IonQ Q3 - 2026 Earnings Call Transcript and Detailed Topic Summary

Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Call

Thursday, November 5, 2026  ·  4:30 PM Eastern Time

Financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, and business update

Quantum Technology Integration Series  ·  quantumtechintegration.blogspot.com

How to Use This Record

This is a corrected, line-referenced transcript of IonQ’s third quarter 2026 earnings call, held on November 5, 2026. Every paragraph of the call carries a reference number in the left margin (L001 through L142). Those numbers are the citation system for this record and for every appendix in it.

Citation form

Cite a passage as: IonQ Q3 2026 Earnings Call, L005 (de Masi). A range is written L005–L007.

How the text was prepared

The source was an automated transcription of the call audio. Speaker names, company names, product names, programs and financial terms were corrected throughout (for example IonQ, SkyWater, Superion 256, Elisity, Qolab, D-Wave, Infineon, KISTI, Quantum Basel, EPB, DARPA QBI Stage C, DARPA HARQ, DARPA It’s About Time, GAAP, EBITDA, RPO, QCaaS and Q-Day). Speaker turns in the question-and-answer session were attributed from context. Verbal fillers were removed; wording was otherwise kept as spoken.

Where the audio could not be resolved with confidence, the best reading is given in square brackets and marked “unclear in audio” or “as heard.” Figures are reproduced as spoken and should be checked against IonQ’s press release and Form 10-Q before they are quoted in a published report. One figure is flagged for this reason in particular: the non-GAAP operating expense figure at L039.

The recording begins partway into Mr. de Masi’s prepared remarks; the operator introduction, the investor relations safe-harbor statement and the opening sentences of the CEO’s remarks are not part of the source.

Where to find things

Part	Coverage
Prepared Remarks	L001–L049
Question-and-Answer Session	L050–L138
Closing Remarks	L139–L142
Appendix A — Analyst Questions and Answers	Each question, who answered, what the answer reached
Appendix B — Figures and Dated Commitments	Every number and date stated on the call, with its reference
Appendix C — Names, Products and Programs	Every reference to each named company, product, program and person

 

Contents

How to Use This Record​2

Participants​4

Prepared Remarks​5

Question-and-Answer Session​14

Closing Remarks​29

Appendix A — Analyst Questions and Answers​30

Appendix B — Figures and Dated Commitments​32

Appendix C — Names, Products and Programs​34

Participants

IonQ

Name	Title
Niccolo de Masi	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Inder Singh	Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer

 

Analysts

Name	Firm
[Name unclear in audio], on for Vivek Arya	BofA Securities
Joe Moore	Morgan Stanley
Craig Ellis	B. Riley Securities
John McPeake	Rosenblatt Securities
Robert [surname unclear in audio], on for Quinn Bolton	Needham & Company
Gary Mobley	StoneX (firm as announced by the operator)
Tyler Anderson, on for Richard Shannon	Craig-Hallum Capital Group
Troy Jensen	Cantor Fitzgerald

 

Operator: conference call operator.

Prepared Remarks

Niccolo de Masi

L001​[The recording begins partway into Mr. de Masi's opening remarks.] …year over year. This was the strongest quarter in IonQ's history, and our sixth consecutive quarter of record revenues. At IonQ Platform, we delivered $90.3 million of GAAP revenue from our leading quantum products. This revenue scale is a record for the reporting quantum industry in its own right. We saw an especially strong quarter in quantum computing, with new contracts signed across the globe for our sixth-generation Superion 256 system. We have, in fact, sold out all of our 256 capacity in 2027.

L002​In our first quarter of operations with SkyWater, we delivered an additional $83.5 million of GAAP revenue from our onshore foundry, home to the industry's most advanced and diverse quantum manufacturing capabilities. At SkyWater Quantum Solutions, revenue from within the quantum ecosystem grew meaningfully as we added new customers and expanded with existing ones. This underscores that SkyWater is the foundry partner of choice for the industry.

L003​Our results show the progress we are making translating our technology leadership into commercial adoption. We're moving from R&D into the productization and scaling phase of our growth curve as we scale go-to-market execution and serve customers around the world. Inder will shortly take you through the financial results in more detail. I'm incredibly proud of the whole team's hard work driving the momentum we're experiencing across our entire business.

L004​I will focus my remarks today on three areas that demonstrate how we are turning our strategy into results. First, how our technology leadership is translating into independent validation and growing commercial demand. Second, how our expanding platform is addressing customer needs and unlocking new growth opportunities. And third, how vertically integrated manufacturing is strengthening our ability to scale, deploy, and grow our market share.

L005​Turning to slide five of our investor presentation. Earlier this year, in February, I named DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative Stage C as one of our ambitions for 2026. I am proud to say that IonQ has achieved this historic milestone. We are the only trapped-ion company that has advanced to the final stage of this program, with an associated program value of up to $300 million. Stage C is envisaged to put multiple generations of our Superion quantum computers in the hands of the Department of War.

L006​DARPA's Benchmarking Initiative is centered on understanding when a business focused on its bottom line will choose a quantum computer over a classical one. We believe that our advancement to Stage C reflects a fundamental principle that has guided IonQ's technology roadmap and vertical manufacturing integration: what matters most is how quickly, and how cost-effectively, a quantum computer delivers a useful answer. More than a year ago, at our 2025 Analyst Day, we made time-to-solution one of our core metrics. Cost-to-solution is equally critical, and is why we released our third-party-validated [unclear in audio] bill of materials for fault-tolerant systems. We have always focused on designing systems to be deployable at a cost that will promote mass-market adoption. We design to deliver true economic utility for our ecosystem of end users.

L007​As you can see on slide six, this quarter we also demonstrated powerful commercial momentum for our computers. Since launching our Superion product line in September, we've experienced strong global demand and are now working to further expand capacity. Initial Superion 256 partners include NVIDIA and Florida International University in the U.S. It also includes the University of Cambridge and Horizon Quantum in Europe, and SDT in South Korea. IonQ is building the quantum ecosystem to meet global demand.

L008​The Superion 256 will be the first on-premises quantum computing deployment at the NVIDIA Accelerated Quantum Research Center, connected directly to NVIDIA's AI supercomputing infrastructure. I have long said quantum will be adopted through hybrid workflows, with GPUs and QPUs working side by side. NVIDIA's historic partnership with IonQ demonstrates how our technology is robustly positioned for integration into advanced, scalable compute environments that will drive broader quantum adoption.

L009​Turning now to slide seven. Hardware leadership is the foundation of impactful applications. As NVIDIA showed, leading hardware attracts an ecosystem, and the ecosystem turns hardware into a platform. That is our strategy: to decisively lead in quantum hardware and make it easy to access and build upon. IonQ quantum computers are available on all three major public clouds: AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. This quarter, we brought another Forte Enterprise system online. In 2027, we expect to add multiple Tempo systems, expanding our cloud capacity several times over and making our most powerful systems available on demand around the globe.

L010​We also support all major quantum development frameworks, including Qiskit, PennyLane, NVIDIA CUDA-Q, [Cirq — unclear in audio], and several others. This is an open ecosystem that we contribute to, leverage, and which provides choice for our customers. Of course, like NVIDIA, we also develop extensive proprietary software that runs close to our hardware. This strategy creates value in two ways: through applications we develop with our customers and partners, and through the platforms that partners build on our platform.

L011​We continued this past quarter to demonstrate pioneering breakthroughs where quantum technologies deliver the significant improvements that create a compelling backdrop for customer adoption. With our partner CCRM, we began development work in viral vector manufacturing. This is a costly step in producing many cell and gene therapies, where much of the product is lost during purification, and one where quantum can help today. With Synopsys, we are collaborating on some of the most computationally demanding quantum-mechanical calculations in chip design, with the goal of integrating quantum computing into the Synopsys QuantumATK platform.

L012​Our leading quantum computers are also where customers and partners choose to run their own applications. HSBC recently shared results from an application tested on our Forte Enterprise computer, which was first launched in 2024. They showed an improvement in prediction accuracy over classical approaches in identifying emerging trade corridors. In another example, Israel Natural Gas Lines used IonQ Forte to run their quantum optimization model for national gas transmission.

L013​Our open platform, simple software layers, and easy cloud access are, in turn, building a global development community for IonQ. Just last month, we hosted a global hackathon. It drew developers from over 80 universities and 37 countries, who completed more than 4,400 runs on IonQ's cloud. They generated more than a million lines of open-source, machine-readable code. Some teams were using quantum computers for the first time and still built working projects in 48 hours. We are making quantum computing accessible everywhere and driving a fast feedback loop. Developers working with AI can accelerate even further.

L014​Turning now to quantum security on slide eight. We see another huge and important opportunity to build on our technological leadership and address an increasingly urgent, large, and global customer need. As we build increasingly powerful quantum computers, every single step forward pulls in the timeline for Q-Day. Our leadership in quantum algorithms is bringing it closer also. In September, we published the world's first complete end-to-end fault-tolerant resource estimate for running Shor's algorithm against 256-bit elliptic-curve cryptography. Q-Day is now inside the planning horizon for CEOs, CISOs, CTOs, and network security leaders in both enterprise and government.

