IonQ Gets Upside as Bank of America Starts Coverage

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•  28 Sep 2026
 

$IONQ IonQ receives a Buy rating from Bank of America with a $60 price target, about 30% above its current trading price. The bank is encouraged by the company growth, its connection with Nvidia, and its expansion beyond quantum computing, but at a valuation of about $17 billion, investors are already paying today for a large part of the promise of future years. The recommendation comes after a strong month for the stock, which gained about 16%, and after a series of developments that have led investors to view IonQ as a broader company than a quantum computer manufacturer. The company is acquiring factories and technologies, expanding into quantum communications, security and sensing, moving deeper into chip manufacturing, and connecting with Nvidia around the next generation of computing that combines quantum and AI.

Bank of America analyst Vivek Arya, who also covers Nvidia and major semiconductor companies, sees an advantage in the company approach to quantum computing through trapped ions. This method offers relatively high accuracy in computations and allows qubits to be connected flexibly. It is one of several approaches currently competing to create a useful quantum computer at commercial scale, alongside superconductors, photonics and other approaches.

What has changed at IonQ in recent months is primarily what surrounds the computer itself. The acquisition of SkyWater for about $1.8 billion gave the company US manufacturing capabilities, a move that should shorten the path between component design and production. At the same time, it acquired additional companies and expanded its operations, placing a larger part of the value chain within the group. The acquisition of SkyWater also turned IonQ into a chip manufacturer, a relatively unusual move for a quantum company that originated around computing technology.

The numbers are beginning to grow at a rapid pace. In the second quarter, IonQ reported revenue of $80.1 million, nearly four times the comparable period. The company later raised its annual revenue guidance to $450 million to $460 million, partly due to the addition of SkyWater. It is important here to separate organic growth from revenue generated through acquisitions. A significant portion of the increase in guidance comes from the acquired activity, and the large number alone tells only part of the business change.

On one hand, a company whose revenue was very small until recently is now building an operation that could approach half a billion dollars annually. On the other hand, the valuation is already around $17 billion, and the market is paying roughly 37 times expected revenue this year. This is a valuation suited to a company that investors expect to grow at a high rate for years and become a major player in a market that is still in the early stages of commercialization.

The Nvidia connection provides a stamp of approval, but the major test comes in 2027. One reason for the recent enthusiasm around the stock came last week, when Nvidia selected IonQ quantum computer as the first system to be installed at its quantum computing research center. The Superion 256 system is expected to connect directly to Nvidia accelerated computing infrastructure, with delivery planned for 2027. For IonQ, this is much more than a single transaction.

Nvidia is trying to build a computing environment in which classical processors, AI processors and quantum processors work together, and IonQ presence at the center places it in front of researchers and customers who could later become buyers. At the same time, the company is showing progress in error correction, one of the major challenges in quantum computing. Qubits are highly sensitive to disturbances, so a large system needs a mechanism that can identify and correct errors during computation.

IonQ reported experiments in which it successfully performed real time error correction with a very small increase in computation time. These are still stages on the path toward broad commercial systems, but they explain why analysts are beginning to look beyond the number of qubits itself. The company progress in this area could support earnings momentum, multiple expansion and stronger institutional flows if technological advances translate into commercial demand.

The other side of the equation remains expensive. IonQ reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of about $120 million in the second quarter, alongside a much larger accounting loss that was affected in part by acquisition related expenses and non cash items. At the end of the quarter, the company had about $3 billion in cash and investments, and about $2 billion on a pro forma basis that takes the SkyWater acquisition into account. The company has room to continue investing, but the path to profitability remains long.

IonQ stock is now in a different place from where it was at the beginning of the quantum wave. The company is already much larger, its revenue is more significant, and it has manufacturing operations, a relationship with Nvidia and a broader technology portfolio. Expectations are also much higher. Quantum stocks are all benefiting again from investor interest, but in the case of IonQ, a price of about $46 and a valuation of more than $17 billion already assume that the company will succeed in turning a significant part of its technology into a large business. Bank of America believes there is still room for the stock to rise. The test will be how quickly that promise begins to appear in revenue from quantum itself.

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