IonQ tops Q2 revenue forecast, launches Aria on Azure Quantum
IonQ slightly exceeded its expected revenue range in the second quarter, but as the company posted its Q2 earnings report on late Monday it was more excited about announcing the availability today of its Aria quantum computer through the Microsoft Azure Quantum cloud service.
“We are thrilled to share the progress we made in the second quarter,” said Peter Chapman, President and CEO of IonQ. “I am excited to announce that we are bringing to the cloud a computer that is over 130,000 times more computationally powerful than our previous cloud offering, as defined by the useful computational space. IonQ Aria has achieved a record-breaking 23 algorithmic qubits, representing an 8x increase in Aria’s power…”
He added, “This launch furthers our commitment to making our industry-leading hardware publicly accessible to current and future generations of quantum programmers. Meanwhile, our customer base–including new customers Airbus and Dow–is leveraging this superior performance to build quantum applications that deliver real business value. The future continues to be ever brighter for quantum computing.”
As for the Q2 numbers, IonQ recognized revenue of $2.6 million for the second quarter, compared to $93,000 for the same period last year, the company’s earlier outlook for the second quarter had forecasted that revenue would land in the range between $2.3 million and $2.5 million.
The company said that for the third quarter of 2022, it is expecting revenue of between $2.6 and $2.9 million. IonQ also reiterated the previously stated revenue outlook for the full year of 2022, saying revenue will land in the range of $10.2 million to $10.7 million.
IonQ did express some caution about bookings being “lumpy” and difficult to predict. “As IonQ has noted on prior calls, management continues to expect bookings to be lumpy for quite some time. This means that while IonQ has confidence in its overall economic performance, it can sometimes be hard to accurately predict exactly in which quarter deals will close. IonQ believes providing bookings outlooks on an annual basis rather than on a quarterly basis will better capture its business outlook, and intends to provide only annual outlooks moving forward.”
With that in mind, IonQ said it had bookings of less than $1 million during the second quarter, but said it is maintaining its previously stated bookings range of $23 million to $27 million for full year 2022.
Other Q2 numbers of note:
- Cash, cash equivalents and investments were $571.3 million as of June 30, 2022.
- Net loss was $1.7 million and adjusted EBITDA loss was $11.6 million.* Excluded from adjusted EBITDA is a non-cash gain of $16.1 million related to the change in the fair value of IonQ’s warrant liabilities.
Dan O’Shea has covered telecommunications and related topics including semiconductors, sensors, retail systems, digital payments and quantum computing/technology for over 25 years.
