IonQ (IONQ): Stock, Financials, Earnings & Company Overview

Quick Facts

What Is IonQ?

IonQ, Inc. is an American quantum computing company that designs, builds, and sells trapped ion quantum computers, along with a growing family of quantum networking, sensing, and security products. Rather than manufacturing computer chips using traditional silicon transistors, IonQ’s systems trap individual charged atoms, called ions, and use precisely tuned lasers to manipulate them as quantum bits, or qubits. IonQ markets itself as the first company to make quantum computing commercially available at scale, and it was the first pure play quantum computing business to go public on a major U.S. exchange.

Customers access IonQ’s quantum computers primarily through the cloud, via Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as through direct API access, rather than buying physical machines outright, though IonQ does also sell full systems directly to research labs, universities, and government agencies. Since 2024, IonQ has expanded aggressively beyond pure computing hardware into quantum networking and quantum sensing through a series of acquisitions, positioning itself as a broader quantum technology platform rather than a single product company.

Company History

IonQ was founded in 2015 by Christopher Monroe, then a physics professor at the University of Maryland, and Jungsang Kim, an engineering professor at Duke University, building on more than two decades of the pair’s academic research into trapped ion quantum information science. Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates provided the company’s initial $2 million in seed funding, and IonQ licensed foundational trapped ion technology from both universities. David Moehring, formerly of the intelligence research agency IARPA, served as IonQ’s first chief executive starting in 2016.

Peter Chapman, a former Amazon engineering director, became CEO in 2019 and led the company through its October 2021 public listing via a merger with special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology Group III, a deal that valued IonQ at roughly 2 billion dollars and made it the first publicly traded pure play quantum computing company. Through the early 2020s IonQ steadily released new generations of its trapped ion systems, branded Harmony, Aria, and Forte, while growing revenue from a few million dollars a year to more than 40 million dollars by 2024.

The company entered a new, more aggressive phase in 2025 under new CEO Niccolo de Masi, who took over in February of that year. Rather than growing purely through internal research and development, IonQ pursued a rapid string of acquisitions, including quantum networking company Qubitekk, a controlling stake in quantum safe cryptography firm ID Quantique, satellite imaging company Capella Space, photonic interconnect startup Lightsynq Technologies, chip based trapped ion company Oxford Ionics, quantum sensing firm Vector Atomic, satellite laser communications company Skyloom, and AI software specialist Seed Innovations. In January 2026, IonQ announced its largest deal yet, an agreement to acquire U.S. chipmaker SkyWater Technology for approximately 1.8 billion dollars, aimed at giving the company its own domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity.

Founders

IonQ was co-founded by Dr. Christopher Monroe and Dr. Jungsang Kim. Monroe, a pioneer in trapped ion physics, began his quantum computing research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology working alongside Nobel laureate David Wineland, where his team produced some of the first controllable qubits and quantum logic gates. He later became a physics professor at the University of Maryland and is now a professor at Duke University, where he directs the Duke Quantum Center. Kim, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Duke University, brought the systems engineering expertise needed to turn delicate laboratory physics into a manufacturable, scalable computing platform. The two had collaborated for years on government funded quantum research before formally founding IonQ in 2015 with early backing from venture firm New Enterprise Associates.

CEO

IonQ’s President and Chief Executive Officer is Niccolo de Masi, who took the role in February 2025 and was unanimously appointed chairman of IonQ’s board in August 2025. A physicist by training with degrees from the University of Cambridge, de Masi previously led Glu Mobile and Monstermob Group and co-founded dMY Technology Group, the special purpose acquisition company that took IonQ public in 2021, giving him deep familiarity with the company before he took the top operating role. Since becoming CEO, de Masi has pursued an aggressive acquisition led strategy aimed at building a full stack quantum technology company spanning computing, networking, sensing, and security, rather than competing purely on quantum computing hardware alone. He succeeded Peter Chapman, who had led IonQ as CEO since 2019 and moved into the role of Executive Chair before departing the company later in 2025. Inder Singh serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

Headquarters

IonQ is headquartered at 4505 Campus Drive in College Park, Maryland, adjacent to the University of Maryland, where the company’s original trapped ion research began. The location keeps IonQ close to a deep pipeline of quantum science talent and to the university’s Quantum Data Center. IonQ is also investing in facilities beyond Maryland, including a research and development site in Bothell, Washington, that the company has described as the first dedicated quantum computing factory in the United States, along with international offices tied to its networking and sensing acquisitions in Switzerland, South Korea, Israel, Italy, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Business Segments

IonQ does not report financial results in the kind of multi segment breakout used by larger, older companies, since it is still a single reporting unit, but its business now spans four broad product areas:

• Quantum computing: Trapped ion quantum computers and cloud based access to them, IonQ’s original and still largest business line, sold to enterprises, government agencies, and research institutions.
• Quantum networking: Quantum key distribution and secure communications products built around IonQ’s majority stake in ID Quantique and its acquisitions of Qubitekk, Lightsynq Technologies, and satellite laser communications company Skyloom.
• Quantum sensing: High precision sensors for navigation, positioning, and timing applications, anchored by the 2025 acquisition of Vector Atomic, alongside satellite imaging capability from Capella Space.
• Quantum security and chip manufacturing: Quantum safe cryptography offerings and, pending completion of the announced SkyWater Technology acquisition, in house U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity to support IonQ’s chip based trapped ion roadmap developed with Oxford Ionics.

