to $7 billion in total to the company, they would also increase its share count by about 20% over current levels, significantly diluting existing shareholders' stakes. Combine this with a major employee retention package built into the Elisity deal, and it's clear that the stakes for the acquisition are high.
The question for investors will be whether IonQ's decision to lean into cybersecurity at the potential cost of shareholder value will lead to greater technological developments, an advantageous position in an evolving industry, and, ultimately, revenue growth.
What Expansion Into Cybersecurity Means for IonQIonQ's acquisition of a major cybersecurity player is a strategic move as the quantum industry threatens to completely upend what it means to protect digital assets of all kinds. As quantum computers grow more powerful, new security risks are emerging—and cybersecurity needs will likely transform in the process, requiring improved hardware to be able to continue to maintain a defense. The Pentagon has already taken note of a similar development in the defense industry.
For IonQ, being able to bring quantum computing tech to the cybersecurity space could give it an advantage over traditional security firms that could find themselves unprepared to address a quantum-powered threat. The acquisition of Elisity in particular is helpful not only because of the company's strong user base, but also because of its unique niche in microsegmentation and its zero-trust architecture.
How Elisity Can Benefit IonQ's FinancesMicrosegmentation is a small but fast-growing corner of the cybersecurity market that some analysts predict could reach double-digit compound annual growth rates as the drive to integrate quantum tech into the industry accelerates. Elisity has managed to grow both its revenue and its client base at a rapid pace in recent quarters, and IonQ's acquisition presents an opportunity to continue fostering this growth.
The terms of the deal also help ensure a smooth transition: the agreement includes a $150-million earnout opportunity based on how Elisity's business line performs following the acquisition.
IonQ Positions Itself as a Multi-Pronged Quantum PlayerDespite the potential benefits of the Elisity acquisition, in the near term, the deal may stretch IonQ's bandwidth. Given the company's other major purchase so far this year—quantum foundry SkyWater Technology—IonQ now seeks to operate its core quantum computing business alongside both a manufacturing arm and a cybersecurity arm.
The vision of a company with in-house chip-fabrication capabilities and a stake in both sides of the quantum/cybersecurity debate could keep scalability high and costs low. For now, IonQ's revenue growth is helping realize this goal, particularly in Q2 2026, when revenue came close to quadrupling year over year (YOY).
Analysts expect the firm to come close to maintaining that growth pace when it reports Q3 2026 earnings in early November 2026. Another major issue for the company is that shares still trade at a hefty premium, with a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 90.
Investors Should Watch for Continued Revenue and Customer GrowthIn the near term—while the integration of quantum computers into cybersecurity is still in its early stages—investors should watch for signs that the acquisition has not derailed Elisity's ability to grow its revenue or customer base. The acquisition is also predicated on synergy between IonQ's technology and Elisity's current offerings, so it will be helpful to see how the two companies integrate these aspects of their operations.
On the other hand, share dilution may be one of the most important concerns to keep in mind. With IonQ's valuation already high, it will need to achieve an impressive improvement in its enterprise value to justify the potentially significant dilution of shares required to facilitate the deal. If it can do that, IonQ could further strengthen its advantage over other quantum firms by opening an entirely new—and potentially transformative—corner of the market.
Should You Invest $1,000 in IonQ Right Now?Before you consider IonQ, you'll want to hear this.
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Although artificial intelligence has been the talk of Wall Street over the last four years, it's not the only game-changing trend that's helped lift the major stock indexes to new heights. The evolution of quantum computing is also playing an important role.
Four pure-play quantum computing stocks have skyrocketed over the last two years. IonQ (IONQ -1.60%), Rigetti Computing (RGTI -1.10%), D-Wave Quantum (QBTS +0.42%), and Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT +0.94%) have delivered respective gains of 154%, 1,180%, 1,030%, and 738% over the trailing two-year period, as of Oct. 16.
Image source: Getty Images.
On the one hand, the practical applications for quantum computing, coupled with several newly signed contracts for these pure-play companies, have investors seeing dollar signs. However, the people who know these rapidly growing quantum computing companies best are sending all the wrong signals to Wall Street.
Insiders have been heading to the exit for yearsWall Street analysts are paid to know the ins and outs of the companies and industries they cover. But no individuals understand a company better than its insiders.
An "insider" is a high-ranking executive, board member, or beneficial owner of at least 10% of a company's outstanding shares who may possess non-public information. For the sake of transparency and to comply with securities law, insiders are required to file Form 4 with regulators anytime they buy or sell their company's stock.
$30.78-$0.50 (-1.60%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/19/26
According to the trailing five years of Form 4 filings, insiders at Wall Street's most heralded quantum computing companies have been decisive sellers:
IonQ: $576,620,769 in net sellingRigetti: $82,993,683D-Wave: $331,331,615Quantum Computing: $33,893,854In aggregate, pure-play quantum computing insiders have sold $1.02 billion more in shares than they've purchased since Oct. 16, 2021.
The potential silver lining to this net-selling activity is that not all stock sales are inherently bad news. Executives and board members are commonly compensated with stock and/or options, often requiring these individuals to sell a portion of their holdings to cover federal and/or state tax liability. Tax-based selling, or sales to diversify an insider's investment portfolio, shouldn't be a concern for investors.
QBTS D-Wave Quantum$11.83+$0.05 (+0.42%)
NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/19/26
But this is really only half of the story. The other side of the coin, insider buying, is just as relevant.
Over the trailing five-year period, insider purchases have been practically nonexistent:
IonQ: $3,349,000 in insider buyingRigetti: $625,000D-Wave: $309,080Quantum Computing: $0Collectively, insiders have purchased less than $4.3 million of their company's stock since mid-October 2021. While there are several reasons to sell a stock, there's only one reason for insiders to buy: the expectation of share price appreciation. Clearly, insiders aren't buying.
Valuation could be a reason for this dynamic. All four pure-play quantum computing stocks are trading well above 30 times trailing 12-month sales. Historically, a price-to-sales ratio above 30 has been a beacon for locating bubbles on Wall Street.
IONQ PS Ratio data by YCharts.
Historical precedent may also be cause for concern. There hasn't been a game-changing tech innovation in more than 30 years that's avoided an early-innings bubble-bursting event. These bubbles continue to form and subsequently burst because investors overestimate the pace of optimization for tech innovations.
While quantum computing has an exciting future, it'll likely take many years before businesses optimize this technology to boost their sales and profits.
In recent years, investors have closely followed quantum computing. If successful, the technology could increase computing speeds exponentially.
The problem with this technology is the delicate nature of quantum bits (qubits) and high error rates. Such challenges mean that widespread commercial viability is likely several years away.
However, companies of all sizes are working to make the technology viable, and if successful, it could dramatically transform companies and the tech industry at large. Knowing this, if I could only invest $1,000, I would choose IonQ (IONQ -1.60%) as my quantum computing stock. Here's why.
Image source: Getty Images.
What about other quantum computing companies? To be clear, I regard this as one $1,000 investment within a diversified portfolio. IonQ is a risky choice, and I would consider this a speculative investment.
Long-time tech investors might remember that numerous internet information companies emerged before Google's parent company, Alphabet, became the dominant search engine. Likewise, the quantum computing industry is likely to undergo a similar shakeout.
This poses a significant risk to IonQ and to start-up peers such as Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum. These companies, IonQ included, are all-in on the technology, and it is unclear how they will survive if they fail to become top players in the quantum computing industry.
For the more risk-averse investors, Alphabet and IBM are also quantum computing investment options. The fact that these are established tech businesses bodes well for the stocks. Still, they only earn a negligible amount of revenue from the technology, which makes it debatable whether one can call them "quantum computing stocks" in any meaningful sense.
IONQ IonQ$30.78-$0.50 (-1.60%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/19/26
The state of IonQ IonQ's competitive advantages have also eased many of my concerns about the company. It has taken a different path than Google or IBM by utilizing trapped-ion technology. The trapped ions can hold their quantum states longer. That reduces error rates and differentiates the company from its more established competitors.
Moreover, it operates as a quantum-as-a-service (QaaS) model. Thus, it is the only provider natively integrated with Google Cloud, Microsoft's Azure Quantum, and Amazon's Braket.
Additionally, IonQ is a partner of the industry's top chip company, Nvidia. IonQ seems to be following Nvidia's playbook in quantum, which makes the agreement appropriate.
Under the terms of the deal, Nvidia will link its AI supercomputing rack with IonQ's Superion 256 system. They will also orchestrate joint workloads on Nvidia's CUDA-Q platform, allowing Nvidia's GPUs and IonQ's QPUs to work seamlessly with one another, giving it an edge over competitors.
Despite these attributes, IonQ remains financially risky. Even with a 412% yearly revenue increase in the first half of 2026, it experienced $273 million in negative free cash flow during the same period.
IonQ has more than $2.1 billion in liquidity for now. That would imply nearly four years' worth of liquidity at current burn rates. Still, with commercial viability years away, it may need to eventually issue more shares or debt.
Furthermore, its valuation bears little relation to its condition. Its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 44, and the 26 forward P/S ratio offers little comfort to those looking for a better value.
However, if IonQ successfully leverages its competitive advantages and partnerships, the stock could experience considerable gains over time. That alone could make it worthwhile to risk $1,000 on IonQ's future.
Moving forward with IonQ stock It could be worth it for risk-tolerant investors to invest $1,000 in IonQ stock.
As a start-up, IonQ is not in a strong financial position, and since it has no obvious Plan B if it fails to succeed in quantum computing, investors face a serious risk of losing their investments.
Nonetheless, many investors are comfortable taking a $1,000 chance on a speculative stock within a diversified portfolio. Despite its limited resources, it has shown promising results using its trapped-ion technology. Moreover, the fact that it persuaded Nvidia to partner with it dramatically increases its chance of success.
Ultimately, if one has the appetite for risk and the foresight to back a technology with limited commercial viability in the foreseeable future, it may be worth taking a chance on IonQ stock.
In the latest close session, IonQ, Inc. (IONQ - Free Report) was down 1.6% at $30.78. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.41% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.07%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.11%.
The stock of company has fallen by 20.06% in the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's loss of 0.92% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.46%.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of IonQ, Inc. in its upcoming earnings disclosure. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of -$0.23, marking a 93.58% rise compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $145.29 million, up 264.42% from the year-ago period.
IONQ's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of -$1.09 per share and revenue of $455.01 million. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +40.11% and +249.97%, respectively.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for IonQ, Inc. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. IonQ, Inc. is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
The Computer - Integrated Systems industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 35, which puts it in the top 15% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
Key Takeaways IONQ will acquire Elisity in a deal valued at up to $1.3 billion to expand its cybersecurity platform.IONQ's acquisition combines its PQC and QKD capabilities with Elisity's enterprise Zero Trust technology.IONQ gains access to Elisity's 100 global customer deployments and the $10B microsegmentation market.
IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Elisity, Inc., a Zero Trust security company, in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3 billion. The deal will combine IonQ's post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) capabilities with Elisity's enterprise Zero Trust technology to expand its cybersecurity platform and help uncover and protect against current LLM and emerging quantum threats. It will also add Elisity's high-growth enterprise security business and a team of industry leaders to IonQ.
Elisity has a strong track record of doubling its revenues and customer base year over year with zero churn among deployed customers. IonQ will gain expanded channels to market its PQC, QKD and quantum computing offerings to enterprise and government networks through Elisity’s more than 100 global customer deployments and strong relationships across the CISO and security communities. The acquisition provides IonQ with an entry into the microsegmentation market, a more than $10 billion opportunity with a double-digit CAGR.
According to IonQ’s chairman and CEO, the acquisition will enhance the company’s ability to secure critical infrastructure and enterprise networks throughout the transition to the quantum era, as Q-Day may arrive sooner than expected.
IonQ has deployed quantum-safe communications networks in several countries and offers security solutions spanning QKD and PQC. Its multiproduct revenues grew 40% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, reflecting increased adoption of multiple offerings. The Elisity acquisition is expected to create cross-selling opportunities and help IonQ expand its enterprise and government customer base.
The agreement price includes up to $150 million in earnout opportunity subject to performance of the Elisity business. The number of shares IonQ will issue will be based on its volume-weighted average stock price over the 20 trading days preceding the third business day before closing. The price used to calculate the share count will be capped at $49.61 per share, with a floor of $33.07.
Updates From IONQ PeersThis month, D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS - Free Report) and the Supply Chain Management Research Center in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas (“SCMRC”) announced a collaboration to explore quantum computing’s impact on complex supply-chain problems. The partnership establishes the Quantum Supply Chain Initiative Support Fund with the SCMRC, meant to advance thought leadership, education and independent research focused on the application of quantum computing to supply-chain management across retail, transportation and national defense. D-Wave has also joined the SCMRC partnership program, which presently has more than 25 industry partners.
Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT - Free Report) , or QCi, announced Dirac-3S, the next-generation of its Dirac-3 quantum optimization machine. Dirac-3S advances the platform across three areas — Speed, Scale and Solutions — with faster performance, improved solution quality, increased computing capacity and a modular architecture designed to support customers as their requirements grow. The development marks a significant step toward commercial deployment of QCi’s quantum optimization technology, with the first customer shipment of Dirac-3S expected in November 2026.
IonQ (IONQ -8.94%) is one of the biggest names in quantum computing, but it's not a very large company. It has a $12 billion market cap, so if it rises by a multiple of 10 in a tick under a decade, it would only be a $120 billion company, which is pretty small by today's standards.
Still, finding a company that can reliably generate these returns is no easy task. But if quantum computing takes off, I think IonQ could do it.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
IonQ is going to be a major player in quantum computing Few companies are going to be as vertically integrated in the quantum computing space as IonQ. Its primary product will be centered around its quantum computers.
Management is taking a different approach than most companies because it's using a technique known as trapped ion versus the more common superconducting approach. Trapped ion technology yields more accurate results, but at the cost of processing speed. Currently, there are two primary holdups for making quantum computing viable from a commercial standpoint: accuracy and size.
IonQ has already taken a major step to remedy the first problem; Its trapped-ion approach holds the world record in two-qubit gate fidelity, a common measure of accuracy among quantum computing companies. This technology will be the basis of its 256-qubit quantum computer, which will make it one of the largest and most capable available for purchase.
$31.28-$3.07 (-8.94%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/16/26
This unit is expected to be available in early 2027 and has already resulted in several orders. If this device is popular and starts to see large-scale early adoption, that could vault IonQ to the front of the quantum computing race and give it an early advantage that will be hard to defeat.
But that's not the only way the company can profit from quantum computing. This year, it closed its acquisition of SkyWater, giving it access to fabrication facilities to help develop its quantum chips.
It also recently purchased Elisity, a cybersecurity platform. Quantum computers will create new risks since they can easily defeat current security measures through brute force. The same reason that companies want to use them for business (their raw computing capability) is the same thing that makes them dangerous from a security standpoint. With IonQ positioning itself to be a major cybersecurity provider as well, it gets to play both sides of the game.
Management has a great game plan and looks to be executing at a high level, but how could that make the stock a 10-bagger by 2035?
Getting to $120 billion isn't as hard as it seems IonQ is unprofitable right now, so the best we can do is value it on sales. Many traditional computing companies trade for about 10 to 20 times sales, so if we use the low end of that range to value IonQ, it must generate $12 billion in annual revenue to reach the $120 billion valuation threshold.
Next year, Wall Street analysts project the company will generate just over $800 million in revenue, so it has a way to go to get to that level. However, we have yet to see quantum computing take off.
Companies in the industry are pointing toward 2029 as the arrival date of viable commercial quantum computing, and that could ignite a huge race to gain access to the technology. There are also projections from firms like McKinsey & Company that the industry could generate up to $72 billion annually by 2035. That doesn't include important offshoots like cybersecurity, so there's a clear pathway for IonQ to reach the $12 billion in its revenue threshold by then if its products truly take off.
However, there's no guarantee that quantum computing will catch on or that IonQ will be the one to provide a viable device. That makes it a high-risk, high-reward stock.
While I'm OK with investing in these types of companies, your position size needs to be kept relatively small to manage risk. As long as you're aware of that, I think IonQ will be a great investment to own over the next decade.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley recently named their top pick in the quantum computing sector, selecting the recent initial public offering (IPO) Quantinuum (QNT -0.35%) as their favorite. Analyst Joseph Moore upped his rating on the stock from equal-weight to overweight, although he lowered his price target on the stock from $78 to $68. At the same time, Moore kept an equal-weight rating on rival IonQ (IONQ -8.94%), while reducing his price target from $49 to $43.
Morgan Stanley sees quantum computing potentially being a more than $100 billion market by 2040. While the analyst admitted that picking winners in the space is still early, it has developed a framework to assess quantum stocks based on technology, execution, manufacturability, and commercialization. Moore said that technology carries the most weight among the four factors, and that Quantinuum shines in technology and execution.
Image source: Getty Images.
Moore noted that Quantinuum has hit Stage 7 of Morgan Stanley's eight-stage error-correction framework, the highest of any pure-play company it follows, and that its error-correction operations are 4.3 times more reliable than those without it. IonQ, meanwhile, has only reached Stage 4 of its framework.
The Morgan Stanley analyst also praised Quantinuum's execution, noting that it has developed three generations of its quantum computers deploying the same fundamental technology. Despite that, Moore noted that the stock trades at the lowest price-to-sales (P/S) multiple of any stock in the group based on 2030 revenue estimates. Moore forecasts that Quantinuum will generate $2 billion in revenue in 2030 compared to $1.8 billion for IonQ.
Where IonQ has a slight edge, according to Moore, is in manufacturability. However, he noted that the company's best error-correction results have not yet been used with its Superion machines.
$36.55-$0.13 (-0.35%)
NASDAQ · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/16/26
Quantinuum vs. IonQ
When it comes to accuracy, which is one of the biggest problems that needs to be solved with quantum computing, Quantinuum and IonQ are leading the pack. IonQ holds the record for physical qubit performance, having achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, while Quantinuum has reached 99.92%. However, where Quantinuum shines is with quantum error correction, which gives it the lead in logical accuracy. With its new Sol system to be introduced next year, Quantinuum is looking to reach 99.999% logical fidelity.
While Quantinuum is ahead with quantum error correction, IonQ has just announced a recent breakthrough in this area. Last month, it announced that it has successfully tested the industry's first end-to-end, real-time quantum error-correction decoder that runs on an ordinary central processing unit (CPU). It still must incorporate this technology into its architecture, but it should help close the gap.
Quantinuum and IonQ both use the trapped-ion approach with their quantum machines. However, the biggest difference is that IonQ has switched from deploying bulky lasers to manipulate its trapped ions to using microwave antennas directly embedded into its chips. This should ultimately be a big advantage for IonQ when it comes to scalability and commercial viability. The reason is that traditional trapped-ion systems like those from Quantinuum require hundreds of tightly aligned optical laser beams, which creates an issue with scaling these systems.
IONQ IonQ$31.28-$3.07 (-8.94%)
NYSE · As of 4:00 PM ET 10/16/26
Equally important, IonQ's LightSynq acquisition gives it high-bandwidth photonic interconnects. Similar to how Nvidia's NVLink system allows multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) to bypass data transfer bottlenecks, photonic interconnects allow quantum chips to work together seamlessly as a single machine.
Meanwhile, while Quantinuum excels in quantum software, IonQ is trying to capture the entire quantum ecosystem. Its acquisition of the quantum foundry SkyWater should allow it to advance prototypes more quickly and eventually help it scale. It has also made important acquisitions in quantum security, transmission, and sensing as it seeks to become a complete quantum company.
Overall, it is still early, and which technology or company wins out is still very much up in the air. However, I would not write IonQ off just yet, and the best way to play the quantum space is probably by holding a basket of stocks in the sector, with both IonQ and Quantinuum at the top of the list.
IonQ (IONQ) witnessed a jump in share price last session on above-average trading volume. The latest trend in earnings estimate revisions for the stock doesn't suggest further strength down the road.
Over the last few years, the development of quantum computing has mostly been bankrolled by stock sales and legacy cash flows, not by customers, and the latest quarterly filings from the biggest names in that race show just how wide that gap remains. For investors, the real question isn't which companies have the coolest qubits, but which ones have the financial capacity to stay afloat for the years it will take for their quantum computing revenues to start mattering.
Three numbers from the most recent quarter, straight from some quantum computing companies' own filings, show how far "someday" still is from "now."
IonQ (IONQ -3.38%) booked $80.1 million in revenue for the second quarter. D-Wave Quantum (QBTS -2.54%) booked around $3 million. Rigetti Computing (RGTI -0.95%) booked $5.1 million. None of those revenue figures covered the millions the companies spend annually on hardware. So, for investors interested in this niche of the tech sector, the real question is which quantum computing stock is closest to running on revenue rather than on the next stock or debt sale.
IONQ IonQ$33.19-$1.16 (-3.38%)
NYSE · As of 10:29 AM ET 10/16/26
Revenue today: IBM and IonQ
IBM (IBM -0.82%) doesn't report its quantum computing revenue separately, and that tells you most of what you need to know: Within the multibillion-dollar business that is IBM, the quantum computing operation still amounts to a rounding error. What IBM has instead is scale and patience. It runs 13 utility-scale quantum computing systems (100-plus qubits each), has booked more than $1 billion in cumulative quantum business, and is putting $10 billion behind its efforts to develop the technology over five years. But that effort is funded by the tens of billions of dollars in free cash flow its mainframes and software throw off every year. CEO Arvind Krishna said in a July interview on CNBC that quantum computing won't move the profit needle for his company until 2028 or 2029. But IBM can wait that long.