L015​I want to pause here to emphasize how much more attention quantum security is receiving than even a couple of quarters ago. In nearly every conversation we have with our customers, we are pressed on how we can help them stay safe, not only now, but in the era of quantum computing. I believe we are, in fact, entering a new era of perpetually elevated cyber threats, by virtue of not only AI, but the potential for combined LLM-quantum attacks. Our unique understanding of quantum computing and networking is why now is the moment for IonQ to lead in quantum security also.

L016​Customers choose IonQ's quantum security platform for three reasons. First, we understand better than anyone what quantum computers can do and how they will do it, because we build the world's most powerful quantum computers. Second, we protect customers today by decoupling encryption from their network, minimizing disruption to their existing infrastructure. And third, our crypto-agile solutions evolve with customers as post-quantum standards change. My vision is a single security platform that protects customers against today's threats, carries them safely through the rapidly emerging AI-driven attacks, and into the combined LLM-quantum era.

L017​As you can see on slide nine, our acquisition of Elisity is central to executing on this proposition. Enterprises face two overlapping priorities: containing attacks that operate at machine speed, and preparing to protect sensitive information against future quantum threats. The urgency of this transition is underscored by the June 22 White House executive orders. Elisity's Zero Trust platform provides identity-based microsegmentation, with 100 established enterprise deployments and trusted CISO relationships.

L018​Customers often initially come to IonQ for either security, computing, networking, or sensing. However, our integrated capabilities allow us to address significant additional needs as those relationships evolve. Over 40% of our IonQ Platform segment revenue in Q3 was generated from customers buying multiple products. As our roadmaps continue to develop and converge, we see a strong opportunity to deepen customer relationships, reach new enterprise buyers, and drive additional revenue growth across the platform.

L019​Turning to slide ten. In Q3, we were pleased to close our acquisition of SkyWater, making IonQ arguably the largest global quantum merchant supplier and the only vertically integrated, public, pure-play quantum company. SkyWater is powerfully accelerating our business. In just six months of working together, we delivered 12 times more wafer lots and more than three times faster tape-out cycles for 256-qubit chips. By bringing manufacturing in house, we are strengthening our ability to control production timelines, accelerate product development, and scale more efficiently. We proudly serve the broader quantum ecosystem through our trusted fab, full IP protection, and secure domestic U.S. manufacturing capabilities.

L020​SkyWater is flourishing as part of IonQ. In just two months together, we launched SkyWater Quantum Solutions, built around repeatable technology platforms with repeatable quantum products that customers can build on. To start, we have developed [SQ90 and SQ250 — platform names unclear in audio], which together support all quantum modalities. We also developed RH90, a radiation-hardened platform for satellites and defense systems. We are proud to have signed long-term agreements to support D-Wave and Qolab with SkyWater's trusted fab solutions. Less than a month after launching our quantum foundry solutions at our Investor Day in September, we began shipping these wafers to customers. This early progress shows how we can translate our manufacturing capabilities into commercial opportunities. Over time, we expect this approach to support greater efficiency, economies of scale, and improved margins.

L021​Advancing all of this at once takes two things: exceptional talent and the capital to invest with conviction. We have both. In October, we raised $2 billion at a premium to our share price, bringing us to $3.7 billion in pro forma cash on our balance sheet. IonQ has now extended its lead as the best-capitalized pure-play quantum company in the world. Our financial strength gives us the flexibility to build the quantum ecosystem. We will continue to invest in the technologies, robust manufacturing capabilities, and commercial infrastructure needed to scale our business to profitability. Importantly, we are focused on making those investments with discipline, building a strong foundation for operating leverage, sustainable growth, and long-term shareholder value. With that, I will hand the call over to my colleague, Inder.

Inder Singh

L022​Thank you very much, Niccolo, and good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining. For what is now the sixth quarter in a row, as Niccolo said, we are again reporting another record-setting quarter and the highest revenue quarter in the history of the company. In Q3, we reported revenues of $173.8 million, which represents 336% year-on-year growth. These results exceeded even our own internal modeling, really driven by strength across the board, and we were happy to see the closing of SkyWater, which enabled us to now offer a vertically integrated company, not just a platform company, to our customers.

L023​As you're aware, we recently further strengthened our balance sheet with a successful raise of an additional $2 billion of capital, which gives us the financial firepower to invest in innovation, maintain our lead, and continue to drive the business forward. Our pro forma cash balance now stands at $3.7 billion.

L024​Let me remind you of what we previewed at our Investor Day on September 8: we will now report in two segments, IonQ Platform and SkyWater Foundry Services. Please refer to slide 16 of today's investor deck, where you can see these two new reporting segments. Just as we have been giving you color on IonQ's business in the past, going forward we'll plan to give you color on the SkyWater side as well. To be clear, we are still running this company as one P&L, and we're investing and allocating capital across the business.

L025​Let me now share with you the key drivers of our revenues for the quarter. I'll first discuss the IonQ Platform, and then the SkyWater segment. For the IonQ business, which is the world's leading quantum platform, our Q3 revenues were $90.3 million, representing 127% year-on-year growth. This growth was fueled by strength in quantum computing, which remains our fastest-growing product line, where global deployment of our fifth-generation Tempo quantum computers is the principal driver. It was also driven by global deployment of our quantum sensing and space-based products.

L026​Last quarter, I told you how much more important security was starting to become for us. With our acquisition of Elisity, we can now deliver an even more complete portfolio of solutions in the quantum cybersecurity space, which uniquely positions us to help protect our customers' crown-jewel assets before Q-Day happens, the day that Niccolo talks about. As you know, our leading quantum cybersecurity business, which we built with the acquisition of ID Quantique and further investment, has given us key future cybersecurity technology, and since we acquired ID Quantique, we have added 125 new quantum security customers into that business. Now, with Elisity, we have direct access to approximately 100 more, nearly doubling the number of customers.

L027​Our aim is to keep driving our world-leading position in quantum cybersecurity and preparing for what is becoming inevitable, I think, in most people's minds. As I mentioned at Investor Day, the cybersecurity TAM, which we are now addressing, is positioned not only to grow strongly, but it even has the potential to become bigger than the quantum computing TAM over time. We're beginning to see more and more CEO-level discussions begin with a discussion of security, which tells you that this is becoming the top of their priority list.

L028​Let me also touch on sensing, which was strong in the quarter, and is yet another TAM that we talked about at Investor Day. You all know traditional GPS systems have proven to be vulnerable or inaccurate, and therefore our sensing products are also taking on a higher degree of relevance, especially for defense customers. GPS provides position, navigation, and timing, which are increasingly being jammed, and our sensing portfolio provides not only accuracy, but also resiliency for PNT. Just one example: this quarter, we were proud to be awarded a $28 million DARPA contract, which starts with 25 of our next-generation atomic clocks. This contract also has an option for the customer to buy another 100, for mission-critical applications including radar, secure communications, and precision geolocation.

L029​We also won contracts with NIST and the Naval Research Laboratory. We are pleased to see this momentum continue, and as we have now signed nine sensing contracts just since July, I'm pleased to see that this is, again, another cylinder that is firing for us. Once again, this is an addressable TAM that is separate from the others, and we are uniquely positioned to address it with the solutions we have.

L030​As I've done in prior quarters, let me share some further color on the drivers of our revenue. I'll talk about IonQ first, and then the SkyWater segment. For the IonQ segment in Q3, commercial customers represented roughly 65% of revenue, international customers were roughly 35%, and multi-product customers comprised 40%. We're very encouraged by these trends in the IonQ Platform business. These trends tell us that customers are putting our solutions to work in real-world applications around the globe, and are increasingly turning to IonQ for more than one product.

L031​As an example of our multi-product strategy, this quarter we signed a $33 million contract with SDT of Korea for a Superion 256 quantum computer as well as a quantum networking memory solution. This deployment will anchor a hybrid quantum-classical data center in South Korea, similar to other deployments. And as Niccolo mentioned, this is one of the value propositions where our QPU sits next to a GPU cluster, allowing for hybrid computing.

L032​Let me now talk a little bit about SkyWater and the drivers of SkyWater. Of course, I would remind you that SkyWater closed at the end of July, so the numbers that I will share represent two months' worth of SkyWater financials. Additionally, I'll remind you that when we consolidate the IonQ segment and SkyWater, we eliminate any intercompany revenue for work done by SkyWater's foundries for the IonQ segment's Superion product. Therefore, all of my remarks exclude any intercompany revenue.

L033​The SkyWater segment delivered $83.5 million for the quarter, exceeding our expectations, and we are very, very pleased with what we're seeing on the ground with the team as we move ahead with the integration. A few of you asked in the past: would we retain the customers that are in the quantum foundry there, for example? I'm delighted to report that not only did we maintain our customer base, we in fact grew it. Importantly, we extended our agreement with D-Wave for a multi-year period.

