IonQ

US information technology company
IonQ
Company typePublic
Traded as
NYSE: IONQ
IndustryQuantum computing
FoundersChristopher Monroe, Jungsang Kim
HeadquartersCollege Park, Maryland
Key people
Peter Chapman
(President and CEO)
ProductsTrapped ion quantum computation
Websiteionq.com
IonQ headquarters in College Park, MD

IonQ is a quantum computing hardware and software company based in College Park, Maryland. They are developing a general-purpose trapped ion quantum computer and software to generate, optimize, and execute quantum circuits.

History

IonQ was co-founded by Christopher Monroe and Jungsang Kim, professors at Duke University,[1] in 2015,[2] with the help of Harry Weller and Andrew Schoen, partners at venture firm New Enterprise Associates.[3]

The company is an offshoot of the co-founders’ 25 years of academic research in quantum information science.[2] Monroe's quantum computing research began as a Staff Researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with Nobel-laureate physicist David Wineland[4] where he led a team using trapped ions to produce the first controllable qubits and the first controllable quantum logic gate,[5] culminating in a proposed architecture for a large-scale trapped ion computer.[6]

Kim and Monroe began collaborating formally as a result of larger research initiatives funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA).[7] They wrote a review paper[7] for Science Magazine entitled Scaling the Ion Trap Quantum Processor,[8] pairing Monroe's research in trapped ions with Kim’s focus on scalable quantum information processing and quantum communication hardware.[9]

This research partnership became the seed for IonQ’s founding. In 2015, New Enterprise Associates invested $2 million to commercialize the technology Monroe and Kim proposed in their Science paper.[3]

In 2016, they brought on David Moehring from IARPA—where he was in charge of several quantum computing initiatives[10]—to be the company’s chief executive.[2] In 2017, they raised a $20 million series B, led by GV (formerly Google Ventures) and New Enterprise Associates, the first investment GV has made in quantum computing technology.[11] They began hiring in earnest in 2017,[12] with the intent to bring an offering to market by late 2018.[2][13] In May 2019, former Amazon Prime executive Peter Chapman was named new CEO of the company.[14] IonQ then partnered to make its quantum computers available to the public through Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.[15][16][17]

In October 2021, IonQ became publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange via a special-purpose acquisition company.[18][19] The company opened a dedicated research and development facility in Bothell, Washington, in February 2024, touting it as the first quantum computing factory in the United States.[20]

Technology

IonQ’s hardware is based on a trapped ion architecture, from technology that Monroe developed at the University of Maryland, and that Kim developed at Duke.[11]

In November 2017, IonQ presented a paper at the IEEE International Conference on Rebooting Computing describing their technology strategy and current progress. It outlines using a microfabricated ion trap and several optical and acousto-optical systems to cool, initialize, and calculate. They also describe a cloud API, custom language bindings, and quantum computing simulators that take advantage of their trapped ion system's complete connectivity[21]

IonQ and some experts claim that trapped ions could provide a number of benefits over other physical qubit types in several measures, such as accuracy, scalability, predictability, and coherence time.[22][2][23] Others criticize the slow operational times and relative size of trapped ion hardware, claiming other qubit technologies are just as promising.[22]

References

  1. ^ "Jungsang Kim - Department of Physics". phy.duke.edu.
  2. ^ a b c d e Castellanos, Sara (26 July 2017). "Venture Firms Back Startup with Novel Twist on Quantum Computing". Wall Street Journal.
  3. ^ a b Gregg, Aaron (1 January 2017). "Start-up IonQ sees opportunity in still-developing area of quantum computers" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  4. ^ Popkin, Gabriel (1 December 2016). "Scientists are close to building a quantum computer that can beat a conventional one". Science. doi:10.1126/science.aal0442.
  5. ^ "Quantum Computing with Ions [Re-Post]". Scientific American.
  6. ^ Kielpinski, D.; Monroe, C.; Wineland, D. J. (June 2002). "Architecture for a large-scale ion-trap quantum computer". Nature. 417 (6890): 709–711. Bibcode:2002Natur.417..709K. doi:10.1038/nature00784. hdl:2027.42/62880. PMID 12066177. S2CID 4347109.
  7. ^ a b "The future of ion traps". 7 March 2013.
  8. ^ Monroe, C.; Kim, J. (7 March 2013). "Scaling the Ion Trap Quantum Processor". Science. 339 (6124): 1164–1169. Bibcode:2013Sci...339.1164M. doi:10.1126/science.1231298. PMID 23471398. S2CID 206545831.
  9. ^ "Welcome to Prof. Jungsang Kim's MIST Research Group - Multifunctional Integrated Systems Technology". mist.pratt.duke.edu.
  10. ^ "Quantum Leaps - Trajectory Magazine". 3 August 2016.
  11. ^ a b IonQ. "IonQ Raises $20M Series B Round Led By NEA, GV To Advance Quantum Computing For Commercial Applications". www.prnewswire.com.
  12. ^ Castelvecchi, Davide (3 January 2017). "Quantum computers ready to leap out of the lab in 2017". Nature. 541 (7635): 9–10. Bibcode:2017Natur.541....9C. doi:10.1038/541009a. PMID 28054624.
  13. ^ BlueYard Capital (8 September 2017). "Building a Quantum Computer: David Moehring, IonQ" – via YouTube.
  14. ^ Hacket, Robert (21 May 2019). "Amazon Prime Boss Named CEO of Google-Backed Quantum Computing Startup". www.fortune.com. Retrieved 19 February 2020.
  15. ^ Castellanos, Sara (13 August 2020). "Amazon's Cloud Unit to Offer Quantum Computing From 3 Tech Companies". www.wsj.com. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  16. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (1 February 2021). "Microsoft's Azure Quantum platform is now in public preview". www.techcrunch.com. Retrieved 11 March 2021.
  17. ^ Kissell, Kevin (17 June 2021). "Expanding access to quantum today for a better tomorrow".
  18. ^ Castellanos, Sara (8 March 2021). "Quantum-Computing Startup IonQ Plans Public Debut in $2 Billion SPAC Merger". www.wsj.com. Retrieved 12 March 2021.
  19. ^ "IonQ Becomes First Publicly Traded, Pure-Play Quantum Computing Company; Closes Business Combination with dMY Technology Group III". finance.yahoo.com. 1 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  20. ^ Podsada, Janice (February 16, 2024). "Nation's first quantum computing manufacturing plant opens in Bothell". The Everett Herald. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  21. ^ "Reconfigurable and Programmable Ion Trap Quantum Computer - IEEE Conference Publication". doi:10.1109/ICRC.2017.8123665. S2CID 5942415. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  22. ^ a b Monroe, Christopher R.; Schoelkopf, Robert J.; Lukin, Mikhail D. (19 April 2016). "Quantum Connections". Scientific American. 314 (5): 50–57. Bibcode:2016SciAm.314e..50M. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0516-50. PMID 27100255.
  23. ^ Emerging Technology from the arXiv. "The Long-Awaited Promise of a Programmable Quantum Computer".

External links

  • Official website
  • Business data for IonQ:
    • Bloomberg
    • Google
    • Reuters
    • SEC filings
    • Yahoo!