New York, May 22, 2026, 05:05 (EDT)
IonQ Inc. shares head into Friday’s U.S. session in focus after closing Thursday at $58.89, up 12.24%, as quantum-computing stocks rallied around a new federal funding push. The move outpaced a modest broader advance, with the Dow up 0.55%, the S&P 500 up 0.17% and the Nasdaq up 0.09%.
The reason matters. The U.S. Commerce Department announced $2.013 billion in planned incentives for two domestic quantum foundries and seven quantum-computing companies, aimed at building “fault-tolerant” quantum computers — machines designed to keep working despite errors. Quantum computing uses qubits, units of information that can represent more than one state, but the official list named IBM, GlobalFoundries, Atom Computing, Diraq, D-Wave, Infleqtion, PsiQuantum, Quantinuum and Rigetti, not IonQ. NIST
That left IonQ in a slightly odd spot: the stock rallied with the group, even though rivals got the direct checks. Reuters reported IBM would receive $1 billion, GlobalFoundries $375 million, and D-Wave, Rigetti and Infleqtion about $100 million each; Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella told Reuters the awards showed “quantum computing is coming much faster than anybody thinks.” Reuters
IonQ still had its own support. The company said this month that first-quarter revenue rose to $64.7 million, up 755% from a year earlier, and raised its full-year revenue outlook to $260 million to $270 million. It also reported $470 million of remaining performance obligations, meaning contracted revenue not yet recognized, but guided for an adjusted EBITDA loss of $330 million to $310 million; adjusted EBITDA is a company measure of operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and certain other costs.
But the trade has weak spots. D.A. Davidson analyst Alex Platt told Reuters this month investors still had “skepticism” about the “viability of the technology” and IonQ’s path with trapped-ion qubits, a system that uses charged atoms controlled by lasers and electromagnetic fields. IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi also told Reuters that “profitability is not a key focus this year,” saying the company was focused on revenue growth and research spending. Reuters
The company has been trying to show it can turn the science into manufacturing. IonQ said on May 12 it opened a 22,000-square-foot quantum R&D and semiconductor chip-testing lab in Boulder, Colorado, with the first quantum computer planned for full installation later this year. De Masi said IonQ was “excited to tap into” Boulder’s skilled workforce as it grows. IonQ
Another piece is SkyWater. A May 8 filing showed SkyWater Technology stockholders approved the merger agreement with IonQ, with about 67% of outstanding shares represented at the meeting and 32.6 million shares voted for the deal. The transaction would make SkyWater a wholly owned IonQ subsidiary through a two-step merger.
The next test is less clean than Thursday’s tape. IonQ has momentum, a bigger sales guide and a pending foundry deal, but investors now have to weigh that against rivals receiving direct federal backing, regulatory and integration risk around SkyWater, and a quantum market where commercial timelines are still hard to pin down. U.S. stocks were scheduled to trade normally Friday, while the NYSE lists Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, as a market holiday.