IBM International Business Machines$232.20-$1.92 (-0.82%)
NYSE · As of 10:31 AM ET 10/16/26
IonQ doesn't have that luxury, but it's the one pure play in the space that's booking real revenue: $144.7 million in the first half of 2026, up from $28.3 million in the prior-year period. So what does that growth cost? The headline quarterly loss was $1.87 billion, though $1.65 billion of that was a noncash charge from revaluing warrants. The number that matters more is operating cash burn: $254.8 million over six months, nearly triple the $85.6 million it burned in the first half of 2025. IonQ had $3 billion in cash and investments on its books as of June 30, or about $2 billion once its recent SkyWater acquisition is paid for. That gives it a few years of runway at this pace, not a few quarters. But the bill is being paid in shares: The weighted average count of shares outstanding jumped by 47% year over year, from 251 million to 368 million. Each shareholder now owns a noticeably smaller piece of the company than they did a year ago.
Revenue soon, and what "soon" costs: D-Wave and Rigetti
D-Wave and Rigetti are smaller and earlier -- and their own numbers show exactly how early. D-Wave's second-quarter revenue was flat at $3.1 million, but bookings (signed orders not yet counted as revenue) hit $35.5 million for the first half of 2026, up over 1,120% from a year earlier. D-Wave says commercial customers made up 67.7% of its revenue in the first half of 2026, up sharply from 16% a year earlier. But within its cloud business specifically, only 37.3% of revenue came from production use; the rest came from pilot projects and testing, a reminder that "commercial" doesn't necessarily mean "in production" yet.
Image source: Getty Images.
Its cash cushion stood at $546.2 million as of June 30, down $273.1 million from a year ago, primarily due to cash paid for its Quantum Circuits acquisition, not to operating losses. D-Wave has leaned heavily on at-the-market stock sales to fund that gap, under a standing arrangement that lets the company sell new shares straight into the market whenever it needs cash. That keeps it funded, but steadily reduces the value of each existing share.
Rigetti's story is similar. Quarterly revenue rose to $5.1 million from $1.8 million a year earlier, and it holds roughly $541 million in cash with no debt. But it has also been issuing new stock through repeated at-the-market offerings, so like D-Wave, it isn't paying the bills with customer sales yet; it's buying time with equity.
RGTI Rigetti Computing$12.51-$0.12 (-0.95%)
NASDAQ · As of 10:28 AM ET 10/16/26
The enablers: Google and Nvidia aren't selling quantum yet
Alphabet and Nvidia are excluded from this scorecard because neither sells quantum computers as a business line today. Alphabet's Willow chip has achieved some impressive test results, but access to it outside the company is still limited to select researchers, per The Quantum Insider. Nvidia isn't building qubits at all. It's focusing its efforts instead on providing key support systems -- chiefly NVQLink, a system that connects quantum processors to Nvidia's GPUs; and CUDA-Q, the software platform that allows unified programs to be run across hardware that combines quantum and classical processors.
More than a dozen supercomputing centers and 17 quantum hardware makers have adopted NVQLink, but Nvidia doesn't break out what that's worth, because right now, it probably isn't much.
Both Alphabet and Nvidia are positioned to profit once quantum computing works at commercial scale. Neither offers proof that it does yet.
So, what does all this mean for quantum computing investors? IBM has the balance sheet to fund a long wait. IonQ has real, fast-growing revenue, but it bought those sales with heavy cash burn and serious dilution. D-Wave and Rigetti have promising bookings, but their revenues are still tiny next to their cash burns, and they're covering the gap by printing new shares. Alphabet and Nvidia are well positioned bystanders, not yet quantum revenue stories. In my opinion, the numbers favor IBM for balance sheet durability, IonQ for actual commercial traction, and perhaps Nvidia if it lets investors look into its quantum operations over the next couple of years.
The quantum computing pioneer is making a huge acquisition.
*Stock prices used were the afternoon prices of Oct. 13, 2026. The video was published on Oct. 15, 2026.
Parkev Tatevosian, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends IonQ. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Parkev Tatevosian is an affiliate of The Motley Fool and may be compensated for promoting its services. If you choose to subscribe through his link, he will earn some extra money that supports his channel. His opinions remain his own and are unaffected by The Motley Fool.
IonQ (IONQ +9.32%) CEO Niccolo de Masi has stated that he wants his company to become the Nvidia (NVDA -1.84%) of quantum computing. This means he wants IonQ not just to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer but to control the entire quantum ecosystem.
While Nvidia is best known for its powerful graphics processing units (GPUs) that are the primary chips used to run artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, the company's dominance stems from its ecosystem. Its CUDA software platform is where most original AI code was written and remains an important moat today. Meanwhile, the development of the company's NVLink interconnect system, which enables multiple GPUs to operate as a single, massive unit, has further widened its moat.
Nvidia also hasn't been afraid to make important acquisitions and incorporate acquired companies' technology into its ecosystem. It did this with Mellanox and networking in 2020, which is one of its fastest-growing businesses today and helps provide the foundation for its complete end-to-end AI factories. Nvidia also smartly "acquired" Groq and its language processing units (LPUs) to boost its inference offering, while scooping up critical AI software layers through additions like SchedMD and Hugging Face.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
IonQ: An aggressive acquirer IonQ has taken a page out of Nvidia's playbook and been very aggressive in making acquisitions across the quantum ecosystem. One of its most important acquisitions was Oxford Ionics in 2025. IonQ was able to incorporate Oxford's Electronic Qubit Control (EQC) technology, which embeds microwave antennas directly into chips, into its own technology. This helped it achieve a record 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, while significantly reducing its reliance on complex, bulky control laser arrays to manipulate its trapped ions.
EQC could be one of the key technologies that helps IonQ eventually develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer that can be commercialized. In addition to helping IonQ achieve an industry-leading low error rate, it also provides the company with quantum chips that can be manufactured by traditional foundries. Relying on chips that needed manual laser alignments and custom optical tables would likely never scale.
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However, this technology alone isn't enough; IonQ also needs to connect these EQC chips. This is where its quantum networking acquisitions of Lightsynq and Qubitekk come in. With Qubitekk, it received a robust quantum networking patent portfolio and the hardware needed to build distributed quantum systems and secure optical networks. Lightsynq, meanwhile, gave IonQ high-bandwidth photonic interconnects capable of connecting multiple quantum chips.
IonQ has even taken it a step further than Nvidia by becoming vertically integrated through its acquisition of quantum foundry SkyWater earlier this year. By having its own foundry, IonQ should be able to advance its technology roadmap more quickly and eventually allow it to scale more rapidly. While I wouldn't recommend the average chip company running a foundry business, it has clear advantages for emerging technologies with things like rapid prototyping.
Meanwhile, IonQ's most recently announced acquisition of Elisity pushes it further into the security market. This isn't the company's first acquisition in the space, though. Last year, it acquired ID Quantique, which brought it Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG), and single-photon detectors that are part of a quantum cryptography system designed to protect optical networks from hacking by quantum computers. Elisity, in turn, will give IonQ an enterprise zero-trust technology solution.
By combining the two technologies, IonQ will be able to offer an end-to-end security platform that protects enterprise networks against both current threats and future quantum decryption risks. Given how AI has changed the cybersecurity landscape, putting in place a platform that can guard against future quantum attacks is actually quite ingenious.
In addition to these deals, IonQ has also acquired companies in the areas of quantum sensing, transmission, and software orchestration. It truly is developing a complete quantum ecosystem, which potentially positions it to become the quantum computing leader in the future, much like Nvidia did in the AI space.
With the quantum computing stock down around 60% from its highs, now looks like a good opportunity to bet on this high-risk, high-reward stock that could eventually control the entire quantum ecosystem.
IonQ (IONQ +9.32%) has had a bad 2026. The stock is down by about 20% this year and is off by more than 60% from the all-time high above $84 that it reached at this time last year. However, I think it could be preparing for a rebound, and might blow right past that high next year on its way to $100 per share.
From its current level of less than $40 per share, that would be a rise of more than 150%, which is why I think it is one of the highest-potential stocks in the market now.
Image source: Getty Images.
IonQ has a major catalyst arriving in 2027
We're closer to commercially viable fault-tolerant quantum computing than we've ever been before. While many companies in this industry have been forecasting that viable quantum computing will arrive in 2030, several leaders in the space now see the timeline shortening to 2029, including IonQ. This is a big deal, as the first competitors to deliver on their goals will start to emerge in the near future.
I think IonQ will be one of those, as it has taken the lead with an unusual technology. Instead of using the more common superconducting qubit approach, IonQ is using trapped-ion qubit technology, which yields more accurate results at the cost of slower processing speeds. One of the primary reasons quantum computing isn't ready for widespread commercial use yet is that qubits are incredibly sensitive to outside interference, and as a result, calculations performed on quantum computers frequently yield incorrect results. Reducing their error frequency and developing better error-correction tools are among the central challenges that companies in the space are working on today.
So it makes sense that the companies developing quantum computers that lead in accuracy will see their systems adopted first, which is why I think IonQ has a strong chance of succeeding. In fact, IonQ holds the world record for quantum computing accuracy, with two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.99%.
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Another hurdle that stands between quantum computing and commercial viability is linking enough qubits together in one system to form a stable and accurate computing device with enough processing power to be useful. IonQ expects to start delivering its new 256-qubit system, the Superion 256, early next year, and there are already several preorders for it. If this device delivers on expectations, it could kick off a race by businesses to acquire early-stage quantum computers.
Right now, Wall Street analysts are bullish about IonQ's outlook for next year: The average projection is that its revenue will grow nearly 80%. If the launch is successful, it could blow past that forecast growth rate, which could help lift the stock to new heights.
We'll know a lot more about IonQ's success by this time next year. However, I think its future looks bright enough to warrant taking a small position in the stock and getting portfolio exposure to one of the best quantum computing companies out there.
IonQ (IONQ +4.79%) is making some major moves in the quantum computing industry. Just the other day, it entered into a $1.3 billion agreement to buy Elisity, a zero-trust cybersecurity company. This is a big deal, as it starts to unveil what kind of company IonQ is looking to be.
I think this indicates IonQ will have multiple ways to profit in the quantum computing era. Given how cheap its stock is, it could be the ultimate quantum computing investment.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Why is this acquisition a big deal? IonQ is a pure-play quantum computing company. It's focused on developing a quantum computer to bring this technology to the mainstream.
