Key Takeaways
- IonQ shares jumped 10% today on a third-quarter beat and 2026 guidance of $505 million to $515 million.
- The SkyWater foundry IonQ bought in July supplied $83.5 million, but IonQ’s own Platform segment still grew 127%.
- Quantinuum also raised its outlook, and D-Wave, a customer of IonQ’s foundry, reports next week.
- Even after heavy dilution, IonQ trades near its lowest forward sales multiple in five years.
IonQ (IONQ) is up 10% today after a third-quarter beat and raised 2026 revenue guidance.
Quantinuum (QNT) raised its outlook Thursday evening too, and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS), which pays IonQ’s foundry to make part of its chips, reports Tuesday.
A record, with an asterisk
Revenue rose 336% to $173.8 million, beating the $141.2 million consensus. IonQ now expects 2026 revenue of $505 million to $515 million, up from $450 million to $460 million in September. COO and CFO Inder Singh called it “an industry record of more than half a billion dollars.”
Going into the report, analysts expected $455 million this year:
That should rise about $55 million. Whether 2027’s $808 million rises too depends on how much of the beat came from the foundry.
Take out the foundry, and revenue still more than doubled
SkyWater brought in $83.5 million in its first two months under IonQ. That’s more than half of the quarter’s growth.
But IonQ’s Platform segment grew 127% to $90.3 million.
The catch: gross margin slipped to 21.9% from 24.9% last quarter.
Quantinuum raised, too
Quantinuum’s revenue rose 233% to $9.1 million, and it raised its 2026 outlook to $31 million to $34 million. IonQ’s Platform segment alone brought in nearly 10 times as much.
IonQ extended its multi-year foundry deal with D-Wave this quarter. D-Wave’s second-quarter revenue was $3.1 million, flat with a year earlier, but its first-half bookings jumped to $35.5 million from $2.9 million. Will those bookings turn into sales, and more foundry work for IonQ? Its Nov. 10 report should show us.
TIKR tracks 14 analysts on IonQ. How many say “Buy”?
See the full breakdown of Buy, Hold, and Sell ratings on IonQ, along with Wall Street’s revenue and earnings estimates, all in one place. More than 500,000 investors use TIKR to research stocks like this one. See IonQ’s Analyst Ratings
More shares, a lower multiple
Today’s jump follows a 32% slide in a month, in which IonQ sold $2 billion of stock and issued $1.15 billion more to close its Elisity deal on Nov. 4.
Its forward price/sales multiple was 18x before today. That’s its lowest in five years and far below its 125x average:
At today’s price, it’s about 19x.
The way I see it, 127% growth in IonQ’s own business is the real news, and 19x forward sales is a fair price for it. The risk is a share count that keeps climbing to pay for deals and losses.
Of course, the next test is the working 256-qubit system IonQ is aiming to have by year-end.
So what is IonQ stock actually worth?
TIKR lets you forecast the future price of any stock in less than a minute. Just enter a few assumptions into TIKR’s valuation model and see what IonQ could be worth. Start from Wall Street consensus estimates, or adjust the inputs to reflect your own view of the business. It’s free to use.
Disclaimer:
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