Quantum News Nexus

“We are the 800-pound gorilla of quantum.” –IonQ COO and CFO Inder Singh

IonQ’s third quarter earnings call this week was not much of an exercise in modesty. Company officials spent a lot of time on the call counting all the ways that IonQ already claims to be years ahead of others in the industry.

Not that IonQ doesn’t have the numbers to back up the boldness. IonQ is in fact the leading revenue generator among pure-play quantum firms, with $37.9 million in Q3, and with an expectation for at least $106 million for the full-year, many times the combined revenue of multiple other pure-play quantum firms. IonQ also has more cash in hand than any other pure-play quantum company, and has acquired more start-ups working in more facets of the quantum sector than any other pure-play firm.

Still, the call was just the latest evidence that IonQ is acting more boldly under CEO Niccolo de Masi than it did under former CEO Peter Chapman. Chapman, who I’ve interviewed before, was a good salesman for his company, but a little soft-spoken at times when discussing company performance and prospects, perhaps not wanting to get too far ahead of his skis. That seemed wise for an industry still in its embryonic phase entering this year. Meanwhile, de Masi, who has been CEO for less than a year, already has positioned IonQ as the next Nvidia, and QPUs as replacements for GPUs, a notion that just about no one else in quantum or classical computing believes in–or if they do, they are not talking about it.

It’s an interesting time to choose bombast over modesty, as the September and October quantum hype cycle seems to have subsided, and industry watchers and investors are looking for something more real. IonQ’s revenue mark for Q3 certainly gives them something to latch onto, but the company whose CEO is poking at Nvidia also has an EPS in the negative range and a net loss of close to $177 million, about 370% deeper than last year’s Q3 net loss. IonQ’s stock price (NYSE: IONQ) was up a little over $2 on the day to $57.43, though it reached as high $84.64 less than a month ago.

There were also a few tantalizing tidbits dropped by IonQ officials during the call that anyone following and investing in this company would sure like to hear more about.

1. Jordan Shapiro, president of quantum networking, sensing, and security at IonQ, said at one point during the call that the company, since its recent acquisition of Vector Atomic, is “now working to integrate this positioning, navigation, and timing technology onto our own satellites.” IonQ in space? You would be forgiven for forgetting that IonQ also acquired Capella Space, which already has a handful of satellites in orbit. There also was a later reference to putting a quantum gyroscope in space, which could be the Vector Atomic gyroscope delivered to the US Defense Innovation Unit in 2023 and reportedly already used in space. In any case, it sounds like IonQ is deep into integrating and exploiting the capabilities of these two acquisitions. Will IonQ launch more satellites? That was unspoken, but certainly seems like a possibility, albeit an expensive one.

2. IonQ did not offer a breakdown of revenue from quantum computing vs. revenue from sensing or security segments. At least one analyst tried to get the company to be more specific about how its corporate diversification was playing out through its different revenue channels, but Singh didn’t completely take the bait, saying, “Momentum continues, and we are now benefiting from sort of all of these things coming together in a platform company that no other company can match. And so I think the results that you’re seeing reflect our ability to actually open more doors to talk about solutions instead of selling an individual product.” That suggests a decreasing focus on selling QPUs and quantum computers, and increasing focus on services that deliver some amount of “repeatable” revenue, as Singh put it (though he did not say specifically that was being done at the expense of pursuing QPU sales). CEO de Masi also spoke of getting away from financial performance shaped by “seasonality,” which also seems like a way of trying to convince Wall Street that IonQ, despite its bombast about how much better QPUs are vs. GPUs, is all about establishing a platform series of reliable revenue channels.

3. On a related note, Shapiro spoke of “more than $1 billion of proposals in progress” that leverage IonQ’s broad platform capabilities. The company had nothing more specific to say when pressed during the Q&A. What kinds of vertical markets and applications? How realistic are these opportunities? A few proposals or a billion worth $1 each? Government or corporate customers? 2026 is going to be interesting, one way or another.

4. IonQ officials said the company had not been affected in a material way by the federal government shutdown in the US. Government markets around the world mean a lot to IonQ, as with many other quantum firms. Government projects continue to be the most reliable source of revenue for the sector, even though firms like IonQ are really trying to break the pattern. Through de Masi, who claimed to be the only US CEO at the Chequers Technology Prosperity Deal signing involving the US and UK, IonQ is very much in President Trump’s orbit and positioned for a role in the “Golden Dome for America” project, which was referenced multiple times on the earnings call. The balance between government revenue and commercial revenue will be something worth watching in the quarters to come, as will any fluctuations related to the shutdown or any changes in Trump’s priorities. Being closely connected to the president can be great until it’s not. Just ask Elon Musk.

Image source: IonQ

Quantum News Nexus is a new site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.