The company is taking a slightly different approach from some of its peers, using a technique called trapped-ion technology, which yields more accurate calculations rather than faster ones. IonQ is working diligently toward the release of its innovative 256-qubit computer, which could spur early-stage quantum computing adoption. This device is expected to be released sometime in early 2027 and could bring about some huge innovations.
However, quantum computing brings some problems of its own. The sheer computing capacity of quantum computers allows them to easily break current encryption and security methods. In fact, Google informed the world that current cryptocurrency security measures will be bypassed by 2029 using quantum computers. That's a scary proposition, and if a quantum computer falls into the hands of a bad actor, it could cause some chaos.
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IonQ is well aware of the security threat posed by the technology it is developing, which is why it purchased Elisity. By bringing this technology in-house, IonQ can start developing a security platform that's quantum-proof and give its users peace of mind that their data and systems are safe from quantum computing-backed threats.
I think this is a smart move by IonQ, bringing it into closer competition with giants in the quantum computing industry, such as Microsoft, Alphabet, and International Business Machines. However, the market wasn't super impressed by IonQ's actions, and the stock dropped nearly 10% following the announcement. I think this is really short-sighted, and given how poorly the stock has performed in 2026, it's well worth buying at today's prices.
The reality is that it's impossible to know which quantum computing stock will end up paying out. IonQ is leading the way in quantum computing accuracy and building an ecosystem around its product. This could prove to be a winning strategy, and if it does, the stock could easily skyrocket. However, it could also flop on its face, so investors should keep a fairly small position size in IonQ's stock; that way, it doesn't tank the whole portfolio if it doesn't pan out.
Keithen Drury has positions in Alphabet, IonQ, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, International Business Machines, IonQ, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
A dilution scare sent quantum computing stocks into a tailspin, but IonQ, Rigetti, and D-Wave are clawing back gains while a key ETF moves in the opposite direction, raising questions about whether this rebound has real staying power.
Quantum computing stocks are bouncing back after a dilution scare rattled the group. IonQ (NYSE:IONQ | IONQ Price Prediction) stock is up 3% to $32.51, leading the rebound early in the session despite a 28% decline year to date.
At the same time, Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) stock is up 3% to $12.09, following IonQ stock higher. D-Wave Quantum (NASDAQ:QBTS) stock is up 2% to $12.29, moving in step with Rigetti shares.
Broader quantum exposure is moving the other way. The Defiance Quantum ETF (NASDAQ:QTUM) is down 1% to $139.72, sliding even as IonQ, Rigetti and D-Wave shares are climbing. Notably, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY) is essentially unchanged at $769.76, which leaves the bounce concentrated in the pure-play names.
Discounted Offering Sparked the Dilution Scare IonQ priced a $2 billion equity offering on October 14, selling shares and pre-funded warrants to a single institutional buyer. The offering’s pricing landed below where IonQ stock had been trading, and IonQ shares fell on the dilution.
Before the deal, IonQ’s most recent quarterly data showed 405.1 million shares outstanding, a base the offering now expands. Because the deal mixed common stock with pre-funded and long-dated warrants, the full effect could reach IonQ’s share count in stages.
Record Quarter Keeps IonQ’s Bull Case Alive IonQ’s underlying business still gives investors solid ground. In its Q2 2026 results, the company reported revenue of $80.05 million, up 286.8% year over year and ahead of expectations. On the bottom line, the company’s adjusted loss of $0.33 per share came in smaller than the $0.60 analysts had projected.
Management at IonQ raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to between $280 million and $290 million while still expecting 100% organic growth. That outlook excludes any contribution from SkyWater Technology, and IonQ’s remaining performance obligations, a gauge of contracted backlog, grew 297% year over year.
Chief Executive Niccolo de Masi described IonQ’s Q2 as the “fifth consecutive quarter of record results and the strongest quarter in our company’s history.” The company closed the SkyWater deal on July 31, adding semiconductor foundry capabilities, and acquired Nexus Photonics to advance integrated photonics.
Deployments of IonQ Tempo systems span defense, pharmaceuticals, materials science, financial modeling and logistics. Its technical milestones include 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, reached in 2025, and a record 84 on-orbit optical communications terminals.
Bounce Arrives Inside a Longer Downtrend IonQ stock still sits far below where it began the year, which frames this bounce as a reversal inside an intact downtrend. Measured against its 52-week high of $73.87, IonQ stock has a long way to recover.
Dilution remains the core of the bear case for IonQ. Selling shares below the recent trading price spreads future profits across a larger share base, and IonQ is still reporting losses while it spends heavily on acquisitions. Over the past 12 months, IonQ posted a diluted loss of $3.43 per share, emphasizing how far the business sits from profitability.
IonQ’s volatility adds to the risk, since its stock carries a beta of 3.36 and has historically swung much harder than the S&P 500. That profile can magnify both rebounds like this one and fresh drops if the offering keeps weighing on demand for IonQ shares.
Absorbing New Shares Is IonQ’s Next Hurdle Rigetti and D-Wave shares are rising with IonQ stock, yet the slide in the Defiance Quantum ETF suggests the buying remains smaller.
IonQ’s record quarter and raised guidance keep the long-term story intact, which makes timing the main risk. Traders may prefer to keep their exposure smaller until the new shares are absorbed.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
COLLEGE PARK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), the world's leading full-stack quantum platform and foundry, and the University of Cambridge have announced the opening of the first-ever university-based IonQ Quantum Innovation Centre. The Centre is located at the Ray Dolby Centre, the new home of the University's Cavendish Laboratory. This initiative brings the University's largest corporate research partnership from agreement to a physical home at one of the world's leading facilities f.
IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), the world's leading full-stack quantum platform and foundry, and the University of Cambridge have announced the opening of the first-ever uni
IonQ just posted record revenue and a ballooning backlog, yet the stock sits near its 52-week low after another round of dilution. Whether the SkyWater acquisition changes that math depends on guidance the company has not yet provided.
IonQ (NYSE:IONQ | IONQ Price Prediction) trades at $31.42, and the coming year will test a roadmap that leans heavily on acquisitions. The stock fell 9.53% in the latest session after IonQ announced a new equity offering.
IonQ builds trapped-ion quantum computers and also sells networking, sensing, and security products. Its acquisition of SkyWater Technology closed on July 31, 2026, which gave it its own quantum chip foundry. Still, the stock is down 59.48% over the past year, despite what management called its “fifth consecutive quarter of record results”.
Revenue Is Surging and Backlog Has Nearly Quadrupled Second-quarter revenue reached $80.05 million, up 286.8% year over year and well ahead of the $66.42 million consensus. Adjusted EPS came in at -$0.33, beating the -$0.60 estimate. Management raised full-year guidance to $280 million to $290 million, and that range does not yet include SkyWater. Remaining performance obligations, a measure of contracted future revenue, rose to $485 million from $122 million a year earlier.
Bulls also point to technical milestones. IonQ showed break-even quantum error correction and plans to begin commissioning 256-qubit systems in the first half of 2027. Wall Street largely sides with the optimists: 12 of the 14 covering analysts rate the stock Buy or Strong Buy.
Dilution and Cash Burn Give Bears Real Ammunition Each new offering spreads ownership across more shares. Stock-based compensation alone came to $141.8 million in the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $120.3 million for the quarter, and full-year guidance calls for a loss of $330 million to $310 million. The stock trades at about 45x the midpoint of revenue guidance, and its beta of 3.361 means it tends to swing much harder than the market (a name this volatile belongs in the speculative segment of a portfolio, with sizing and exit rules, the strategy we spelled out in a free guide here).
Strong quarters have also failed to support the stock. Across five earnings beats, shares averaged a -2.46% move in the week that followed.
SkyWater Guidance Will Shape the Next 12 Months The core business is performing. IonQ held $1.24 billion in cash before the new raise. What investors still lack is visibility. Management has not issued combined guidance with SkyWater, and the partnerships with Anduril and Sandia are not included in its numbers. Combined guidance showing margin gains would strengthen the bull case. A slip in the 256-qubit timeline would strengthen the bear case.
IonQ Lags the S&P 500 While Analysts Stay Bullish At $31.42, IonQ sits well below the average analyst target of $66.63, which means about 112% upside. Analyst targets are one data point and offer no guarantee. The 14 analysts break down as follows:
Strong Buy: 1 Buy: 11 Hold: 2 Year to date, the stock is down 29.98%, while the S&P 500 is up 12.87%. Over one year, IonQ has lost 59.48% against the index’s 16.22% gain. Shares trade below their 200-day moving average, which sits at $43.20, and are approaching the 52-week low of $25.89.
Combined SkyWater Guidance Is the Next Key Catalyst Revenue growth is genuine and the backlog supports it. Still, the newest equity raise shows that the cost of that growth falls partly on shareholders. Over the next two quarters, the key data point is combined IonQ and SkyWater guidance. Investors need to see whether foundry revenue and vertical integration narrow the EBITDA loss.
Each quarter, three things matter: growth in performance obligations, the trend in adjusted EBITDA, and whether management keeps the first half of 2027 target for 256-qubit commissioning. If all three hold up, the stock could re-rate toward analyst targets. Further dilution remains a risk in a stock with a beta above 3.
IonQ’s growth deserves attention, and the combined guidance that will clarify its path is still a few months away.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Though the technology is still in its early days, advancements in quantum computing are starting to pick up steam. Microsoft unveiled a new quantum chip in June and says it expects to build a scalable quantum computer by 2029. IBM is also working on a large-scale quantum computer, Quantum Starling, and plans to unveil it in 2029. Not to be left out, Alphabet and Amazon are also working on quantum chips.
Outside those tech giants, however, sit a number of much smaller pure-play quantum computing companies that investors may find intriguing.
One of these is IonQ (IONQ -9.53%). Founded in 2015, it focuses entirely on quantum-related areas, including computing, networking, and security.
The stock hasn't performed well over the last 12 months, however, having dropped 57% as of this writing -- dropping its market cap to just $13.8 billion -- while the S&P 500 rose 17% over the same period. Also, with a beta of 3.3, the IonQ stock price generally experiences swings that are 3.3 times as large as the broader market.
That said, based on analysts' one-year forecasts, by October 2027, the stock's trend line could have quite the reversal from the declines it has experienced over the past 12 months.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
The outlook for the IonQ stock price
Analysts have a generally favorable opinion of the stock. According to CNN, of the 16 who cover it, 13 rate it as a buy, while three rate it as a hold. From that group, the median one-year price target is $65. On Oct. 13, its opening price was $35.82, so if it hits that target, a $10,000 investment will be worth approximately $18,146.
Looking at some other scenarios, the highest price target among those analysts is $100, which would turn $10,000 into $27,917. And even hitting the lowest price target of $49 would grow a $10,000 investment into a position worth about $13,679.
