Investing Simplified - Professor G on $IONQ (Nov 5, 2026)
IONQ is a long-term hold he is reducing, not exiting: he will add no new money until a better path appears; he still believes in it long term but says the payoff, especially in quantum computing, is further away than he first thought. He still sees the business as very strong—287% revenue growth to $80.1 million, a tripled $450-460 million forecast, $485 million backlog and 2027 256-qubit targets—while the stock is down 28% this year after $2 billion stock-funded deals and about $120 million quarterly losses.
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and IonQ's stock fell by more than 25%.
Now , we move on to the most dangerous one on this list , which is a stock that I still see as very, very strong. IonQ. It costs about $32.40 while I'm recording this video. It's down about 28% this year, about 27% over the past month, and about 60% from its record closing high in October 2025.
If you watched my video about quantum computing stocks in May, IonQ was my top pick, and the company has delivered what I hoped for . Revenue in the last quarter reached $80.1 million, an increase of 287%.
They have tripled their revenue forecast for this year , from $225-245 million in February to $450-460 million currently, including the SkyWater chip factory they acquired . Their backlog of orders is worth $485 million, and they are targeting delivery of their first 256-qubit systems in 2027.
Well, all of this sounds pretty good, so why is the stock falling then ? The second reason I mentioned at the beginning . External financing. On October 12, IonQ agreed to acquire a cybersecurity company called Aliro for $1.3 billion, to be paid entirely in stock. The stock fell by about 9%.
Two days later, the company set a price of $40 per share for the sale of new shares and pre-funded guarantees worth $2 billion . Each share came with two additional guarantees to purchase shares at a price of $69.46.
This means 100 million new guarantees. The stock fell by an additional 9.5%, and by about another 9% when the deal was completed on October 16. This is the second $2 billion funding round in about a year, with last year's buyers having paid $93 per share.
They are also still losing money, about $120 million in the last quarter, even on an adjusted EBITDA basis .
Most analysts remain optimistic with an average target price of between $63 and $68, roughly double the current price . IonQ will announce its earnings on November 5, so we'll see exactly what happens there.
But my current decision regarding IonQ is what I call " cutting". By reduction, I do not mean removing it from the investment portfolio. I am stopping the injection of any new dollars into it for the time being until I see a better path.
I am happy to hold onto this stock. I certainly won't give it up. I still believe in it in the long run. I just think we might be a little further away than I initially thought, especially with quantum computing.
So I'm here just to search. I want to see what happens, but I'm not going to give up on this investment.
I will reduce "IonQ" . I will not inject new funds until the easing stops . AeonQ's business also grew, but my stake in it shrank. That's the difference.