IonQ is poised to become the the first publicly traded pure-play quantum computing company, according to an announcement made Monday. Its shares will trade on NYSE under the IONQ symbol subject to SEC approval.
The company, based in College Park, Maryland, already has its quantum systems inside the Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure clouds.
Founded in 2015 and using research from the University of Maryland and Duke University, IonQ also announced it has entered into a merger agreement with dMY Technology Group III that will yield a $650 million investment. The combined entity is valued at about $2 billion.
The $650 million includes $350 million from a group of investors that include Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corporation; both have been rumored to be involved with Apple in development of a self-driving car. Breakthrough Energy Ventures, an investment group headed by Bill Gates, is also involved.
Quantum computing is considered especially valuable in developing future iterations of AI, which will be essential for full self-driving vehicles and other autonomous machines and robots.
“IonQ believes the 21st century will be defined by quantum computing and that this technology will have an even greater impact than classical computing had over the last 100 years,” the company said in a statement. The company has about 60 workers, including Dave Bacon, hired recently as head of software and formerly the head of Google’s quantum software team.
IonQ is planning to develop modular quantum computers by 2023 that are small enough to be networked together to provide scalable resources by 2025. An ion trap enclosed in a vacuum chamber would sit inside the modular computer. The computer would also operate at room temperature, as compared to the quantum computers today that require supercooling to nearly absolute zero. The market opportunity for IonQ quantum computers is projected to reach $65 billion by 2030.
vacuum chamber for modular computers (IonQ)
While small, IonQ faces competitors with enormous size and reach in the quantum space, including IBM, Microsoft, Alphabet and D-Wave Systems.
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