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Price targets, of course, aren't perfect predictions. All of those analysts could be wrong, and one year from now, IonQ's stock price could be flat or lower than it is today. What those targets do offer, however, is a sentiment gauge that investors can use to help establish a risk-to-reward framework as a part of their decision-making process.
Quantum computing may still be a few years away from being ready for more mainstream adoption in the business world, but the fact that big tech players like Alphabet, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft have all gotten involved in the space shows that it has the potential to be more than a niche market. IonQ is currently seeing some of that momentum in its earnings results. In the second quarter, it reported $80.1 million in revenue, a 287% increase compared to the prior-year period. In that quarterly report, it also announced it was boosting its full-year revenue guidance from a $260 million to $270 million range to a $280 million to $290 million range.
IonQ, however, is still not profitable, and its losses are growing rapidly. In the second quarter, it lost $1.8 billion compared to a loss of $177.5 million in the prior-year period. Also, while IonQ has a technological lead over its rivals by one key measure, its quantum computers are not truly ready for commercialization yet. Because of this, its stock price may continue to experience volatile swings over the next several years as it develops and refines its systems.
Given the stock's upside potential, I would still feel comfortable investing in IonQ, but only with a small, speculative stake to start.
IonQ, Inc. (IONQ - Free Report) could be a solid addition to your portfolio given its recent upgrade to a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). This rating change essentially reflects an upward trend in earnings estimates -- one of the most powerful forces impacting stock prices.
A company's changing earnings picture is at the core of the Zacks rating. The system tracks the Zacks Consensus Estimate -- the consensus measure of EPS estimates from the sell-side analysts covering the stock -- for the current and following years.
The power of a changing earnings picture in determining near-term stock price movements makes the Zacks rating system highly useful for individual investors, since it can be difficult to make decisions based on rating upgrades by Wall Street analysts. These are mostly driven by subjective factors that are hard to see and measure in real time.
As such, the Zacks rating upgrade for IonQ is essentially a positive comment on its earnings outlook that could have a favorable impact on its stock price.
Most Powerful Force Impacting Stock PricesThe change in a company's future earnings potential, as reflected in earnings estimate revisions, and the near-term price movement of its stock are proven to be strongly correlated. The influence of institutional investors has a partial contribution to this relationship, as these big professionals use earnings and earnings estimates to calculate the fair value of a company's shares. An increase or decrease in earnings estimates in their valuation models simply results in higher or lower fair value for a stock, and institutional investors typically buy or sell it. Their transaction of large amounts of shares then leads to price movement for the stock.
For IonQ, rising earnings estimates and the consequent rating upgrade fundamentally mean an improvement in the company's underlying business. And investors' appreciation of this improving business trend should push the stock higher.
Harnessing the Power of Earnings Estimate RevisionsEmpirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock movements, so it could be truly rewarding if such revisions are tracked for making an investment decision. Here is where the tried-and-tested Zacks Rank stock-rating system plays an important role, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions.
The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>> .
Earnings Estimate Revisions for IonQFor the fiscal year ending December 2026, this company is expected to earn -$1.09 per share, which is unchanged compared with the year-ago reported number.
Analysts have been steadily raising their estimates for IonQ. Over the past three months, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the company has increased 6.4%.
Bottom LineUnlike the overly optimistic Wall Street analysts whose rating systems tend to be weighted toward favorable recommendations, the Zacks rating system maintains an equal proportion of "buy" and "sell" ratings for its entire universe of more than 4,000 stocks at any point in time. Irrespective of market conditions, only the top 5% of the Zacks-covered stocks get a "Strong Buy" rating and the next 15% get a "Buy" rating. So, the placement of a stock in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks indicates its superior earnings estimate revision feature, making it a solid candidate for producing market-beating returns in the near term.
You can learn more about the Zacks Rank here >>>
The upgrade of IonQ to a Zacks Rank #2 positions it in the top 20% of the Zacks-covered stocks in terms of estimate revisions, implying that the stock might move higher in the near term.
IonQ (IONQ -9.41%) stock tumbled 9% through 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday -- and it's got only itself to blame.
Just before shares opened for trading this morning, IonQ announced it will raise $2 billion in cash by issuing and selling warrants and new shares of stock.
Image source: Getty Images.
IonQ's big cash grabSpecifically, IonQ plans to sell 20.5 million shares of common stock for $40 each; plus 29.5 million "pre-funded warrants" to buy stock -- also for $40 each -- plus 100 million warrants to purchase IonQ stock, exercisable at $69.46 per share at any time in the next seven years.
One single investor, Heights Capital Management, Inc. -- which, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence, is a private equity firm owned by global quantitative trading company Susquehanna International Group -- will buy all of the above securities for $2 billion.
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What it means for IonQ -- and YouIt's pretty clear what's in this for IonQ: Although valued at nearly $14 billion, the quantum computing company has less than $250 million in annual revenue, is losing $1.4 billion a year, and, according to pretty much every analyst who follows the company, is still at least a half decade away from earning any profit whatsoever.
With $2.1 billion in cash reserves, IonQ is expected to burn more than $640 million in cash this year -- then $2 billion more over the next three years, emptying its bank account entirely. Raising $2 billion now is the smart move, heading off a cash crisis before it happens.
What's less clear is why Heights Capital Management is willingly paying $40 a share for a stock it could easily buy for under $32 today. That seems like a bad deal to me, for this investor... and for any investor.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends IonQ. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Innodata: Gradual Upward Momentum in Quarterly RevenueInnodata (INOD -8.22%) primarily generates revenue by supplying global enterprise clients across the financial, insurance, and technology sectors with specialized data engineering services, digital transformation strategies, and proprietary software platforms designed for training artificial intelligence and complex machine learning algorithms. It recently announced a planned leadership transition in its chief executive officer position, and it subsequently opened a new motion-capture research laboratory in New York City to generate high-accuracy training data for humanoid robotics.
IONQ: Rapid Acceleration From a Smaller BaseIONQ (IONQ -9.41%) primarily generates revenue by building advanced, general-purpose quantum computing hardware systems and providing commercial access to those processing resources through major third-party cloud computing service providers, including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as its own proprietary network. It recently introduced its sixth-generation quantum computing hardware platform for immediate commercial deployment, while executing a definitive agreement to acquire an enterprise security infrastructure company in an all-stock transaction valued at $1.3 billion.
Why Revenue Matters for InvestorsRevenue serves as a fundamental baseline measure of total overall commercial demand for an organization's products or services before any operating expenses, taxes, or capital costs are deducted. It reveals whether a company is successfully attracting customers and growing its overall business volume over time.
Innodata vs. IONQ Revenue over the last 8 quarters.
Comparing Quarterly Revenue Trends for Innodata and IONQCalendar quarterInnodata RevenueIONQ RevenueQ3 2024$52.2 million (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024)$12.4 million (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2024)Q4 2024$59.2 million (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024)$11.7 million (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2024)Q1 2025$58.3 million (quarter ended March 31, 2025)$7.6 million (quarter ended March 31, 2025)Q2 2025$58.4 million (quarter ended June 30, 2025)$20.7 million (quarter ended June 30, 2025)Q3 2025$62.5 million (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025)$39.9 million (quarter ended Sept. 30, 2025)Q4 2025$72.4 million (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025)$61.9 million (quarter ended Dec. 31, 2025)Q1 2026$90.1 million (quarter ended March 31, 2026)$64.7 million (quarter ended March 31, 2026)Q2 2026$92.1 million (quarter ended June 30, 2026)$80.0 million (quarter ended June 30, 2026)Data source: Financial Modeling Prep. Data as of Oct. 13, 2026.
Foolish TakeBoth Innodata and IONQ operate in cutting-edge fields, the former in artificial intelligence and the latter in quantum computing. Looking at their revenue trends provides insights for investors to understand how each business is performing.
In that regard, IONQ's sales trajectory is impressive, given quantum computers are still an emerging technology and have yet to achieve widespread adoption. Its revenue over the past year has soared, and now, it's on the verge of catching up to Innodata. The outstanding revenue growth indicates IONQ's technology is winning customers. The strength of its quantum computers was further validated by the company advancing to the final round of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, Innodata's strong quarter-over-quarter sales growth seen in 2025 seems to have slowed down in 2026, a disappointing trend amid the rapid expansion of the AI market. This combined with a leadership transition this year in both the CEO and CFO roles have contributed to a share price decline, with the stock down about 35% over the past 12 months through Oct. 13.
COLLEGE PARK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), a leading full-stack quantum platform and foundry, today announced the pricing of a $2.0 billion equity offering. “This investment will accelerate the commercialization of our full-stack quantum platform and is a tremendous vote of confidence in the trailblazing innovation that has defined IonQ,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “The significance of this raise goes beyond its size — giving IonQ additional strategic flexibilit.
SummaryIonQ is a speculative buy, targeting $50–$60 long-term, driven by Superion 256, SkyWater, and Nvidia collaborations.IONQ’s Superion 256 and in-house chip fabrication via SkyWater could dramatically improve scalability, reduce costs, and accelerate development cycles.Revenue growth is robust, but a significant portion stems from acquisitions; organic quantum demand and recurring revenue visibility remain limited.Valuation is rich at 35x forward sales, with ongoing dilution, execution risk, and delayed profitability as key risks, but exponential growth potential justifies a fresh look. J Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images
Elevator Thesis IonQ (IONQ) is a company I’ve had my eye on for some time, but didn’t quite cover until now.
It sprang onto my radar during the speculative frenzy in quantum computing plays
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Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.
Key Takeaways IonQ's $1.3B Elisity acquisition combines Zero Trust cybersecurity with quantum-security capabilities.Xanadu's GlobalFoundries partnership targets high-volume production of specialized photonic components.D-Wave launches a gate-model simulator beta and supply-chain initiative with the University of Arkansas.
Quantum computing stocks struggled during the first nine months of 2026 as investors questioned whether the industry could translate technological breakthroughs and government support into sustainable commercial growth in the near term. Although quantum computing promises advances in drug discovery, financial modeling, cybersecurity and complex optimization, widespread adoption remains constrained by hardware scalability, error correction and limited commercially proven applications.
The broader macroeconomic environment added to the pressure. Elevated Treasury yields and concerns about further interest-rate increases reduced investors’ appetite for speculative, long-duration growth stocks. Meanwhile, quantum companies continued to incur substantial research and development expenses, report losses and outline capital-intensive expansion plans. Consequently, promising technological developments and fiscal initiatives failed to consistently translate into positive stock-market sentiment.
However, a series of October transactions and partnerships has renewed attention on the sector, raising questions about whether commercial opportunities are finally becoming more tangible. Here, we discuss three quantum stocks, IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) , Xanadu Quantum Technologies (XNDU - Free Report) and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS - Free Report) , whose October developments offer fresh catalysts that could revive investor sentiment and renew momentum in the quantum-computing sector.
