IonQ’s revenue quadruples to $173.8M as it lifts its 2026 forecast to $515M

IonQ now expects revenue of $505M to $515M this year. The quantum computing company raised the outlook on Thursday as third-quarter revenue more than quadrupled to $173.8M.

Its earlier forecast was $450M to $460M, and it had revenue of $130M in 2025, Bloomberg reported. Sales would almost quadruple this year. IonQ said its revenue beat analysts’ estimates. It was the company’s sixth record quarter in a row.

“Third quarter revenue of $173.8 million reflects increasing demand for our quantum technologies and the benefits of our vertically integrated quantum manufacturing capabilities through SkyWater,” said Niccolo de Masi, IonQ’s chairman and chief executive.

Almost half from SkyWater

IonQ closed its purchase of chipmaker SkyWater Technology in September, and now reports two segments. The IonQ Platform segment, which sells quantum computers, networking, sensing and security, grew 127% to $90.3M. SkyWater’s foundry business added $83.5M.

The foundry also makes chips for other quantum companies. That business grew more than 30%, and SkyWater signed Qolab, founded by Nobel Prize winner John Martinis, as a customer. It extended a manufacturing deal with D-Wave.

IonQ expects its quantum computing revenue to grow 110% this year. Its remaining performance obligations, the value of signed contracts not yet delivered, more than doubled to $1.2bn.

“This was an especially strong quarter in quantum computing, which represented approximately two-thirds of new contract dollars signed by our IonQ Platform segment, driven by Superion 256 demand,” said Inder Singh, IonQ’s chief operating and financial officer.

A profit on paper

IonQ reported net income of $564.0M, or $1.42 a share. That profit came from an $896.2M non-cash gain on the value of its warrants. Its operations lost $433.1M, and its adjusted loss was 29 cents a share, wider than 17 cents a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $133.6M.

The company had $1.7bn in cash and investments at the end of September. Counting the $2bn share sale it closed on 16 October, that rises to $3.7bn.

Defence, Nvidia and Elisity

IonQ is the only trapped-ion company to reach Stage C of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, where the programme could be worth up to $300M. Nvidia will install a Superion 256 system as the first on-premise quantum computer at its Accelerated Quantum Research Center.

Its new contracts in the quarter include $33M with SDT, $28M from DARPA for 25 optical atomic clocks and $25M with Florida International University. IonQ has also completed its purchase of Elisity, a Zero Trust security company.

The results landed as tech stocks fell in the AI stocks sell-off after the US elections. De Masi told Bloomberg that a slowdown in AI infrastructure spending is not a concern, because IonQ’s customers are in defence, intelligence, finance and pharmaceuticals.

“We’ll keep growing regardless of if the sky falls or not,” he said.

Intel is buying Classiq, an Israeli quantum software startup, for about $2.3bn. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jake Silverman said Intel’s entry is not a “major threat” to IonQ and its peers.