L034​Our goal as a company is to continue to be the leader in the products and the platform that we offer to our customers, of course. But our efforts are also to support the broader ecosystem of players. As yet another example, we signed a first-of-its-kind, multi-year agreement with a new quantum foundry customer, Qolab, which was co-founded by Nobel laureate Professor John Martinis. Both of these examples are testament to the fact that we believe we can not only retain, but also grow, the quantum foundry within the SkyWater segment. As an indicator, in Q3 the quantum foundry within SkyWater saw revenues grow by more than 30% year on year, excluding any revenue from IonQ.

L035​SkyWater not only brings us the quantum foundry, but also a set of highly secure and differentiated manufacturing capabilities, and we are leveraging that for critical national defense applications, especially for government customers, where security and secure manufacturing are important. So, beyond quantum, SkyWater brings us these advanced technologies, which are unique and differentiated. This quarter, we accelerated one of those, advanced imaging, to meet growing demand from major defense primes, supported by the Department of War and others. We intend to leverage these advanced technologies in the coming quarters and years to differentiate us even further with our solutions, which make us more sticky in our customers' minds, especially government and national security customers.

L036​And for SkyWater's CMOS foundry, which many of you are familiar with, Q3 performance was also strong. In that business, we have a very stable, predictable revenue stream, with a multi-year take-or-pay supply agreement with Infineon. This gives us a solid base of revenue in an area where we see potential for future growth, and we intend to drive growth there [remainder of sentence unclear in audio], allocating capital to the parts of it that make sense for us. And as you all know, as you lift the utilization rate in the foundry, it also helps expand the margins of that foundry.

L037​Let me now turn to RPOs, which are our remaining performance obligations. In Q3, I'm pleased to report that we ended the quarter with $1.2 billion of RPO, even as we used some of the RPO to deliver our record-setting quarter. This RPO number, of course, now includes both the IonQ segment and the SkyWater segment. Now, RPOs for the IonQ segment grew from $485 million to $689 million in Q3, lifted by approximately $290 million of new contracts signed in the quarter. Of the $290 million, approximately $180 million came from very strong quantum computing sales, especially of our next-generation Superion 256 quantum computers, and the fact that we advanced to Stage C, as Niccolo mentioned.

L038​SkyWater added a further $479 million to our RPOs in addition to the IonQ segment, which now includes SkyWater's contracts, both long term and short term. The combined $1.2 billion RPO provides us excellent visibility into our business. Because this is our first quarter with SkyWater, we're sharing these additional details with you. On a go-forward basis, we anticipate continuing to report our RPOs, even though we may or may not provide this level of detail.

L039​Moving now to expenses and where we're investing. GAAP operating expenses for the quarter were $606.9 million, and on a non-GAAP basis, $36.6 million [figure as heard; verify against the 10-Q]. As I said in prior quarters, R&D is, and will remain, our primary focus of investment, in order to ensure our market-leading position and that our products are invested in with a long-term lens. R&D helps make that happen. On a year-to-date basis, R&D remains our largest investment area, as we have invested more than $425 million so far to maintain our world-leading quantum innovation position. For Q3, on a non-GAAP basis, we invested $96.8 million into R&D.

L040​As we have also said in recent quarters, go-to-market is also an important investment area for us, because we have many more things to offer to our customers. I'm pleased that we now have the go-to-market engine we need as demand accelerates and more products come online that we can offer, as demonstrated, frankly, in Q3 by the signings that we had and the strength of the RPOs that we're talking about.

L041​Let me now turn to SkyWater, because it was a busy quarter for us with the close of SkyWater, and a number of things have to be done when you acquire a company that large, as you can imagine. We are focused on investing in all of the people, processes, tools, and technologies needed for SkyWater to succeed, and for IonQ overall to drive effective solutions for our customers and efficient manufacturing. As a result of the acquisition, G&A this quarter included approximately $40 million of one-time costs. These are excluded from adjusted EBITDA, but nonetheless, as you do these integrations, you invest to, frankly, drive efficiency further down the road.

L042​In the quarter, we also had to look at purchase price accounting, as well as marking SkyWater's assets to fair value, as you always do in an acquisition, and closing the quarter on a combined-company basis. Yes, it was a busy quarter for everyone, but a very strong, record-setting one again. No doubt, we are now positioned to deliver end-to-end solutions to our customers, and the work doesn't end here on integration. We are uniquely, and very, very enterprise-wide, focused on driving M&A integration across the business, with SkyWater especially as well.

L043​Turning now to adjusted EBITDA for Q3, which was negative $133.6 million, reflecting the integration investment concentrated in the quarter. Looking forward into the fourth quarter, we expect our adjusted EBITDA to improve compared to the third quarter we just reported. The current S&P Global Capital IQ consensus estimate of $127 million for Q4 doesn't seem unreasonable to us. This expected improvement reflects our commitment to profitability and to our diligent integration activities, which we are going to drive across our business, including the companies that we acquire, of course.

L044​Net income attributable to IonQ for the quarter was $564 million, which included an $896 million non-cash gain from the mark-to-market valuation of our warrants. As a reminder, that gain does not reflect the operating performance of our business. I'm very pleased and excited about all of the accomplishments that Niccolo talked about and that we have recorded in the last few years, and especially about our future ahead.

L045​Let me turn now to our guidance for the balance of this year. At Investor Day in September, we raised our guidance for 2026. Today, on the strength of our record third quarter, we are further raising our full-year 2026 revenue guidance from $450 million to $460 million, up to now $505 million to $515 million. We can now probably say that IonQ expects to be the first pure-play quantum company to report half a billion dollars in GAAP revenue. This represents more than a 10x revenue increase in just the past few years.

L046​Many of you ask about our quantum computing revenue, which, of course, is a key driver and remains that. On the strength of our strong sales motion and performance in the third quarter, we are expecting more than 110% growth in our quantum computing revenue this year, up from the 100% that I talked about last quarter.

L047​Now that we are moving toward potentially being the first quantum company to deliver a billion dollars of revenue in the future, it is also time to begin to think about charting our path through both revenue growth and profitability. September marked my one-year anniversary with the company in this operating role, and as we scale, this comes into focus as a priority for Niccolo and the entire leadership team, to ensure that we are plotting our path for profitable growth in the future. We have a number of products, and some products naturally will get there faster than others, and we will look across all of them to say how we want to allocate capital and drive both growth and profitability.

L048​Operationally, we're putting in place programs to drive bottom-line results, including disciplined monthly and quarterly business reviews of what things are going well and what needs attention; our pricing strategies across our portfolio; and [deal desk review — unclear in audio]. Sales productivity, M&A integration — everything takes on an importance at this point as we think about profitability. With SkyWater and our other acquisitions, we run more back-office systems and sites than we need. That's an example of where we will turn our focus in 2027 and look at our site strategy. I could give you many more examples. We have a team that will focus on this, and in my experience and Niccolo's [unclear in audio], it always helps to align compensation with the results that you're trying to drive, and we may consider ensuring that these initiatives toward profitability become part of that exercise as we enter 2027.

L049​In conclusion, our results reinforce our confidence in being able to not only close out 2026 on a high note, but really on a record-setting one. And we believe IonQ is well positioned to continue trailblazing and leading in quantum technology as it accelerates around the world. Operator, can we now open the queue for questions?

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

L050​Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your touch-tone phone. We ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up to ensure we have time to take all the questioners in the queue. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing any keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster.

L051​Our first question comes from Vivek Arya of Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Analyst, on for Vivek Arya — Bank of America

L052​Yeah, this is [name unclear in audio] on for Vivek. Thank you so much for taking our questions. I wanted to start on quantum security and networking, now that you've closed your Elisity acquisition. Could you describe how you're seeing that market, how we should think about that market longer term in terms of size, and how that compares to compute? And more specifically, your strategy to monetize that section of your portfolio — should we expect it to be more subscription-based, like cybersecurity companies are doing elsewhere in the space, or more hardware? Just walk us through that part of the business, please.

Inder Singh

L053​Sure, yeah, great question. Look, a quarter and two quarters ago, even, Niccolo and I were talking about quantum security becoming more and more prevalent in our conversations with customers. And I think the executive order that came out previously, as you're aware, and other events that have happened since, have made it clear to most large enterprises, and frankly even others — governments, of course, around the world — that classical cybersecurity just doesn't work. Not only against things like Mythos, but frankly against a quantum computer. If it doesn't work against Mythos, what do you do in a quantum environment?