Quantum Computing OutlookDespite near-term market weakness, the industry's long-term growth outlook remains encouraging. Gartner projected global quantum-computing revenues of $869.9 million in 2026, up 22.9% year over year, before reaching $1.1 billion in 2027. Its longer-term outlook projects the market reaching $2.3 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 26.7% for 2025-2030.
Government support also remains an important catalyst. The U.S. government's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative is evaluating different technological approaches to determine whether utility-scale, industrially useful quantum computers can be developed. On Oct. 7, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) advanced six companies to Stage 3, including IonQ, alongside IBM, Microsoft, Atom Computing, Diraq and PsiQuantum. This provides a potential validation pathway, although selection does not guarantee commercial success or eliminate technical challenges.
However, the financial picture across the quantum-computing industry remains challenging. Heavy R&D spending, infrastructure investments and cash outflows are weighing on earnings, while revenues remain limited or uneven relative to operating costs for many players. Although rising bookings, new partnerships and growing customer interest signal improving commercial traction, these developments are yet to translate consistently into sustainable revenue growth and positive cash flow. For example, IonQ reported second-quarter 2026 revenues of $80.1 million, up 287% year over year, but an adjusted EBITDA loss of $120.3 million.
3 Stocks in Focus in OctoberIonQ: It announced on Oct. 12 a definitive agreement to acquire cybersecurity company Elisity in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3 billion, including performance-based earnouts. The deal combines Elisity's Zero Trust security platform and enterprise relationships with IonQ's quantum-security capabilities, potentially broadening its commercial reach. The opportunity is to generate more immediate enterprise demand through cybersecurity while developing longer-term quantum applications.
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock is projected to report 2026 earnings growth of 40.1% on revenue growth of 249.9%.
Xanadu: This photonic quantum-computing company announced a multiyear manufacturing partnership with GlobalFoundries on Oct. 6. The collaboration targets high-volume production of specialized photonic components, including silicon nitride photonics and single-photon detectors, through GlobalFoundries' 300-mm production line. The agreement addresses a crucial commercialization bottleneck, scaling quantum hardware beyond laboratory production. Industrial manufacturing could improve consistency and support future fault-tolerant systems.
This Zacks Rank #3 stock began trading publicly on March 27, 2026, becoming the first pure-play photonic quantum computing company listed on the Nasdaq and TSX. For 2026, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the top and bottom line is pegged at $5.60 million and a loss of 54 cents per share, respectively.
D-Wave Quantum: It develops quantum annealing and gate-model systems. D-Wave launched a gate-model quantum simulator beta program on Oct. 1. The program gives selected commercial and research organizations early access to software for experimenting with error-aware programming and developing applications ahead of future gate-model systems. On Oct. 5, the company also announced a supply-chain initiative with the University of Arkansas. These initiatives could broaden D-Wave's technology offering and help customers explore practical optimization applications.
This Zacks Rank #3 stock is projected to report 2026 earnings growth of 73.9% on revenue growth of 57.1%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The market sometimes misprices a structural shift when it looks like standard equity dilution. When IonQ NYSE: IONQ announced an agreement to acquire enterprise security provider Elisity for approximately $1.3 billion, shares quickly dropped about 9%.
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Investors reacted to the mechanical friction of an all-stock transaction funding a software buyout from a hardware-focused operation. However, this surface-level reaction may overlook a broader shift taking place in the cybersecurity sector.
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The physical economy is approaching a threshold at which theoretical quantum computing intersects with immediate, commercial-grade enterprise defense. With legacy encryption protocols facing impending obsolescence against machine-speed threat agents and future quantum decryption capabilities, capital is quietly preparing to rotate into post-quantum cryptographic defense. Exploring the mechanics of this acquisition reveals whether the recent sell-off presents an attractive entry point for investors interested in the quantum sector.
Dilution Disguise: Pricing the $1.3B Stock DealThe Elisity acquisition is a calculated maneuver by IonQ to capture market share before commercial quantum decryption becomes widespread. By absorbing Elisity, IonQ could bridge the gap between quantum hardware development and immediate software implementation.
The Elisity deal includes up to $150 million in performance-based earnouts and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026. Because the buyout is entirely equity-funded, utilizing a 20-day volume-weighted average price calculation collared between approximately $33.07 and $49.61 per share, the initial reaction was to price in the pending dilution.
IonQ is trading around $36 with a market capitalization of approximately $13.8 billion. IonQ operates at a high price-to-sales multiple of roughly 106x against annual sales of about $130 million. Operations remain highly capital-intensive, generating a net income loss of approximately $510 million. When an operation with negative net margins issues stock to fund a billion-dollar acquisition, concerns about dilution can contribute to short-term selling pressure.
Institutional accumulation trends tell a slightly different story beneath the surface. Filings from early October 2026 show funds like Burr Financial Services LLC and Zevenbergen Capital Investments LLC initiating or adding to positions just before this announcement. However, those positions predate the acquisition announcement and do not necessarily signal institutional support for the deal. Integrating Elisity would add an established, deployment-ready enterprise security offering to IonQ's existing quantum technology portfolio.
Zero Churn: Elisity's Recurring Revenue EngineIonQ is expanding beyond quantum hardware and specialized security technologies into enterprise cybersecurity software. Developing trapped-ion quantum computers requires immense research and development expenditures. Integrating Elisity could add high-margin, recurring software revenue, potentially providing a stabilizing financial counterweight to ongoing hardware costs.
According to IonQ, Elisity brings a zero-churn microsegmentation platform with an established track record of doubling revenue and its customer base year over year. The platform focuses on identity-based access controls, helping organizations simulate policies and limit non-human identities, like artificial intelligence (AI) agents, to necessary communications only. By pairing post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution technology with Elisity's established enterprise channels, IonQ could pursue opportunities in a microsegmentation market the company estimates at $10 billion.
Tangible evidence shows that enterprise demand for IonQ's integrated quantum solutions is already expanding. In the second quarter of 2026, IonQ reported an approximate 40% year-over-year increase in multiproduct revenue. Management has previously drawn parallels between this acquisition and its integration of SkyWater Technology, demonstrating a proven playbook for internalizing critical supply chain and software layers to build a vertically integrated platform. Adding enterprise policy enforcement scale to the balance sheet provides IonQ with a commercial advantage over competitors relying solely on future computing breakthroughs.
Compliance Capital: The White House Quantum OrderPublic-sector policy is a primary catalyst for this industry-wide convergence. On June 22, 2026, the White House issued an executive order mandating the accelerated migration of certain federal networks to post-quantum cryptographic standards. This directive transforms quantum-safe architecture from an optional technology upgrade into an urgent compliance requirement for government agencies and their private contractors.
IonQ is strategically positioning itself to compete for a potential increase in federal security budgets. The company recently advanced to the final stage of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. Tied to a $350 million Pentagon pledge, reaching this final stage serves as a major technical de-risking event. Securing validation from DARPA essentially provides a seal of approval for future government procurement contracts.
Meanwhile, IonQ's engineering team continues to hit critical hardware milestones. The team recently reported a record 1 kHz entanglement rate between trapped-ion qubits and solid-state quantum memory. This development is an important step toward scaling networked quantum computing systems. IonQ is already accepting orders for its 256-qubit system, with deliveries expected in 2027, aligning its hardware development with the planned software integration of the newly acquired zero-trust platform.
Obsolescence Approaches: Trading the Quantum ShiftThe convergence of quantum hardware and zero-trust software presents a potential investment opportunity over the next several quarters. Investors might consider establishing long exposure in quantum-native defense infrastructure while evaluating how legacy cybersecurity incumbents are adapting to emerging quantum threats.
Current Price$35.37High Forecast$100.00Average Forecast$63.83Low Forecast$35.00IonQ Stock Forecast Details
Legacy firewalls and traditional cryptographic perimeters will need to evolve to defend against emerging threats. As commercial-scale quantum computers inch closer to viability, algorithms that currently secure the global financial system and enterprise networks will face the threat of rapid decryption. Companies offering immediate quantum-safe microsegmentation are positioned to capture the capital flight from outdated defense models.
While this strategy offers a potential way to capitalize on this shift, it requires patience. IonQ's premium valuation demands strong execution, and pivoting resources toward enterprise software risks temporarily distracting from the core hardware roadmap. Legacy cybersecurity incumbents, backed by consistent free cash flow, remain well-positioned to neutralize this threat by developing or acquiring competing post-quantum startups.
Investors comfortable with volatility might view the recent dilution-driven sell-off as a window to evaluate shares, anticipating that the long-term growth potential of the post-quantum security market could outweigh the near-term friction of an all-stock acquisition.
Should You Invest $1,000 in IonQ Right Now?Before you consider IonQ, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and IonQ wasn't on the list.
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The Federal Government continues to be a key driver of funding for domestic quantum computing companies—an Oct. 8 announcement from the Department of Defense pledges about $350 million in new initiatives and programs to U.S. quantum computing capabilities that support national security efforts. This comes just months after the Department of Commerce promised more than $2 billion to domestic firms specializing in quantum computing.
The government has so far been fairly quiet about specifics regarding this funding support, although a separate announcement revealed a $150-million conditional loan commitment to privately held quantum firm PsiQuantum related to the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Still, while the news of major funding for military-focused quantum initiatives could be positive for some quantum computing companies, the latest announcements are not necessarily an immediate game-changer for the industry.
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DARPA's Initiative and IonQ Are the Big Winners HereThe QBI is the recipient of about $200 million in new funding from the announcement. DARPA has identified a handful of companies that have advanced through the process, including major tech firms like IBM Corp. NYSE: IBM and Microsoft Corp. NASDAQ: MSFT.
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One standout from the more niche publicly traded quantum sphere is IonQ Inc. NYSE: IONQ, which is among DARPA's firms advancing in the QBI. IonQ is increasingly distinguishing itself from the long list of upstart quantum rivals in the U.S., thanks to its strong financial progress and its success with AI and other technologies.
Critically, too, IonQ is making a name for itself in the aerospace and defense industry. This is thanks in large part to its acquisition of Capella Space, which has facilitated the company's receiving a contract in August 2026 with the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, among other achievements.
So far, IonQ's advances in radar technology have been crucial for developing military intelligence and disaster response. DARPA's goals for the QBI are broader, aiming to develop a fault-tolerant quantum computer, but IonQ's growing authority as a quantum firm with defense interests may help it appeal to the Department of Defense as well.
Other Quantum Computing Companies Could Still Move Toward Defense ApplicationsD-Wave Quantum Today
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IonQ is not the only publicly traded pure-play quantum company that has signaled interest in the defense space.