Management has described this strategy as building a full stack quantum platform company, aiming to sell computing, networking, sensing, and security together to the same government, defense, financial services, and telecommunications customers.

Products and Services

• IonQ Forte and Forte Enterprise: IonQ’s current generation trapped ion quantum computers, offering 36 algorithmic qubits and available both through the cloud and as dedicated on premise systems for select customers.
• IonQ Tempo: IonQ’s newest generation system, in strong demand through 2026, alongside the company’s first sixth generation, chip based 256 qubit system built on technology from the Oxford Ionics acquisition.
• Cloud access: IonQ systems are available on Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as through direct API access, letting developers experiment with quantum programs without owning physical hardware.
• Clavis XG quantum key distribution: A quantum networking security product line, including the Clavis XG Multiplex launched in mid 2026, that allows quantum and classical data traffic to share existing metro fiber networks securely.
• Satellite and space based capabilities: Through Capella Space and Skyloom, IonQ offers satellite radar imaging and is developing space based quantum key distribution networks for ultra secure long distance communications.
• Quantum sensors: Vector Atomic’s precision sensing technology supports positioning, navigation, and timing applications for government and defense customers who need alternatives to GPS.

Revenue Breakdown

IonQ generated $130.0 million in revenue in 2025, up 202 percent from $43.1 million in 2024, making it the first publicly traded quantum computing company to exceed $100 million in annual GAAP revenue. Growth accelerated further into 2026, with first quarter revenue of $64.7 million, up 755 percent year over year, prompting IonQ to raise its full year 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $260 million to $270 million.

By customer mix, IonQ said roughly 60 percent of both its 2025 and first quarter 2026 revenue came from commercial customers rather than government or research contracts, with international customers making up about 35 percent of first quarter 2026 revenue and 35 percent coming from customers buying more than one IonQ product line, a sign that the networking and sensing acquisitions are starting to cross sell alongside the core computing business.

Financial Performance

IonQ’s revenue has grown explosively from a low base, but the company remains deeply unprofitable on a core operating basis, and its reported GAAP net income has swung wildly from quarter to quarter for a reason that has nothing to do with its underlying quantum business.

The 2025 cash balance jumped enormously because IonQ raised billions of dollars through stock and warrant related offerings during the year to fund its acquisition spree, not because the core business became cash generative. For 2026, IonQ has guided to an adjusted EBITDA loss of between $310 million and $330 million as it continues to scale operations, integrate its recent acquisitions, and invest heavily in research and development, even as revenue growth remains strong. First quarter 2026 results beat expectations on both revenue and adjusted metrics, with an operating loss of $271.5 million and an adjusted EBITDA loss of $96.8 million, a figure that includes elevated spending tied to the pending SkyWater transaction.

Stock Information

IONQ is among the most volatile stocks in the U.S. market, with a beta near 4.85, meaning it has historically moved almost five times as much as the broader market in either direction. Shares have swung dramatically over the past year, trading between a 52 week low near $26 and a 52 week high near $85, driven by shifting sentiment toward the quantum computing sector as a whole, company specific news about acquisitions and earnings, and broader government policy moves such as 2026 executive orders aimed at boosting the U.S. quantum computing industry.

Because IonQ is not profitable on a GAAP or adjusted basis, traditional valuation tools like the price to earnings ratio are not meaningful, and the stock instead tends to be valued by investors based on revenue growth, cash runway, and the size of its contracted backlog, which stood at a record $470 million in remaining performance obligations as of the first quarter of 2026, up 554 percent year over year.

Dividends

IonQ does not pay a dividend and has never paid one. As an early stage, loss making growth company still investing heavily in research, manufacturing capacity, and acquisitions, IonQ retains all of its cash to fund operations and expansion rather than returning capital to shareholders. Investors in IONQ are seeking capital appreciation from the company’s growth, not income, and should not expect a dividend in the near future given the size of the company’s ongoing operating losses.

Competitors

• IBM, which operates its own line of superconducting quantum computers and a large quantum cloud network through IBM Quantum.
• Alphabet’s Google Quantum AI, a research heavy competitor pursuing superconducting qubits and error correction breakthroughs.
• Microsoft, which is pursuing topological qubits through its own research while also hosting rival quantum computers, including IonQ’s, on its Azure Quantum cloud platform.
• Rigetti Computing, a publicly traded superconducting qubit quantum computing company and one of IonQ’s closest direct public market peers.
• D-Wave Quantum, a publicly traded company focused on quantum annealing, a different computing approach aimed at specific optimization problems.
• Quantum Computing Inc., a smaller publicly traded company developing photonic based quantum and quantum inspired computing systems.
• Quantinuum, the Honeywell backed trapped ion quantum computing company that completed its own Nasdaq listing in mid 2026, competing directly with IonQ on trapped ion technology.
• PsiQuantum and Atom Computing, well funded private companies pursuing photonic and neutral atom quantum computing approaches, respectively.

IonQ’s expansion into quantum networking, sensing, and security also brings it into competition with specialized cybersecurity and satellite communications companies, in addition to the direct quantum computing hardware competitors above.

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