L054​So what we have assembled is a quantum cybersecurity business. Of course, we already had a presence in it, as I mentioned in my remarks, but we needed to round out that portfolio, and what Elisity brings to us is the ability to help a customer become quantum-safe — not two years from now, not three years from now, but now. That capability is what Elisity, frankly, has sold to its customers, and it is also something that we needed. We were building that; now we bought it, so we got there faster and earlier. So we now have the ability to talk to an enterprise of any size — and many large enterprises are customers — and say: we can scan your network, and we can look for quantum vulnerabilities with the tools that Elisity brings us. Again, we were building that tool; now we have the tool. So Elisity brings a lot of acceleration, I think, in my mind, in terms of what we can offer to our customers when they're becoming more sensitive about security.

L055​The prospects of this business, to your question around growth and TAM: as I said, I think this is a TAM that could be, and might be, bigger than even quantum computing one day. Our solutions work on existing networks, and they don't require tens of billions of dollars of investment. Yes, there's some hardware, of course there is. Elisity is a software business. I love the software business, and the margins of that business. I love it even more when it is a recurring-revenue business. So they bring 100 customers, as I mentioned; we have over 100 ourselves. That's just the beginning. We intend to drive it further from there. So it is a recurring-revenue, high-margin, uniquely positioned opportunity for us to leverage. And growth comes with investment, and that's why we made the investment. Niccolo, do you want to add anything?

Niccolo de Masi

L056​No, I mean, look, I met with a number of world leaders at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting earlier this week, and I would echo what Inder said, which is: everyone recognizes that security is the foundation, not just for civilization as we know it, but obviously for moving forward technologically. If you are a nation, or a large enterprise, or a department of a large nation, it all kind of goes back to: can you trust your communications? Can you trust the systems you're working with, and can you trust the network you're on?

L057​So, on a combined basis, we have an absolutely differentiated software and hardware platform. It's an area that we're very bullish on, not only as a place to bolster the foundations that are already in existence across the globe, but one that needs continual investment in this era of LLMs and quantum computers, and an area where we can land and expand across the rest of our quantum platform. So you may start in the CISO's office, but we rapidly get to the rest of the organization by delivering success in our first quantum engagements. And as you heard in my prepared remarks, we are increasingly finding that our customers are demanding more and more of our platform.

Analyst, on for Vivek Arya — Bank of America

L058​Thank you. And then, for my second question, I was wondering if you could give us some more color around the rationale behind the $2 billion raise in October. What should we expect for use of proceeds? And what went into the timing of that decision, given that Superion 256 is ramping in the — sorry, the first half of 2027? Thank you.

Inder Singh

L059​So I'll start. Look, I believe, globally, that we need to have the ability to invest for the long term: the ability to invest in R&D, having the best talent on the planet, which we believe we have already, and ensuring that we keep the innovation edge, right? Every year we're introducing a new generation of quantum computer, each one exponentially more powerful than the prior. That requires line of sight to the next five years of R&D investment, for example, and even longer. And we'd like to make sure that we have the ability to keep investing without blinking.

L060​I'm pleased, frankly, looking at the stock market [remainder of phrase unclear in audio], that we did the raise when we did it, and it was done at a premium. So it's not for the 256 or anything like that in particular, as you were mentioning. I'd describe it more as preparing for the next chapter of growth of IonQ, as Niccolo mentioned: a company that is going to have a billion dollars, going to [multiple billions — unclear in audio], and beyond, and ensuring that we have a fortress balance sheet as much as we can. So it's long-term capital, not for any particular need. We believe that this gives us some years of runway and the ability to make sure that we keep growing and setting the pace for the industry. Does that help you?

Analyst, on for Vivek Arya — Bank of America

L061​Yeah, very much. Thank you very much.

Inder Singh

L062​You got it.

Operator

L063​Our next question comes from Joe Moore of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Joe Moore — Morgan Stanley

L064​Great, thank you. I wonder if you could talk about the NVIDIA announcement that you had — that there'll be IonQ systems in the research center. Give us any color on what that may mean for you going forward. Thank you.

Niccolo de Masi

L065​Hey, Joe, thanks. So we are the first partner in their Boston research center, which is obviously a data center that requires robust deployments of anything in it, so that vibrations do not cause alignment issues. And I think it's safe to say that IonQ's robust manufacturing process at SkyWater, as well as the architecture we've created that puts ion traps on a chip, gives us not just a cost advantage or manufacturing advantage, but also a stability advantage. So we're uniquely well suited if you look across the quantum ecosystem.

L066​And it's safe to say that, kind of like with the DARPA QBI program, where there are 500 people doing diligence at the Department of War on things like quantum utility and who can manufacture, who can drive that economic value-add, NVIDIA has a large [team — unclear in audio] who are looking at the quantum ecosystem and trying to find the partner, if not the partners, who can scale with them into the hybrid workflows that I referenced in my prepared remarks.

L067​So we'll be doing research with NVIDIA on, of course, the future of what GPU-based machine learning and QPU-based AI can do. We'll be doing research together, obviously, on how we can deploy hybrid workflows, and we think it's a fantastic endorsement — between DARPA QBI Stage C and NVIDIA — of our architecture and our ability to deploy rapidly, seamlessly, in a robust way, in a stable way. That gives us additional vectors of scalability here. By proving this out in one data center with NVIDIA, we can obviously prove it out in the rest of their data centers. We expect this will expand our channels to market as well.

Joe Moore — Morgan Stanley

L068​Great. And just to clarify, that deployment is next year. Have you said anything more specific on timing than that?

Niccolo de Masi

L069​We haven't given an exact month, but I think it's safe to say that it's one of our earlier ones, and we'll be very busy next year.

Joe Moore — Morgan Stanley

L070​Okay, thank you.

Niccolo de Masi

L071​Thanks, Joe.

Operator

L072​Our next question comes from Craig Ellis of B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Craig Ellis — B. Riley Securities

L073​Yeah, thanks for taking the question, and congratulations on the momentum in the business, guys. Niccolo, I'll follow up on the point you made about being really busy next year. The company has a really strong track record of doubling revenues year on year, each year, and implicitly in the fourth quarter we should be at a $760 million run rate. So we can see that there could be very significant revenue growth this coming year, but I think I also heard you say that you're already sold out for Superion 256 in calendar 2027. So can you just go into some more detail on some of the tailwinds that you see for next year, and some of the headwinds, whether they be capacity-related or otherwise? Thank you.

Niccolo de Masi

L074​Yeah, so look, I think it's safe to say that I don't see headwinds, and I haven't seen headwinds the last two years, and we are in a secular bull market here, not just for quantum security, but obviously quantum computing and quantum sensing. If I look across our platform, we're the only down-select in DARPA's It's About Time program for clocks. We're the only down-select for the DARPA HARQ program around entanglement distribution. And we're the only ion-trap down-select for DARPA [QBI Stage C — as heard]. So technical validation is very strong for our company, and you're seeing that from, obviously, the most important institutions, not just in the U.S., but, I'd argue, in the world.

L075​On the commercial front, we have always said that commercial success obviously requires not only technical underlying milestones in the lab, but it requires the D part of R&D to happen, as well as the manufacturing and go-to-market functions, and, of course, the commissioning. We have grown all of these functions every year, and we continue to grow them relentlessly, because, remember, our systems turned on first nearly a decade ago, in 2017; our systems have been on the public clouds since 2020; and we have a pipeline of customers who are absolutely coming to us knowing that we have a track record of delivering year after year since our IPO.

L076​My comment on selling out 2027 capacity is obviously a very bullish sign. We are going to keep growing our manufacturing capacity of whole systems. As I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we are not limited, of course, by making the chip. That is something we can make in large numbers with SkyWater. But the rest of the system, obviously, is something that we are going to continue to grow in a vertically integrated, U.S. supply chain–secure model. And so it's safe to say that you should read into my comments that we're beginning to fill the order books into 2028, pretty comfortably, [and not just in 2028 for Superion systems — unclear in audio], but of course we have interest in the future generations that we're working on, given that we showed off three generations of our CMOS chips at Analyst Day in September. And you can see them also, of course, in our executive briefing center in College Park, our headquarters, anytime.

Craig Ellis — B. Riley Securities

L077​Very helpful.

Inder Singh

L078​I'll just add a brief comment, just to remind you: last year, we talked about demand for Tempo exceeding our ability to supply. A quarter later, we saw that. So the comment from Niccolo is very much about demand. The demand is very strong, so you can count on the fact that we've done it before, and we'll rise to the challenge of meeting demand again, in ever greater numbers.

Craig Ellis — B. Riley Securities

L079​Yeah, certainly the new contract signings show that it's strong right now.

Inder Singh

L080​Yeah, no doubt about it.

Craig Ellis — B. Riley Securities

L081​On the path-to-profitability comment, Inder — back office as an emphasis next year makes a lot of sense. Can you just clarify, in the third quarter, in the adjusted EBITDA number, what was the amount that related to the SkyWater deal close and related non-operating expense, just so we can have a clean number for the third quarter as we look at the fourth quarter and next year?

