NEW YORK, December 29, 2025, 14:02 ET — Regular session
- IonQ shares fell 2.5% to $44.85 in afternoon trading.
- The company said it finalized an agreement to deliver a 100-qubit “Tempo 100” system to South Korea’s KISTI. IonQ Investors
- Other U.S.-listed quantum names were mixed as investors pared risk into year-end trading.
IonQ shares fell 2.5% to $44.85 in afternoon trading on Monday after the quantum-computing company said it had finalized an agreement to deliver a 100-qubit system to South Korea’s Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI).
The agreement adds to a string of government and enterprise projects that investors see as a key test for whether quantum computing can move from research to recurring commercial deployments. The group has been volatile into year-end as traders lock in gains amid low holiday volume and concerns about rich valuations, Investors.com reported.
IonQ said its Tempo 100 system will be integrated into KISTI-6, known as “HANGANG,” the country’s largest high-performance computing (HPC) cluster — essentially a national-scale supercomputer. The company said the setup would be South Korea’s first on-site “hybrid” integration linking quantum hardware with classical computing; a qubit is the basic unit of information in a quantum computer. IonQ Investors
“We deploy our most advanced quantum systems to address the nation’s most significant research and innovation challenges,” IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi said in a statement. IonQ Investors
IonQ did not disclose financial terms or a delivery timeline. The company said access to the platform will be provided through a secure private cloud, allowing remote use by researchers, universities and enterprises in South Korea.
The pullback came alongside uneven moves in other U.S.-listed quantum plays. Rigetti Computing fell about 2% and Quantum Computing Inc slid about 2.8%, while D-Wave Quantum rose about 0.6%.
Quantum stocks have seesawed in recent sessions, with Investors.com pointing to profit-taking after a sector pop on Dec. 22 and a three-session slide that followed.
IonQ traded between $44.71 and $46.74 on Monday, with about 11.1 million shares changing hands by mid-afternoon.
KISTI will lead development of a quantum computing service and research platform, and IonQ said KISTI identified IonQ as the project’s primary quantum technology provider alongside Megazone Cloud.
For investors, the next question is whether headline partnerships translate into recognized revenue and repeat customers, with deliveries and milestones often taking time to show up in reported results. Competition remains intense, including from larger tech companies investing in their own quantum programs, Investors.com noted.
IonQ last reported quarterly results on Nov. 5 and gave a business update for the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to the company’s website.
Nasdaq’s earnings page listed no confirmed date for IonQ’s next report, leaving traders focused on any updates to delivery schedules, contract values and customer wins as year-end liquidity thins.
