IonQ Advances to Final Stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
Business Wire•07/10/2026•17:45 ET
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Key Highlights
- ➤IonQ (IONQ) advances to Stage C of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
- ➤Stage C agreement carries potential value of up to $300 million
- ➤IonQ will deliver multiple Superion generations for DARPA validation through 2029
- ➤Stage C follows successful completion of IonQ’s QBI Stage A and Stage B
Expert Statements
Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ
“Advancing to Stage C is a significant vote of confidence in IonQ's technology roadmap and architecture for delivering quantum computing at utility scale.”
Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ
“We've long believed that winning the quantum race requires more than achieving technical milestones. It requires building systems that can be manufactured reliably and at scale, and that are designed to solve some of the world's most complex problems. That's not a future promise — it's happening today, with our sixth-generation quantum computer, Superion 256.”
Chris Ballance, President of Quantum Computing at IonQ
“Radical simplification and rapid scale are at the heart of how we build.”
Chris Ballance, President of Quantum Computing at IonQ
“The path to scale isn't more complexity – it's stripping complexity out, so systems can be manufactured, deployed, and operated reliably at volume. That's the discipline DARPA's independent verification is now putting to the test.”
IonQ Advances to Final Stage of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative
* Under an agreement with a potential value of up to $300 million, IonQ will advance to Stage C of DARPA's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative.
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