IonQ

Trapped-ion · Founded 2015 · College Park, MD · Public (IONQ)

Public company (NYSE: IONQ). Acquired Oxford Ionics in 2025 to gain microfabricated-trap technology. Achieved 1×10⁻⁴ 2-qubit gate error on Tempo (the lowest on any commercial system). Roadmap is investor-facing and ambitious — qubit-count claims have been criticized for using 'algorithmic qubits' rather than physical-qubit counts.

Delivered

Late

Missed

Softened

Pending

Delivery rate (excluding pending): 60%

Our verdict

IonQ's Tempo hardware is genuinely the lowest-error 2-qubit gate on commercial hardware in 2026 — a real achievement. The 'algorithmic qubit' framing remains a marketing artifact; AQ ≠ physical qubits, and the comparison to IBM/Google qubit counts is apples-to-oranges. Public-market pressure has produced ambitious roadmap claims that don't always hold up; trust the published gate fidelities, hedge on the AQ-count timeline.

Claims by target year

Target: 2023 · Announced 2020

Forte: 32 algorithmic qubits

Delivered (late)

Outcome: Forte (36 physical qubits) launched 2023 advertised as '#AQ 29'. The 'algorithmic qubit' metric remains controversial — it's a self-defined benchmark that doesn't directly map to either physical qubits or quantum volume.

Claim source ↗

Target: 2023 · Announced 2020

Develop barium-based ion systems for improved fidelity

Softened

Outcome: Barium efforts continued but the public roadmap shifted toward Oxford Ionics' microfabricated trap technology in 2024-2025.

Claim source ↗

Target: 2024 · Announced 2022

Reconfigurable Multicore Quantum Architecture (RMQA) for networking systems

Delivered (late)

Outcome: Demonstrated 2-system quantum networking with Forte and Forte Enterprise in 2024-25, ~1 year late from original roadmap.

Claim source ↗

Target: 2025 · Announced 2021

Tempo: AQ 64 production system

Delivered

Outcome: Tempo launched 2025 with 1×10⁻⁴ 2-qubit gate error — the lowest on commercial hardware. Released with 64 qubits, with claimed #AQ 64.

Claim source ↗

Target: 2025 · Announced 2020

AQ 1024 by 2028, broad commercial advantage by 2025

Missed

Outcome: The 'broad commercial advantage by 2025' claim from 2020 has not materialized in any third-party-verifiable form. AQ 1024 target has been pushed to ≥2027 in subsequent roadmaps.

Claim source ↗

Target: 2025 · Announced 2024