{
  "id": 12917635,
  "title": "IonQ stock advances to DARPA final quantum benchmarking phase",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/ionq-stock-advances-to-darpa-final-quantum-benchmarking-phase",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-08T17:48:56.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Investing.com",
    "slug": "investing-com",
    "url": "https://www.investing.com/news/analyst-ratings/ionq-stock-advances-to-darpa-final-quantum-benchmarking-phase-93CH-4939571"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "IonQ stock has risen as the company secured a spot in the final stage (C) of the Department of Defense's (DARPA) Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. This marks the culmination of a program potentially worth up to $300 million, aimed at developing utility-scale quantum systems by 2033. B. Riley, an analyst firm, holds a \"Buy\" rating on IonQ with a price target of $100 per share.\n\nIonQ, valued at approximately $15.5 billion, is trading near its InvestingPro Fair Value of $38. Analysts have varying opinions, with prices targets ranging from $42 to $100. The company plans to participate in four awards under Stage C, which encompasses four modalities and includes participants like Atom Computing, Diraq, IBM, and IonQ.\n\nIonQ employs a trapped ion-based approach, which will undergo government verification and validation through 2029. The company's roadmap aligns with this phase, anticipating 256-qubit commissioning in the first half of 2027, 200,000 physical and over 8,000 logical qubits in testing by 2028, and 2 million physical and 80,000 logical qubits by 2029.\n\nIn terms of performance, IonQ has demonstrated a 371% revenue growth over the past year, despite remaining unprofitable. It maintains a current ratio of 10.66, reflecting strong liquidity to support operations. The advancement of IonQ follows significant investments, including $2 billion made in the second quarter of 2026, alongside $215 million and $45 million Quantum Genesis and Testbed deals in the third quarter of the same year.\n\nLooking ahead, B. Riley notes that Rigetti remains in Stage A of the program, while DWave Quantum and Infleqtion are not participants. Analysts have been reviewing IonQ, with Mizuho maintaining an \"Outperform\" rating and a price target of $52.00, and BofA Securities initiating coverage with a \"Buy\" rating and a price target of $60.00. StoneX has also reiterated a \"Buy\" recommendation with a $60.00 target following IonQ's annual analyst day. Additionally, a breakthrough in quantum error correction has been announced, with IonQ developing the first end-to-end real-time quantum error correction decoder running on a standard CPU. This innovation tackles a critical issue in fault-tolerant quantum computing, enabling real-time error correction without affecting execution speed.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [
    "IonQ stock rises as company enters DARPA's final quantum benchmarking phase",
    "IonQ aims for 256-qubit commissioning in 2027 and 80,000 logical qubits by 2029",
    "B. Riley rates IonQ Buy with $100 price target, Mizuho recommends Outperform at $52"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}