Earlier this year, D-Wave Quantum NASDAQ: QBTS announced a partnership with defense firms Davidson Technologies and Anduril Industries to create quantum-classical computer applications for air and missile defense, for instance.
Granted, a company like D-Wave—or another quantum firm seeking to explore defense applications—may now have an uphill climb as they do not enjoy the benefits of participating in DARPA's program.
This is both because these companies are not yet beneficiaries of Department of Defense funding and because they are increasingly playing catch-up to IonQ after the strength of its revenue momentum.
What the Defense Funding Does Not Mean for Quantum FirmsThe announcement from the Department of Defense is an important sign of the government's prioritization of quantum technology. However, it does not automatically translate into revenue for any quantum firms. More likely, the funds will be used to support research programs or to provide conditional loans, as in the case of PsiQuantum. Firms are likely to need to meet certain milestones before receiving funds, and government contracts often take years to translate into meaningful revenue even in well-established industries.
Another key consideration for investors is what the Pentagon actually needs from quantum computing. Despite the announcement's focus on general fault-tolerant quantum tech, there are likely to be specific applications: optimization of military logistics and operational planning, for instance, and improved analysis of sensing, navigation, and other intelligence data. Quantum-based military applications remain, for now at least, at an early stage of development.
That's not to discount the impact of major federal support on small quantum companies in particular. If a select quantum firm receives government funding, it could also gain access to government customers and additional opportunities, all of which may be transformational. On the other hand, not being selected for an initiative is not necessarily a black mark for companies still interested in exploring defense applications, either.
Throughout this process, investors may find few catalysts supporting or opposing specific stocks. Rather, the Department of Defense's announcement could signal several areas that investors should watch in the coming quarters: if any announced funding becomes finalized and leads to actual cash flow, whether IonQ and others in the DARPA program demonstrate significant technical progress, and whether defense contracts continue to expand as a meaningful share of revenue, for instance.
Should You Invest $1,000 in IonQ Right Now?Before you consider IonQ, you'll want to hear this.
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The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the segment of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for advancing technological innovations, recently announced which quantum computing companies had advanced to Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). The program was created to determine whether building a commercially viable fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2033 was feasible, and to support the efforts of the companies best positioned to achieve that goal.
Stage A began in 2024 with around 20 companies participating; each was awarded $1 million and tasked with providing DARPA with a concept for a credible path to creating a commercially useful quantum computer by 2033. Eleven companies later advanced to Stage B, where they needed to develop their plans in more detail and determine the risks and how they would mitigate them. In Stage C, the government will determine and validate whether the participants' quantum computers can be built and run as intended. Companies at that stage can be awarded up to $300 million in DARPA funding to support their work.
There is no predetermined number of winners that can reach Stage C. So far, though, six companies have advanced to it. Microsoft and PsiQuantum initially got the nod back in February 2025, while Diraq, Atom Computing, IonQ (IONQ -9.07%), and IBM (IBM -0.05%) just advanced to the final stage this month. Other companies in Stage B still have the opportunity to move on to Stage C; currently, Quantinuum (QNT -4.31%) is the only public company still in that group. Meanwhile, companies that are still in Stage A will also still have the chance to progress, and DARPA has made it clear that just because a company is at an earlier stage of the process, that shouldn't necessarily be seen as a knock on its technology.
Interestingly, though, each company to move forward in this latest round of advancements has taken a different approach to the fundamental technology of quantum computers -- how to create qubits. Atom Computing, which has a partnership with Microsoft, uses the neutral-atom approach. This is the same technique that Infleqtion employs, which takes individual uncharged atoms suspended in a vacuum and holds them in optical tweezers.
Diraq, meanwhile, deploys silicon spin qubits, which are composed of single electrons trapped inside electrostatic gates. Diraq boasts that its technology can be integrated into ordinary data centers, and asserts that its quantum computers will be highly affordable, costing less than a dollar per qubit.
But Diraq and Atom are privately held. You may find them intriguing, but you can't invest in them.
For investors, the focus should be on IonQ and IBM, which now have a leg up on other publicly traded quantum computing companies.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
IonQ IonQ being chosen to advance to Stage C of DARPA's QBI is not surprising. With its trapped-ion qubit approach, the company has set the current record for the highest system accuracy, achieving 99.99% 2-qubit gate fidelity. That's meaningfully ahead of even its Stage C competitors.
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Meanwhile, it recently announced another breakthrough, successfully demonstrating the industry's first end-to-end real-time quantum error-correction decoder. This helps set the stage for developing a fault-tolerant system.
With the QBI announcement, IonQ noted that quantum computing is about much more than hitting technical milestones, and said that it will work with DARPA to create a scalable system for a wide range of deployments. The company is already on its sixth-generation quantum computer, the Superion 256, and its recent acquisition of chip foundry SkyWater Technology gives it a vertical integration advantage that will help it create prototypes more quickly, and eventually scale its systems.
With the highest accuracy so far and plans to become a complete quantum ecosystem player, IonQ is one of the best bets in the quantum computing space today.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
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Among large tech companies, IBM has been one of the most aggressive at pursuing the opportunity in quantum computing. It has an ambitious technological roadmap, projecting that its Starling System will become the world's first fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029.
While IBM's quantum computers have not yet achieved the accuracy of IonQ's, its approach using transmon qubits, a type of superconducting qubit, produces exponentially faster results than IonQ's approach. Meanwhile, the company is developing a complete error-correction stack that uses both hardware and software, and includes techniques such as high-speed, independent qubit reset with its Nighthawk chip.
IBM is far from being a pure-play quantum computing company, but its future is tied to the technology. Given the resources it can bring to bear and the speed advantages that superconducting qubits offer, it is another quantum stock worth betting on.
IonQ, Inc. (IONQ - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $36.27, moving -9.07% from the previous trading session. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.06%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.38%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.44%.
The stock of company has risen by 8.54% in the past month, leading the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 4.85% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.36%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of IonQ, Inc. in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of -$0.23, indicating a 93.58% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $145.29 million, up 264.42% from the year-ago period.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of -$1.09 per share and a revenue of $455.01 million, indicating changes of +40.11% and +249.97%, respectively, from the former year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for IonQ, Inc. should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been no change in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. IonQ, Inc. is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
The Computer - Integrated Systems industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 43, this industry ranks in the top 18% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
Watch Morgan Brennan's full interview with IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi on the Elisity acquisition, quantum computing, and cybersecurity risks.
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) is betting that cybersecurity can become a bigger part of its quantum-computing business, but its $1.3 billion acquisition of Elisity comes with a cost that investors cannot ignore: new shares.
The all-stock deal preserves cash for other priorities, but the final share count will depend on IonQ’s stock price—making the purchase price only part of the equation.
The Cost Is in the SharesUnder the agreement announced Oct. 12, IonQ will acquire Elisity, a Zero Trust cybersecurity company, in a transaction valued at up to $1.3 billion. That figure includes up to $150 million in performance-based earnouts, so the maximum headline value is not necessarily the amount ultimately paid.
IonQ will calculate the number of shares issued using a 20-trading-day volume-weighted average price, subject to a floor of $33.07 and a ceiling of $49.61 per share.
That range matters. A lower reference price means IonQ must issue more shares to deliver the same dollar value, increasing the ownership dilution existing shareholders face. A higher price means it needs to issue fewer shares.
The final share count isn’t fixed yet, and the $1.3 billion headline alone doesn’t tell investors exactly how much their ownership will be diluted.
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A Bigger Cybersecurity OpportunityIonQ says Elisity has more than 100 global customer deployments and has doubled its revenue and customer base year over year, with no churn among deployed customers.
Its platform uses Zero Trust security to restrict access across enterprise networks, complementing IonQ’s post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution offerings. The company estimates the microsegmentation market exceeds $10 billion, according to its announcement.
The strategic logic is to sell complementary products to enterprise and government customers while helping them defend against current cyberattacks and prepare for future quantum threats. But the opportunity depends on IonQ converting those capabilities into revenue, not simply assembling more technologies through acquisitions.
What Shareholders Should WatchThe transaction follows IonQ’s acquisition of SkyWater Technology, expanding its ambitions beyond quantum computing into manufacturing and now cybersecurity. That broader platform could create cross-selling opportunities, but it also raises the bar for management to demonstrate that acquisitions can deliver returns that justify issuing additional equity.
Investors still lack key details on Elisity’s standalone revenue and profitability in the deal announcement. The next tests are the final share count, integration costs and evidence that the combined businesses can generate incremental sales.
Why it MattersIonQ is buying a cybersecurity foothold with strategic potential, but shareholders are paying through ownership dilution.
The deal’s success will depend on whether Elisity’s recurring revenue and customer relationships create enough incremental value to justify the shares issued.
Quantum computing platform IonQ said on Monday it will acquire cybersecurity company Elisity in an all-stock deal worth up to $1.3 billion, including up to $150 million in performance-based earnouts.
The move is designed to defend against and uncover attackers targeting generative artificial intelligence large-language models and AI agents, and to protect against emerging quantum threats, the companies said in a press release.
CEO Niccolo de Masi told CNBC's Morgan Brennan on Monday that the addition of Elisity's platform will help bolster his company's quantum security strategy.
"This means that we can protect not only critical infrastructure — we believe better than anyone in the world — but of course the Fortune 500," de Masi said.
The all-stock deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approval, and would expand the quantum-computing company's cybersecurity portfolio.
IonQ shares fell more than 9% in afternoon trading. Other quantum computing stocks, including Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum, also traded lower.
Elisity will retain its current leadership, including CEO James Winebrenner.
Read more CNBC tech newsAI's quiet safety gatekeepers are stepping into the spotlightMicrosoft's Nadella says AI needs an 'emergency brake' that humans controlNvidia GPUs are everywhere. Here are the ways companies are accessing themHollywood takes on Zuckerberg, Musk and Altman amid widespread anxiety over AIIonQ's stock has surged in recent months amid a buying spree. Most recently, the company bought semiconductor maker SkyWater Technology for $1.8 billion in July. In the past year and a half, IonQ has acquired several quantum companies, most notably U.K.-based quantum computing startup Oxford Ionics.
The deal follows two June executive orders from President Donald Trump aimed at building a quantum computer for scientific research by 2028 and protecting government systems from cyber threats. IonQ said in the release that the orders underscored the urgency of preparing for quantum computing threats.
De Masi told CNBC on Monday that the need for quantum-level security integration into government and business as outlined in the executive order will become all-important as "Q-Day" — the era where quantum computers can break today's standard encryption software — draws closer.
"Lab leaks" from frontier AI companies such as OpenAI's high-profile Hugging Face hack are just the beginning compared to cyber capabilities a year from now, de Masi said.