Inder Singh

L082​Yeah, you'll find more detail in our filing around it. I did comment around G&A being one of those areas, for example. And you can think about it this way: over time, of course, integration happens with IT, right? It's not a day-one thing, always. So the opportunity to expand margins is, for us, I think, available from an M&A integration standpoint in a very big way. I pointed out some of the things in my prepared remarks, but we started a team with someone who used to do this professionally at a prior company and knows exactly how to drive it, taking the baton over from another colleague on my team as we now integrate SkyWater, and driving a very systematic approach to go after, as you said, back office, right? IT systems, financial systems, all of the things that you would think would be necessary.

L083​So that's one area, but I would also talk about the front office, quote unquote: the ability to do multi-product sales and leverage the products of one of the companies that we acquired with another. That's something that Niccolo and I and the team are focused on driving much harder, much faster. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, we made a lot of headway on our go-to-market. The leader that we brought in, whom I've talked about a number of times now, and his team are starting to really fire on all cylinders, and you can see the results in the signings and the RPO. I never thought we'd be talking about a $1.2 billion RPO.

L084​So we have the opportunity to expand margins. The path to profitability is what any responsible company would pursue, and we're doing it because we're reaching scale. And we don't intend to do anything to damage our hyper-growth trajectory, of course not. We intend to make sure that we are disciplined around our costs and how we invest, and as Niccolo and I and the leadership team get together and discuss capital allocation, to ask where we want to put the incremental dollar in terms of growth, and the return on that growth. So it's a discipline that you would expect from any company at scale, and I think we're now at scale.

Operator

L085​Our next question comes from John McPeake of Rosenblatt. Please go ahead.

John McPeake — Rosenblatt Securities

L086​Thank you. Can you hear me, guys?

Inder Singh

L087​Yes. Hey, John.

John McPeake — Rosenblatt Securities

L088​Okay, great. Thanks a lot. Sorry — I don't want to start talking and then hear "eh?" All right: congrats on DARPA Stage C, and thanks for the additional metrics — sold-out capacity, 256. On slide six: is it as simple as price times units — make an assumption on price, and then units — to figure out our estimates for your Superion 256 sales in 2027?

Inder Singh

L089​We haven't really talked about 2027 yet from a revenue or guidance standpoint, so I don't want to get into sort of P times Q per se. But yeah, I mean, much as you would sell a Tempo system, [a Gen 6 — unclear in audio] is a similar system.

John McPeake — Rosenblatt Securities

L090​Okay. And should we just assume similar prices across the board, or is there any variance based on desirability of customer, reference customer, or anything like that?

Inder Singh

L091​The customer demand that we're seeing is from really serious customers who want to invest for the longer term, not just for a box, right? So what I like to keep in mind is customer lifetime value, John — I know you used to talk about that a lot. Someone will buy, over multiple years, the many generations of computers we will make, but also multiple products. And so we're happy to see the demand, and yet, of course, we're being picky in terms of selecting the customers that will be with us on the journey for the long term.

Niccolo de Masi

L092​So they'll be first in line for the 10,000, et cetera.

Inder Singh

L093​Yeah, of course. Of course.

John McPeake — Rosenblatt Securities

L094​And then, if you could elaborate a little bit more on the status of the Superion 256 — where it is right now on the bench — anything would be appreciated. That's all I've got.

Niccolo de Masi

L095​Yeah, so we made a pretty full update, obviously, at our Analyst Day on September 8th on that one. And assuming you were there, you would have seen our display of three or four generations of chips. We've talked about the reduction in cycle time from nine months to nine weeks. And we've obviously talked about the fact that our architecture has been proven out from a fidelity perspective and a control-system perspective. So the timelines remain as they have been for the last two months. We continue to march forward, not just in the R phase, but the D phase, if you will. And if you visit any of our offices, you'll see these machines in College Park and Oxford and so on as they're being built.

L096​So I think there'll be a lot more updates coming on our next earnings call. On this one, we kind of provided the November update, if you will, early in September. But fundamentally, the thesis remains exactly as it has been in prior quarters, and we're excited about the fact that this architecture has obviously been validated by DARPA's QBI Stage C selection, as well as by NVIDIA, as probably having the most powerful — let's just say — time-to-solution and cost-to-solution in the world.

Operator

L097​Our next question comes from Robert [surname unclear in audio] of Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Robert [surname unclear], on for Quinn Bolton — Needham & Company

L098​Hi, guys. Thank you for taking the question. This is Robert on for Quinn Bolton here at Needham. Just one on the SkyWater acquisition, now that it is closed. You touched on this in the prepared remarks, but I was wondering if you could expand on some of the external quantum customer engagements. Congrats, obviously, on extending D-Wave, and it sounds like things are moving in the right direction, but what are some of the engagements with other existing external foundry customers, and their appetite to work with SkyWater, and how has that changed since the deal closed?

Niccolo de Masi

L099​So I think what's exciting about the SkyWater platform at this point is that we've been investing in and expanding these merchant supply capabilities. We made an acquisition of a business called Nexus Photonics that adds integrated photonics to the overall quantum foundry proposition. You've seen our announcement of a program to accelerate earlier-stage startup quantum companies into the manufacturing phase, using the complete value chain that SkyWater, plus Nexus, plus IonQ have brought together here. And just as Inder and I talk about our customers taking more than one proposition, if you will, from our products across the platform, the same thing is able to happen, and is starting to happen, across the SkyWater customer base. So they can do more with us because we offer more.

L100​We have maintained complete intellectual property integrity and complete security integrity, as was committed and promised when we first announced the deal back in February this year. And I think our customers have seen that. And so we've had a strong reception, honestly, across not just the United States, but, let's just say, the Western world, of the capabilities and the fact that we are the only operating quantum foundry, we believe, in the 2020s that's able to deliver, deliver on time, deliver at cost, and really help the quantum industry scale. So we continue to invest in our capability, and we're really excited about the fact that this integration has gone exactly as planned, exactly on schedule. I'd say in a lot of ways it's a role model for how acquisition integrations can happen, particularly between two public companies.

Robert [surname unclear], on for Quinn Bolton — Needham & Company

L101​It's great to hear. And just a quick one on Stage C of DARPA QBI: I was wondering what some of the feedback was that DARPA gave you guys? And then, what does the process look like beyond Stage C?

Niccolo de Masi

L102​Well, look, there are obviously important NDAs in place, and I'm not going to be reading off feedback from the Department of War on an earnings call. But I think it is safe to say that what is public about DARPA QBI is that there are approximately 500 people on their side doing detailed diligence on not only where a company's machine is today, but the roadmap of where they are going in the next few years. And so this is not just incredibly validating for us because of the financial ramifications of a $300 million program; it's incredibly validating because our architecture has obviously come together and proven out exactly what we said it would over the last year or two.

L103​And I think it's exciting that we were early in DARPA Stage B and early in DARPA Stage C, and we have a lot of momentum, obviously, because we are not just being practical about bill of materials, but we've already demonstrated rapid, if not the fastest, time-to-solution, I'd say, in the industry. So on April 14th this year, World Quantum Day, if you look at our presentation materials there — or in our investor decks — you can see that our time-to-solution is somewhere like 100x to 10,000x faster than other cloud computers that were available earlier this year.

L104​And so the combination of incredibly fast time-to-solution — solving useful applications and doing real work — as well as having an unparalleled price point, if you will, for the machines that are delivering that power, gives us not just speed, but cost-to-solution, which translates into utility. And so DARPA Stage C is about economic utility, not only algorithmic utility, right? It's not just "can you solve the algorithm," which is a necessary but not sufficient condition; it turns into: okay, if you can solve the algorithm at all, how fast can you do it, and what does it cost to do it? And this is why we're really delighted by this validation, because it is obviously done at the highest levels of government, as well as the highest levels of technical achievement.

L105​And it speaks to the fact that we've really designed our systems for manufacture and scale from the get-go. We recognize that a sound in the woods that no one hears is not very valuable, right? A lab experiment that never leaves the lab is nothing more than a lab experiment that you can write a paper about but never manufacture. What's unique about us is that we're really integrated: we do manufacture, we can scale tremendously, and we can deploy. And I would argue we have the most practice doing that and the biggest track record doing it, and it gives us a lot of momentum as we head into the next year or two of building fault-tolerant machines and doing exactly the same thing we've done since our IPO the last five years.

Inder Singh

L106​And I would just simply — I mean, Niccolo nailed it. I would just add: our touch points with DARPA are increasing. Not only did we get to Stage C, but they also brought us on the clocks that I mentioned earlier around sensing, and we have announced the HARQ agreement. So we're delighted to see that, as DARPA represents the front end of business with the Department of War, for example, they are testing and certifying and feeling comfortable with our products for deployment — I'll call it — in the mission. And that, to me, from our experience, is a good leading indicator of the government being more ready to do business with you.

Operator

L107​Our next question comes from Gary Mobley of StoneX. Please go ahead.

