IonQ is the world’s first publicly listed “pure-play” quantum computing company. IonQ’s mission is: “build the world’s best quantum computers to solve the world’s hardest problems.” The company was founded in 2015 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on October 1, 2021, through a SPAC arrangement carried out by dMY Technology Group, Inc. III.
Why I brought the company to this forum - perhaps the following things together were interesting to me:
The world’s first listed Quantum company → it can be a trendsetter in the coming years
There is a global quantum computing boom underway - governments are investing a lot of money
The top management (CEO, CTO, Chief Scientist) is at the very top of expertise and experience in the USA in terms of ICT & science. All have strong significant personal contacts, e.g., to Amazon, Google, MIT, University of Maryland
The CTO and Chief Scientist are founding partners, and the CEO’s father was an astronaut!
IonQ has a premium-level partnership network:
o Key collaboration agreements with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, SoftBank, IBM, and NVIDIA, among others
o Accenture is committed to finding commercial targets
o Fidelity is interested in: more accurate models for portfolio management, electronic trading, asset pricing …
The company’s revenue in Q3/2021 was approximately 200,000 dollars.
In the same context, the company increased its order book value from 5 million to 15 million.
The market capitalization is approximately 2.5 B $. The cash balance is just under 600 million, practically debt-free.
If one invests in this company, the investment is still Venture Capital-minded. Everything is still very much at the beginning for the company.
When examining IonQ, one might also gain a new perspective on cloud development and perhaps a better understanding of why the aforementioned big players are strongly forging ahead, year after year. Quantum is an additional booster for the Cloud. Quantum computing will be run from the cloud, Quantum as a service, QaaS.
If you are interested in the company, you should watch this presentation:
I haven’t looked into the company itself in detail, but given that it’s a deSPAC from last year, with a valuation of nearly 3 billion and virtually 0 revenue, and its 12-month share price chart looks like this:
Anyone considering buying should think carefully about whether they want to buy above NAV in this market. It seems like all deSPACs are now being squeezed to $4-6, regardless of the company.
I made a small comparison. I’d love to hear what the jury behind the screens has to say. What speaks to me is that the Americans think broadly about the ecosystem, and essentially, anyone can connect to quantum computing from the cloud (QaaS). The Finland/Europe version starts calmly on an on-premise basis.
These also use different technology. Quantum computers are still in their infancy, and a lot of basic research is still needed. The technology and getting it to work flawlessly enough is one thing. Another, perhaps more essential, is quantum algorithms, whose development still requires a lot of work.
In Finland, the work is largely built on the experience from the Otaniemi low-temperature laboratory and the high international level of research in the field. There are also well-functioning connections to supercomputing and its ecosystem here.
I am still following with interest. There is too much hype in the field. The only sure thing is that there will be room for many entrepreneurs for a long time. It’s a pity that small investors can only participate in one. I would invest in Bluefors immediately.
I was browsing a study commissioned by the Finnish company IQM on High Performance Computing Centers and their prospects regarding quantum computing. The finding that there will be a shift from cloud to more on-premises solutions seems quite peculiar to me. This is especially true given the significant advantages of cloud migration in ICT development and continuous services. It should be noted that this is a commissioned study by IQM.
The image below illustrates the current stage of quantum computer development. We need physicists with PhDs to create models that give these machines the desired boost. The image is cropped from a link to the actual research report, which I found in the news article below. And the market is trying its best to price this new innovation, the “N-qubit Toffoli gate,” too
IonQ’s Q4 report is out. The company “generated” 2.1 million in revenue in 2021 against a market capitalization of 2.5 billion dollars. I haven’t researched it, but I’m sure this is a world record P/S. There is little evidence/years of growth, but we operate with the information we have – so the company will quintuple its revenue this year. And guidance/estimates for the future predict a similar growth factor. The company thus sees a potential 9-figure order book in the coming years. Today we can marvel at the numbers published by the company; we’ll get back to the substance another time. However, I will say in conclusion that the company’s numbers and substance combined look very good today. It won’t go bankrupt immediately; the cash balance is $600 million. https://investors.ionq.com/news/news-details/2022/IonQ-Announces-Full-Year-2021-Financial-Results-and-Provides-Business-Update/default.aspx
The link above leads to a stockholder letter, which is a good paper to read if one is considering the stock. Quantum is truly a league of its own; when IonQ updates its quantum machine from a 35-qubit machine (2024) to a 64-qubit one (2025), the solution’s performance will increase 2 to the power of 29 times. Or when an improvement is made to error correction, the computational loss is 13X. That means the power decreases to 1/13. IonQ is thus a pioneer in the commercialization of quantum computing; someone has to pave the way. My own relationship with IonQ is that through the company, I can see further into the world. And the company’s team is competent, which I think I wrote about sometime, and they have also opened or are opening an office in Seattle, if I heard correctly from the Q4 conference call. https://investors.ionq.com/financials/annual-reports/default.aspx
It’s an interesting case. The next few days will show which way this turns. 183 pages of short selling published today. One could assume that a very good speculative buying opportunity will open up soon. If one just trusts that this is Scorpions’ style without substance. I quickly skimmed through it, and the report’s style was that of a tabloid. The US market is efficient; companies are constantly being shaken in every direction. Quantum computing has been targeted by Scorpions before, so they have already had time to delve into the topic.
Alright then. IonQ achieved the expected revenue. The most interesting part would be to listen to the conference call. They will probably also discuss the Scorpions Capital case there. I’ll get back to you once I’ve got my hands on the conference call and listened to it.
