Quantum computer developer IonQ to raise $2B in funding – News

IonQ Inc. today detailed the terms of a transaction that will see it receive $2 billion in funding from investment firm Heights Capital.

The quantum computer maker plans to raise about three quarters of capital by selling 16.5 million shares for $93 apiece. Heights Capital, an affiliate of Wall Street heavyweight Susquehanna International, is also buying 45 million stock warrants. Those are financial instruments that give investors the option to buy shares at a later date.

According to IonQ, just over 5 million of the warrants are prefunded. That means Heights Capital will pay most of their price upfront. The investment firm has also bought standard seven-year warrants that will give it the option to buy 43 million more IonQ shares in the future.

The quantum computer developer’s stock dropped more than 8% on the news today. IonQ floated its shares on the NYSE in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. It lost $177.5 million on $20.7 million in revenue last quarter. 

IonQ’s flagship product is a quantum computer called Forte Enterprise that contains 36 qubits. Those qubits are implemented as ions, or atoms with an electrical charge. The system uses lasers to encode data into the qubits, carry out calculations and read the results.

IonQ is currently developing a newer, more capable quantum chip called Tempo. It algorithmic qubit score, a measure of performance, is nearly twice that of Forte Enterprise. IonQ says that the system will be capable of operating with 95% uptime.

The company’s longer-term engineering roadmap revolves around a series of acquisitions it has made over the past year. The largest of those deals was IonQ’s July purchase of Oxford Ionics Ltd., a fellow quantum hardware developer. It financed the deal with $1.075 billion worth of cash and stock.

Oxford Ionics develops a quantum chip that is powered by ion-based qubits similarly to IonQ’s systems. The difference is those qubits are programmed not by lasers but rather tiny electrodes built directly into the host chip. According to Oxford Ionics, its electrodes are easier to manufacture and more scalable than laser equipment.

Shortly after acquiring the company, IonQ unveiled a revised hardware engineering roadmap. It now plans to build systems with 10,000 qubits in 2027 and reach the 20,000-qubit mark the year after that. Furthermore, IonQ hopes to link together multiple quantum machines into clusters.

The company acquired a Boston startup called Lightsynq Technologies Inc. in July to enhance its clustering technology. Lightsynq has developed an optical, diamond-based interconnect that can link together multiple quantum chips.

“We believe this is the largest common-stock single-institutional investment in the history of the quantum industry,” said IonQ Chief Executive Officer Niccolo de Masi. “This $2 billion cash investment will facilitate our global growth and accelerate our quantum commercialization worldwide.”

Photo: IonQ