Gary Mobley — StoneX

L108​Thanks for taking my question. A lot of the discussion so far has been on hardware sales, but I'm curious if you can share with us some of the performance KPIs for cloud access, or revenue generated from your deployed cloud capacity. First of all, how much capacity do you have from a revenue perspective, maybe annualized? How have the usage trends gone on a year-over-year basis, and where are you in terms of utilization right now?

Inder Singh

L109​Yeah, both are growing, right? As I said last quarter, some customers prefer to start with QCaaS, and some customers will start and stay with QCaaS, and quantum computing as a service allows you to do many things: it's used for education, training, running some basic types of algorithms, et cetera. On the other hand, if you want to do hybrid computing, and you want to put a QPU next to a GPU, you can't do that through the cloud. So both are driving higher. Of course, QCaaS is a higher-margin business, as I said last quarter, so the more it grows, the better we do.

L110​So, you're asking, do we focus on software? Of course we do. Elisity is a software business. As we look into our future, we're going to have a mix of hardware and software. The margins should be helped by that, and the path to profitability should be helped by that. But in the quarter, and this year, frankly, year to date, I'm seeing strong demand for QCaaS, as well as, as Niccolo mentioned, in the announcements we made, folks saying: we actually have a data center with a bunch of GPUs from NVIDIA, and we want to put one of your computers next to it. KISTI was one, the one we have this quarter another, Quantum Basel another, EPB in Tennessee, and others.

L111​It's a pattern that we would love to see continue. And I think that, more and more, the countries Niccolo visits and the customers he meets are saying they want sovereign access and sovereign control. So I see both growing over time. You can't use some algorithms on a cloud basis, so you need the machine. On the other hand, you don't necessarily need to buy the machine, and you can use QCaaS from us instead. We run behind all three major clouds.

Gary Mobley — StoneX

L112​Inder, I'm going to ask about maybe some capacity constraints. You did mention that Superion 256 is sold out through 2027. So does that create some sort of impediment to selling more, naturally or purposefully on your part? And how do you transition to become a mass producer, producing 10-plus of these machines each year?

Inder Singh

L113​Yeah, well, look, I think that the demand is growing. We are creating groundbreaking innovations with each of our computers, and we're delighted to see the demand. We're a company that moves very rapidly, as you've seen from us in the past. If demand is there, we will rise to that demand. So I have no doubt in my mind that the capacity comment is a temporary comment. We have multiple locations that we own where we can do manufacturing. And when we get to the larger numbers we're talking about, we can think about manufacturing strategies that involve third parties as well. So that is not going to limit us on our products.

Niccolo de Masi

L114​Yeah, I just want to be clear: I did not give you a number for 2027, and we absolutely have the intention of getting to large-scale manufacturing at this company, and we're the best positioned in the world to do that because we own SkyWater, right? So I think you should read into the capacity constraint [comment] of a vertically integrated company that has a significant advantage in U.S. supply chain: the demand is unbelievably strong.

Operator

L115​Our next question comes from Tyler Anderson of Craig-Hallum. Please go ahead.

Tyler Anderson, on for Richard Shannon — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

L116​Hi, guys. This is Tyler Anderson on for Richard Shannon. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to expand upon the manufacturing capacity, and I do want to clarify very quickly, because I've been getting cut out with the sound: did you say that you had six systems being delivered in '27?

Niccolo de Masi

L117​No, we did not mention any numbers. Sorry, you must have had some crosstalk.

Tyler Anderson, on for Richard Shannon — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

L118​No, that's totally fine. So I just want to, from a high level, speak to — when we look at manufacturing these systems, and your new system is powered by microwave and electronic control, I would presume that would be a little bit more manufacturable, or at least have a shorter time to manufacture. So if you could just describe how long the previous systems typically took compared to the new ones, in any way that you could. And then, highlighting that you just said there's a potential for contract manufacturers, I'm wondering: does that de-emphasize the need for, let's just say, smaller optical solutions, or just more semiconductor solutions to essentially take out the complexity?

Niccolo de Masi

L119​Okay, so there are, like, three or four questions nested there. Let me tackle most of them in one shot. Absolutely, we will demonstrate, I think, in the coming year or two, that only IonQ can manufacture fault-tolerant computers that are robust, stable, can sit in data centers, have fast commissioning times, and relatively rapid manufacturing times. Obviously, like with everything in life, you get better the more you practice. But compared to bulk optics — where our industry tends to be in a lot of places, and where IonQ was two and a half years ago — electronic qubit control and ion traps on a chip are unbelievably rapidly manufacturable, robust, stable, and don't require the tuning environments that bulk optics require. Okay? First point.

L120​We have assembled this company in the past two years so that we are the mass-market manufacturing winner, on a global basis, for fault-tolerant quantum computers. And that takes an architecture that works, and it takes the actual supply chain and the trusted fabs in a secure environment to deliver on that, right? And we are doing that. And I want to point out that we've delivered more systems than anybody else, sold more systems than everybody else, and we continue to see a path to growing that rapidly in the coming years, even as we move the R&D roadmap forward.

L121​The second thing is that we own Nexus, which is an integrated photonics company. And integrated photonics are really useful, not just for where our computing platform is going, but also for where other opportunities across our quantum platform may head. I've talked about the importance of our atomic clocks, which are the most accurate in the world by a long way. We are the only down-select in the DARPA It's About Time program — i.e., you can read into that that no one else in the world makes clocks as accurate as ours — using integrated photonics in our clocks. We also own, of course, capabilities in the heavens. And our clocks, as they miniaturize, will offer incredible next-generation positioning, navigation, and timing — GPS — opportunities, precisely because we can manufacture and drive integrated photonics along with the world's most accurate clocks, also deployed in multiple theaters of war, if you will, from submarines to satellites.

L122​So we're really pleased with how the vision is coming together. It's obviously been many years in the making, but we've been incredibly deliberate about the pieces we've added, how we've integrated them, and how we've proven out the pieces. And I think it's safe to say that the roughly 4,000 people who work at IonQ are excited to be here precisely because of how we integrate our roadmaps and what we can do in quarters and years, as opposed to what will take other companies a decade.

Tyler Anderson, on for Richard Shannon — Craig-Hallum Capital Group

L123​Got it, and I agree with the deliberate acquisitions. On that note, I see crypto-agility as table stakes for PQC, considering its potential fragility in the future. But thinking about these technologies that you've acquired, is there any way you could repurpose some of them, such as microsegmentation, to bolster other things within your business?

Niccolo de Masi

L124​I think that's a great point, honestly, Tyler. There are many more opportunities across our platform when you look at the synergies between the patents we have — I think we have something like 1,200 and counting — and the talent we have. And so we have the high-class problem, Tyler, of deciding the stack-rank order of our commercial opportunities across our R&D platform. And there can be plenty of passionate debates about it, because everything from secure communications, through to the future of GPS, through to the future of security and computing, runs through our company — not to mention that we supply, obviously, a double-digit number of other quantum companies in the ecosystem. And we do this all to accelerate our nation's opportunities for victory in a geopolitical race that we believe matters a lot, not just for national security, but for national economic security.

L125​Every one of our technologies — if you think about the combinations, Tyler, of not just the warfighting domain we're in, but also the ability to cross-pollinate these technologies within IonQ's platform — can create new applications and new roadmaps. And this is a company where everyone's excited to come to work because of exactly what you just pointed out, which is that often one technology that has a primary purpose A and a secondary purpose B, typically in combination with something else we own, could do more along other growth vectors. So there's lots to come here. I'm not going to prognosticate in this forum on what we could do, but you'll hear from us every quarter as we continue to deliver, and as we continue to prove out the R in R&D, and then the D, and then the manufacturing — the commercial opportunities obviously have to sync, because we are, we believe, the largest player in our sector.

L126​We are determined to continue powering the [product — unclear in audio] roadmap in parallel with powering, obviously, financial milestones. Inder mentioned long-term thoughts around profitability, and integration for us is not only the back office, but also integration of the [product — unclear in audio] roadmap and our ability to sell that, so that customers are able to drive multiples of revenue per engagement — which, of course, as with every company, drives exponential gross margin and profitability opportunities, as you're servicing that customer more effectively.

L127​Lastly, I'll just say, I think you know a fair amount about what's going on in the security space. I agree with you that there is an arms race underway between LLMs, quantum computers, and what's going on to secure ourselves. That race is just starting, is my strong contention. The last quarter's blips — the FBI website getting hacked, the Department of Homeland Security website getting hacked, and [Binance — unclear in audio], and so on — there's much more of that to come. We're just getting started.

L128​And so what IonQ supplies, in both hardware and software, we believe is absolutely vital, not just for all governments, but of course all enterprises in the free world. And we're investing aggressively to keep ourselves safe, to keep our customers and partners safe, and to keep our governments safe. And we believe that it will be, as Inder rightly pointed out, a rapidly growing segment because of this multi-century, if not multi-thousand-year, race between code makers and code breakers. We've seen, for the first time in a long time — I would argue since the British had Bletchley Park and were cracking Enigma 60, 70 years ago — this kind of momentum in the attack vector and in code breaking. We haven't seen it in decades. And so defense and security is going to be something that everyone has to invest much more in.

