IonQ

Overview

IonQ is one of the best-known pure-play quantum computing companies and one of the first to go public. Its computers trap individual ytterbium ions in electromagnetic fields and use lasers to manipulate them. Because every ion is identical and can interact with every other ion in the same trap, IonQ's systems are known for high gate fidelity and flexible connectivity.

Under CEO Niccolo de Masi, who took over in February 2025, IonQ has pursued a strategy of consolidation, buying companies in quantum networking, security, sensing, space communications, and chip fabrication. The aim is to become a full-stack quantum platform and a merchant supplier of quantum hardware to the rest of the industry.

History and background

IonQ was founded in 2015 by Christopher Monroe of the University of Maryland and Duke University and Jungsang Kim of Duke, two academics who had spent years working on trapped-ion physics. It went public in October 2021 through a merger with the special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology Group, which de Masi co-founded, and was one of the first quantum computing companies to list on a US exchange.

Peter Chapman led IonQ as CEO from 2019 until February 2025, when de Masi took over; de Masi became chairman in August 2025. During 2025 the company announced acquisitions including Oxford Ionics, ID Quantique, Lightsynq, Capella Space, and Vector Atomic, and in July 2026 it completed the roughly 1.8 billion dollar purchase of the semiconductor foundry SkyWater Technology.

How the technology works

Trapped-ion qubits are individual charged atoms held in place by electric fields in a vacuum chamber. IonQ uses ytterbium ions. Each ion's internal energy levels serve as the 0 and 1 of a qubit, and precisely tuned lasers perform the gates. Since all the ions are the same species, the qubits are naturally uniform, and coherence times are long, on the order of seconds on this platform.

Ions in a single chain can be coupled through their shared motion, which gives IonQ its all-to-all connectivity: any qubit can be entangled with any other without swap operations. The trade-offs are slower gates than superconducting chips, typically microseconds instead of nanoseconds, and the difficulty of keeping long chains stable. IonQ's answer to scaling is to link multiple smaller traps with photonic interconnects, and its acquisitions in photonic interconnects and quantum networking support that plan.

IonQ has historically reported performance using algorithmic qubits, a metric that combines qubit count and error rates. In late 2025 the company reported a two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.99%, using electronic qubit control technology that came with its Oxford Ionics acquisition. IonQ has also published roadmap targets for 2030 in the range of millions of physical qubits and tens of thousands of logical qubits; these are goals, not results.

Products and platforms

Processors in our Hardware Database

• IonQ Forte (and Forte Enterprise) — 36 qubits, released 2023
• IonQ Tempo — 100 qubits, released 2025 (development system); commercial availability listed for late 2026

Key milestones

Strengths and challenges

Strengths

• Very high reported gate fidelities and all-to-all connectivity.
• Fast revenue growth: Q2 2026 revenue was up 287% from a year earlier, and 2026 guidance was raised to 450 to 460 million dollars after SkyWater.
• A broad platform covering computing, networking, sensing, space, and now manufacturing.
• Availability through all three major cloud providers.

Challenges and open questions

• Large losses: IonQ reported a GAAP net loss of about 1.87 billion dollars in Q2 2026, largely from acquisition-related accounting charges.
• Integration risk: absorbing many acquisitions in under two years is difficult.
• Trapped-ion gates are slower than superconducting gates, which affects total run time for deep algorithms.
• Roadmap targets for 2030 are goals, and scaling ion traps to very large systems is still unproven.

Why it matters

IonQ is a useful case study of how quantum computing is turning into an industry. Revenue is growing quickly from a small base, customers include governments and large companies, and the company is buying suppliers to secure its manufacturing. At the same time, the enormous losses and the fact that no quantum computer can yet outperform classical systems on useful commercial work show how early the market still is.

Trapped ions are also the leading rival to superconducting qubits, so IonQ's fidelity and scaling results are one of the main tests of which hardware approach will win. Comparing IonQ with IBM and Google is a good way to understand the trade-off between fast gates and high-quality, well-connected qubits.

Latest news

• IonQ raises its 2026 revenue guidance to 450 to 460 million dollars following the SkyWater acquisition — September 2026
• IonQ reports record Q2 revenue of 80.1 million dollars, up 287% year over year — August 2026
• IonQ completes its acquisition of SkyWater Technology — July 2026

Frequently asked questions

This profile is written for educational purposes and summarizes public announcements, company filings, and published research. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026. It is not investment advice. Check the company's official channels for the latest figures and claims.

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