"Our technologies help you today. They also set you up, of course, as well as you can today, for an era where the bad guys will eventually get quantum computers. They will eventually be able to marry them, I fear, with LLMs, and so the world that we're in today is already dangerous," De Masi told CNBC, adding that LLM's "could do even more dastardly things."
Quantum computing company IonQ (IONQ -9.58%) announced a $1.3 billion acquisition on Monday morning. It's an all-stock deal, and Wall Street immediately reflected the incoming dilution -- and then some. At noon ET, the stock is down 10%, lowering IonQ's total market value by $1.45 billion.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Why IonQ wants a cybersecurity companyIonQ has been on a shopping spree for a while now, and privately held security expert Elisity is the latest item in the cart. This one steps outside the quantum world entirely.
Elisity makes Zero Trust security software, which runs on a simple principle: assume that nobody on the network is trustworthy, then hand out access one narrow permission at a time.
IonQ plans to combine that platform with its own post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution tools, then cross-sell the quantum-infused package to enterprise and government clients.
The trouble is the receipt. IonQ is paying with its own shares and didn't say how much revenue Elisity brings in. Shareholders are being asked to trust the deal without seeing any numbers, which is an odd request to make while announcing a Zero Trust acquisition.
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Why investors don't trust IonQ's zero-trust security dealThe all-stock buyout is expected to close in the fourth quarter, pending the usual run of regulatory approvals. The actual share count will depend on IonQ's stock price, and $150 million of the total tally consists of potential earn-out bonuses based on Elisity's financial performance after closing.
Too long, didn't read? Elisity's final price may vary, and so will IonQ's resulting stock dilution.
Shareholders don't seem overly enthusiastic today. The morning's price drop removed more than the full price of the Elisity deal from IonQ's market cap. In other words, many investors think that IonQ won't benefit at all from Elisity's business.
The open questions are financial. IonQ's upcoming filings and next earnings report should shed light on Elisity's actual revenue and margins, and on whether cross-selling shows up in IonQ's multi-product revenue, which grew 40% year over year in the second quarter.
Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends IonQ. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
COLLEGE PARK, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), the world's leading full-stack quantum platform and foundry, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Elisity, Inc., a Zero Trust security company, in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3 billion. The acquisition brings together IonQ's post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) capabilities with Elisity's enterprise Zero Trust technology platform. On a combined basis, IonQ w.
IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) shares fell 5% after the quantum computing company agreed to acquire cybersecurity firm Elisity in an all-stock deal valued at up to $1.3 billion, first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The transaction includes up to $150 million in performance-based earnouts, with the number of IonQ shares issued determined by a reference price ranging from $33.07 to $49.61 per share.
The acquisition will combine IonQ’s post-quantum cryptography and quantum key distribution capabilities with Elisity’s enterprise security platform, helping businesses and government organisations defend against existing and emerging cyber threats.
IonQ chief executive Niccolo de Masi told the Wall Street Journal that increasingly powerful artificial intelligence and quantum computing systems would create greater cybersecurity risks.
The threat includes so-called Q-Day, the point at which quantum computers could become capable of breaking widely used encryption methods that protect sensitive information.
Elisity, founded in 2019, develops software designed to prevent cyber attackers and ransomware from spreading across corporate networks, with customers including healthcare companies and hospitals.
The company has more than 100 customer deployments globally and has doubled its revenue and customer base year-on-year while retaining customers across its deployed accounts.
Elisity chief executive James Winebrenner is expected to remain in the role after the acquisition, which IonQ expects to complete in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
The deal follows IonQ’s agreement to acquire semiconductor manufacturer SkyWater Technology for about $1.8 billion, as it expands beyond quantum computing hardware into related technologies and services.
IonQ, Inc. (IONQ - Free Report) has been one of the most searched-for stocks on Zacks.com lately. So, you might want to look at some of the facts that could shape the stock's performance in the near term.
Over the past month, shares of this company have returned +8.5%, compared to the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +2.4% change. During this period, the Zacks Computer - Integrated Systems industry, which IonQ falls in, has gained 5%. The key question now is: What could be the stock's future direction?
Although media reports or rumors about a significant change in a company's business prospects usually cause its stock to trend and lead to an immediate price change, there are always certain fundamental factors that ultimately drive the buy-and-hold decision.
Revisions to Earnings EstimatesRather than focusing on anything else, we at Zacks prioritize evaluating the change in a company's earnings projection. This is because we believe the fair value for its stock is determined by the present value of its future stream of earnings.
Our analysis is essentially based on how sell-side analysts covering the stock are revising their earnings estimates to take the latest business trends into account. When earnings estimates for a company go up, the fair value for its stock goes up as well. And when a stock's fair value is higher than its current market price, investors tend to buy the stock, resulting in its price moving upward. Because of this, empirical studies indicate a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and short-term stock price movements.
IonQ is expected to post a loss of $0.23 per share for the current quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +93.6%. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate remained unchanged.
The consensus earnings estimate of -$1.09 for the current fiscal year indicates a year-over-year change of +40.1%. This estimate has remained unchanged over the last 30 days.
For the next fiscal year, the consensus earnings estimate of $1.01 indicates a change of +7.2% from what IonQ is expected to report a year ago. Over the past month, the estimate has changed +7.4%.
With an impressive externally audited track record, our proprietary stock rating tool -- the Zacks Rank -- is a more conclusive indicator of a stock's near-term price performance, as it effectively harnesses the power of earnings estimate revisions. The size of the recent change in the consensus estimate, along with three other factors related to earnings estimates, has resulted in a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for IonQ.
The chart below shows the evolution of the company's forward 12-month consensus EPS estimate:
12 Month EPS
Revenue Growth ForecastEven though a company's earnings growth is arguably the best indicator of its financial health, nothing much happens if it cannot raise its revenues. It's almost impossible for a company to grow its earnings without growing its revenue for long periods. Therefore, knowing a company's potential revenue growth is crucial.
In the case of IonQ, the consensus sales estimate of $145.29 million for the current quarter points to a year-over-year change of +264.4%. The $455.01 million and $827.32 million estimates for the current and next fiscal years indicate changes of +250% and +81.8%, respectively.
Last Reported Results and Surprise HistoryIonQ reported revenues of $80.05 million in the last reported quarter, representing a year-over-year change of +286.9%. EPS of -$0.33 for the same period compares with -$0.7 a year ago.
Compared to the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $66.36 million, the reported revenues represent a surprise of +20.63%. The EPS surprise was -13.79%.
Over the last four quarters, the company surpassed EPS estimates just once. The company topped consensus revenue estimates each time over this period.
ValuationWithout considering a stock's valuation, no investment decision can be efficient. In predicting a stock's future price performance, it's crucial to determine whether its current price correctly reflects the intrinsic value of the underlying business and the company's growth prospects.
While comparing the current values of a company's valuation multiples, such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), and price-to-cash flow (P/CF), with its own historical values helps determine whether its stock is fairly valued, overvalued, or undervalued, comparing the company relative to its peers on these parameters gives a good sense of the reasonability of the stock's price.
As part of the Zacks Style Scores system, the Zacks Value Style Score (which evaluates both traditional and unconventional valuation metrics) organizes stocks into five groups ranging from A to F (A is better than B; B is better than C; and so on), making it helpful in identifying whether a stock is overvalued, rightly valued, or temporarily undervalued.
IonQ is graded F on this front, indicating that it is trading at a premium to its peers. Click here to see the values of some of the valuation metrics that have driven this grade.
Bottom LineThe facts discussed here and much other information on Zacks.com might help determine whether or not it's worthwhile paying attention to the market buzz about IonQ. However, its Zacks Rank #3 does suggest that it may perform in line with the broader market in the near term.
Key Takeaways IONQ exceeds 1,000 entanglement events per second, beating the previous trapped-ion record by over four times.IONQ combines trapped-ion qubit coherence with solid-state quantum memory for efficient coupling to light.IONQ expands commercial sales with quantum systems sold to the University of Maryland and Korea-based SDT. IonQ (IONQ - Free Report) recently crossed a key milestone for memory-enhanced quantum interconnects. The company achieved entanglement rates exceeding 1,000 events per second (1 kHz) between a trapped ion qubit and a solid-state quantum memory. A technical paper presented results from real-world hardware testing of an end-to-end link between a trapped ion system and a silicon vacancy (SiV) qubit, building on IonQ’s SiV quantum memory platform. The demonstration used a photonic interconnect and recorded a rate more than four times the previous record for trapped-ion systems.
Entanglement allows separate quantum systems to work together and is essential for networking quantum computers. IonQ’s approach combines the strong qubit coherence of trapped-ion qubits with the solid-state quantum memory, which has very high-efficiency coupling to light. The latest achievement addresses a key bottleneck in quantum interconnect while advancing the company’s efforts to build networked quantum data centers, where connected computing and memory systems could help quantum technology scale.
IonQ’s quantum memory and interconnect approach supports its work under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (“DARPA”) HARQ program, which seeks to develop high-speed quantum interconnects compatible with multiple computing qubit types. Although the latest demonstration used trapped ion systems, the underlying architecture could be adapted with multiple qubit approaches, including neutral atoms and superconducting systems with transducers that convert microwave signals into light.
IonQ’s memory and interconnect platform is also ramping up commercially. The company announced its first commercial sale to the University of Maryland in April, followed by a second system sale to Korea-based quantum technology and software company SDT, Inc. in September.
Latest Developments Among IONQ’s PeersIBM (IBM - Free Report) introduced IBM Ready for SAP Solutions to help midsize and fast-growing organizations speed up cloud ERP modernization, unify enterprise data and develop an AI-ready digital core. The offering combines the company’s industry expertise, fit-to-standard delivery and its AI-powered IBM Consulting Advantage consulting delivery platform. Volumetric Building Companies and Second Nature Brands are among the clients using the solution to support growth and future AI initiatives. IBM has been selected for Stage C, the third phase of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative led by DARPA.
Infleqtion (INFQ - Free Report) , in collaboration with Honeywell Aerospace and a distinguished UC Santa Barbara professor, announced development of a new integrated optical cavity that helps shrink quantum sensors down to handheld size. Fabricated on a silicon nitride chip at Honeywell Aerospace’s photonics foundry, the prototype reduces the space needed to keep lasers stable inside quantum systems. It uses a manufacturing process widely adopted in the semiconductor industry, allowing production to scale across many existing commercial facilities.
The Zacks Rundown for IONQ StockOver the past six months, IonQ shares have rallied 34% compared with the industry’s 108.2% growth.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
IONQ is trading at a forward, five-year price-to-sales (P/S) of 20.38X compared with 4.60X industry average.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Analysts’ estimates for IonQ’s 2026 and 2027 loss per share have seen mixed revisions in recent months, as shown below.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
IONQ stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