Operator

L129​Our next question comes from Troy Jensen of Cantor Fitzgerald. Please go ahead.

Troy Jensen — Cantor Fitzgerald

L130​Thank you, gentlemen. Congrats on just the great results, and DARPA, and the acquisitions, and whatnot. Quick question for Niccolo: I'm sure going forward you'll do probably a lot more acquisitions, and software is probably a candidate for it, but I'd be curious to know if you think IonQ would ever be multi-modality on the hardware front. Or do you think trapped ions are the time-to-solution — the time to cross the finish line — for, like, most important applications?

Niccolo de Masi

L131​Yeah, so let me answer that one politely, Troy, which is: I think there are plenty of people that have to hedge, because they're not in DARPA Stage C, or because they don't have a path to manufacture utility — not at least in the 2020s, right? I mean, we can all prognosticate about the 2040s, and we can prognosticate about the late 2030s. But IonQ has been focused on commercializing since I took this company public in 2020, and we've commercialized, I think, very successfully in the first five years post-IPO. You can see with the pieces we've assembled that we're positioned to continue on that path for the next five years. We have obviously expanded the vision of what we can successfully sell and proven it out to our customers.

L132​And we have obviously doubled down and tripled down on our ion-trap technology, not just because we built the world's first quantum logic gate in 1994, but because we demonstrated the world's first shovel-ready blueprint for building fault-tolerant machines back in April this year, down to every single gate-level operation. I haven't seen anybody else do that. And so, when you think about what the steps are to making fault-tolerant machines: you've got to have that paper out about how you're going to do it; then you have to actually, of course, prove out your technical milestones; then, of course, you absolutely have to get on with the development of your systems and the manufacturing and deployment of those. We have the full spectrum of competencies. We have the full spectrum of validation. We have, of course, three DARPA programs that have validated that.

L133​And so when you've been right for 30 years, I'd say, Troy, and we continue to prove our engineering milestones, I suspect we're going to be right for the next 30 years. The reality is that in the history of technology, time and time again, particularly in computing, one has found that engineering pathways are really important. It's where most of the value is captured. ASML has demonstrated that in chip manufacturing and as an enabling sector for many decades. IonQ has proven that, I would argue, for many decades, and so we continue to double down and triple down, because we're just getting started on what we can do as a vertically integrated supply chain, manufacturer, and architecture.

L134​And because NVIDIA has obviously done their homework and decided we're the most manufacturable, most robust, most deployable, and the best fit for their GPUs, not just of today, but in their roadmap. DARPA's done the same work. And obviously our customers do the same work — with every single one of our system sales, our customers are looking around the globe — and all these people agree. So we're proud of where we are. We're even prouder of where we're going to be in the next year or two, and we're especially proud of where we're going to be as the coming years roll out and we continue to scale, both in our R&D and from a commercial perspective. So watch this space. I think we've done a lot in the last three quarters this year, and we'll do more in the coming quarter.

Troy Jensen — Cantor Fitzgerald

L135​Great answer. If I could get a quick follow-up for Inder: the $290 million of incremental RPO for the IonQ business — I think you said $180 million you think of as systems. Is the rest $110 million? Could you just talk about that piece of it? Is that primarily the sensing wins you guys won recently, or is that security, or other?

Inder Singh

L136​Sorry — of the $180 million, you said?

Troy Jensen — Cantor Fitzgerald

L137​No, the $110 million, the remaining piece of it. I get the $180 million, because that's all Superion and DARPA and whatnot, but yeah.

Inder Singh

L138​The remainder of it is literally everything else. The product portfolio that we've assembled is seeing more and more demand. I went into a couple of anecdotal examples, and that's why I mentioned sensing, and that's why I mentioned the security focus that we have right now as well. But we're really pleased with the portfolio. As a one-stop shop in quantum, we're the only one. So customers start the journey with one product and then move to a second and a third — we're seeing all of those things play out, and that's the multi-product sale that I've talked about in the past. As Niccolo has said, it was his strategy three years ago to put together a platform company, and now we are a full platform company with all the manufacturing capacity we need. So, as demand rises in each of these areas — whether it's security ramping up, or quantum computing — we will ramp up. But yeah, the rest of it came from across the entire business.

Closing Remarks

Operator

L139​This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Niccolo de Masi for any closing remarks.

Niccolo de Masi

L140​Thank you, Operator. We recognized early that our customers' most consequential challenges demand more than a single quantum technology point solution. That conviction is why we expanded IonQ into quantum networking, quantum sensing, and quantum security. Today, IonQ is the only company commercializing a full quantum platform, with more than 40% of this quarter's revenue in the IonQ segment coming from customers buying more than one solution.

L141​Throughout 2026, being in the market worldwide with our quantum platform has given us a clear view of how each business creates value, how the pieces connect, and who owns the buying decisions. Our opportunity now is to build and accelerate from our unique foundation. I expect that leveraging shared technology, manufacturing capabilities, and customer relationships will strengthen each part of our business. We believe that as we scale, these advantages will become increasingly meaningful drivers of growth and long-term shareholder value. IonQ is building the quantum ecosystem. In the coming years, we expect to approach a scale that will support structural profitability. Thank you for joining us today and for your questions, and have a great day.

Operator

L142​This concludes today's conference call. You may disconnect your lines.

Appendix A — Analyst Questions and Answers

Eight analysts took part. Their questions and follow-ups are listed in the order asked. Each entry gives what was asked, who answered, and what the answer reached; references point to the question (Q) and to the start of the answer (A).

#	Analyst	Question	Answered by	Ref.	What the answer reached
1	BofA (on for Vivek Arya)	Size of the quantum security market vs. compute; subscription vs. hardware monetization after Elisity	Inder Singh; Niccolo de Masi	Q L052 A L053	Security TAM could one day exceed quantum computing; Elisity is a recurring-revenue, high-margin software business; ~100 Elisity customers plus 100+ IonQ customers; land in the CISO office, expand across the platform.
2	BofA (on for Vivek Arya)	Rationale, use of proceeds and timing of the $2B October raise	Inder Singh	Q L058 A L059	Long-term capital for R&D and talent, not tied to Superion 256; raised at a premium; framed as a fortress balance sheet giving years of runway.
3	Joe Moore, Morgan Stanley	What the NVIDIA research-center placement means for IonQ	Niccolo de Masi	Q L064 A L065	First partner in NVIDIA’s Boston center; stability and manufacturing advantages of ion traps on a chip; joint research on hybrid workflows; expected to widen channels to market.
4	Joe Moore, Morgan Stanley	Timing of the NVIDIA deployment	Niccolo de Masi	Q L068 A L069	No month given; described as one of the earlier 2027 deployments.
5	Craig Ellis, B. Riley	Tailwinds and headwinds for 2027, including capacity, given Superion 256 is sold out	Niccolo de Masi; Inder Singh	Q L073 A L074	No headwinds seen; three DARPA down-selects cited; chips not a constraint, whole-system capacity growing; order books filling into 2028.
6	Craig Ellis, B. Riley	SkyWater-related one-time costs inside Q3 adjusted EBITDA	Inder Singh	Q L081 A L082	Referred to the filing; G&A carried ~$40M of one-time costs (stated in prepared remarks); margin expansion through back-office and front-office integration.
7	John McPeake, Rosenblatt	Modeling Superion 256 2027 sales as price times units	Inder Singh	Q L088 A L089	Declined to give 2027 figures; pricing comparable in approach to Tempo.
8	John McPeake, Rosenblatt	Price variance by customer	Inder Singh; Niccolo de Masi	Q L090 A L091	Emphasis on customer lifetime value and selectivity; early customers first in line for the 10,000-qubit generation.
9	John McPeake, Rosenblatt	Bench status of Superion 256	Niccolo de Masi	Q L094 A L095	Refers to the September 8 Analyst Day update; cycle time cut from nine months to nine weeks; timelines unchanged; more detail on the next call.
10	Robert, Needham (on for Quinn Bolton)	External quantum foundry customers at SkyWater since close	Niccolo de Masi	Q L098 A L099	Nexus Photonics added; startup acceleration program; IP and security integrity maintained; integration on plan and on schedule.
11	Robert, Needham (on for Quinn Bolton)	DARPA feedback on QBI Stage C and the process beyond it	Niccolo de Masi; Inder Singh	Q L101 A L102	No feedback disclosed (NDAs); ~500 DARPA reviewers; Stage C framed as economic utility; DARPA touch points increasing (clocks, HARQ).
12	Gary Mobley, StoneX	Cloud (QCaaS) capacity, usage and utilization KPIs	Inder Singh	Q L108 A L109	No KPIs given; both QCaaS and on-premises growing; QCaaS higher margin; on-premises examples KISTI, Quantum Basel, EPB.
13	Gary Mobley, StoneX	Whether the 2027 sell-out limits sales; path to mass production	Inder Singh; Niccolo de Masi	Q L112 A L113	Capacity constraint called temporary; owned sites plus possible third-party manufacturing; no 2027 unit number given.
14	Tyler Anderson, Craig-Hallum (on for Richard Shannon)	Manufacturing time of electronic-control systems; contract manufacturing; repurposing acquired security technology	Niccolo de Masi	Q L116 A L117	No unit numbers stated; electronic qubit control and ion traps on a chip far more manufacturable than bulk optics; Nexus photonics for clocks and PNT; ~1,200 patents; security arms race.
15	Troy Jensen, Cantor Fitzgerald	Would IonQ ever go multi-modality in hardware?	Niccolo de Masi	Q L130 A L131	No: doubling and tripling down on trapped ions; fault-tolerant blueprint (April 2026); three DARPA programs as validation.
16	Troy Jensen, Cantor Fitzgerald	Composition of the ~$110M of new IonQ-segment RPO outside systems	Inder Singh	Q L135 A L138	Spread across the whole portfolio, including sensing and security; framed as evidence of multi-product selling.

 

What was left unanswered

Management declined or deferred four requests: a 2027 revenue, unit or price framework (questions 7 and 13; L114); the size of SkyWater one-time costs inside adjusted EBITDA beyond the ~$40M G&A figure (question 6, deferred to the filing); DARPA’s Stage C feedback (question 11, under NDA); and cloud capacity and utilization metrics (question 12).

Appendix B — Figures and Dated Commitments

Every figure and dated commitment stated on the call, in the order spoken, with speaker and reference. Figures are as spoken; confirm against the press release and Form 10-Q before publication.

Financial results

Item	Figure or commitment	Speaker	Ref.
Q3 2026 total revenue	$173.8M; +336% year on year	Singh	L022
Record quarters	Sixth consecutive quarter of record revenue	de Masi	L001
IonQ Platform segment revenue	$90.3M GAAP; +127% year on year	Singh	L025
SkyWater segment revenue	$83.5M (two months, July 31 close)	Singh	L033
SkyWater quantum foundry growth	>30% year on year, excluding IonQ revenue	Singh	L034
Revenue mix, IonQ segment	Commercial ~65%; international ~35%; multi-product 40%	Singh	L030
GAAP operating expenses	$606.9M	Singh	L039
Non-GAAP operating expenses	$36.6M as heard — verify	Singh	L039
Non-GAAP R&D, Q3	$96.8M	Singh	L039
R&D, year to date	>$425M	Singh	L039
One-time acquisition costs in G&A	~$40M (excluded from adjusted EBITDA)	Singh	L041
Adjusted EBITDA, Q3	–$133.6M	Singh	L043
Net income attributable to IonQ	$564M, incl. $896M non-cash warrant gain	Singh	L044

 

Balance sheet and backlog

Item	Figure or commitment	Speaker	Ref.
October equity raise	$2B, at a premium to share price	de Masi	L021
Pro forma cash	$3.7B	Singh	L023
Total RPO	$1.2B (IonQ + SkyWater)	Singh	L037
IonQ-segment RPO	$485M → $689M	Singh	L037
New IonQ-segment contracts in Q3	~$290M, of which ~$180M quantum computing	Singh	L037
SkyWater RPO	$479M	Singh	L038

 

Guidance and outlook

Item	Figure or commitment	Speaker	Ref.
FY2026 revenue guidance	Raised from $450–460M to $505–515M	Singh	L045
FY2026 quantum computing revenue growth	>110% (up from 100%)	Singh	L046
Q4 2026 adjusted EBITDA	Expected to improve vs. Q3; Capital IQ consensus of $127M “not unreasonable”	Singh	L043
Superion 256 capacity	All 2027 capacity sold out	de Masi	L001
Order books	Beginning to fill into 2028	de Masi	L076
Cloud capacity	Multiple Tempo systems added in 2027; cloud capacity several times over	de Masi	L009
Site and back-office strategy	Focus area for 2027	Singh	L048
Structural profitability	Scale expected “in the coming years”	de Masi	L141

 

Contracts, programs and operating metrics

Item	Figure or commitment	Speaker	Ref.
DARPA QBI Stage C	Program value up to $300M; only trapped-ion company in final stage	de Masi	L005
DARPA It’s About Time (clocks)	$28M; 25 clocks, option for 100 more	Singh	L028
Sensing contracts	Nine signed since July	Singh	L029
SDT (South Korea)	$33M: Superion 256 plus quantum networking memory	Singh	L031
ID Quantique customers added since acquisition	125	Singh	L026
Elisity enterprise deployments	~100	de Masi	L017
Multi-product revenue share	>40% of IonQ-segment revenue	de Masi	L018
SkyWater acceleration	12x more wafer lots; >3x faster tape-outs for 256-qubit chips	de Masi	L019
Chip cycle time	Nine months → nine weeks	de Masi	L095
Hackathon	80+ universities, 37 countries, 4,400+ runs, 1M+ lines of code	de Masi	L013
Time-to-solution	~100x to 10,000x faster than other cloud computers (World Quantum Day, April 14)	de Masi	L103
Patents	~1,200 and counting	de Masi	L124
Headcount	~4,000	de Masi	L122

 

Appendix C — Names, Products and Programs

Every paragraph that mentions each name, generated directly from the corrected text.

Companies and institutions

Name	Refs	Paragraphs
NVIDIA	10	L007, L008, L009, L010, L064, L066, L067, L096, L110, L134
SkyWater	24	L002, L019, L020, L022, L024, L025, L030, L032, L033, L034, L035, L036, L037, L038, L041, L042, L048, L065, L076, L081, L082, L098, L099, L114
Elisity	6	L017, L026, L052, L054, L055, L110
ID Quantique	1	L026
Nexus	2	L099, L121
D-Wave	3	L020, L033, L098
Qolab	2	L020, L034
Infineon	1	L036
SDT	2	L007, L031
Horizon Quantum	1	L007
University of Cambridge	1	L007
Florida International University	1	L007
HSBC	1	L012
Israel Natural Gas Lines	1	L012
Synopsys	1	L011
CCRM	1	L011
KISTI	1	L110
Quantum Basel	1	L110
EPB	1	L110
NIST	1	L029
Naval Research Laboratory	1	L029
AWS	1	L009
Google Cloud	1	L009
Microsoft Azure	1	L009
ASML	1	L133
S&P Global Capital IQ	1	L043

 

Government and programs

Name	Refs	Paragraphs
DARPA	19	L005, L006, L028, L066, L067, L074, L088, L096, L101, L102, L103, L104, L106, L121, L130, L131, L132, L134, L137
Quantum Benchmarking Initiative	7	L005, L066, L067, L074, L096, L101, L102
Stage C	12	L005, L006, L037, L067, L074, L088, L096, L101, L103, L104, L106, L131
HARQ	2	L074, L106
It’s About Time	2	L074, L121
Department of War	5	L005, L035, L066, L102, L106
executive order	2	L017, L053
Commonwealth Heads of Government	1	L056
FBI	1	L127
Homeland Security	1	L127

 

Products and platforms

Name	Refs	Paragraphs
Superion	14	L001, L005, L007, L008, L031, L032, L037, L058, L073, L076, L088, L094, L112, L137
Tempo	4	L009, L025, L078, L089
Forte	2	L009, L012
SkyWater Quantum Solutions	2	L002, L020
RH90	1	L020
QuantumATK	1	L011
CUDA-Q	1	L010
Qiskit	1	L010
PennyLane	1	L010
QCaaS	3	L109, L110, L111
atomic clock	2	L028, L121

 

Concepts

Name	Refs	Paragraphs
Q-Day	2	L014, L026
Shor	1	L014
post-quantum	2	L016, L123
Zero Trust	2	L017, L123
hybrid	5	L008, L031, L066, L067, L109
fault-tolerant	6	L006, L014, L105, L119, L120, L132
time-to-solution	5	L006, L096, L103, L104, L130
cost-to-solution	2	L096, L104
bill of materials	2	L006, L103
RPO	5	L037, L038, L040, L083, L135
adjusted EBITDA	3	L041, L043, L081
profitability	9	L021, L043, L047, L048, L081, L084, L110, L126, L141
Mythos	1	L053
Bletchley Park	1	L128

 

People

Name	Refs	Paragraphs
Niccolo	21	L001, L022, L026, L031, L037, L044, L047, L048, L053, L055, L060, L073, L078, L083, L084, L106, L110, L111, L130, L138, L139
Inder	9	L003, L021, L056, L081, L099, L112, L126, L128, L135
John Martinis	1	L034
Vivek Arya	1	L051
Joe Moore	3	L063, L065, L071
Craig Ellis	1	L072
John McPeake	1	L085
Quinn Bolton	1	L098
Gary Mobley	1	L107
Tyler	4	L115, L116, L124, L125
Richard Shannon	1	L116
Troy	3	L129, L131, L133