Overview
- IonQ shares rose about 20% Tuesday after the company announced a DARPA award and a photonic interconnect milestone linking two of its commercial systems.
- DARPA’s Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum program backs technology to connect trapped‑ion, neutral‑atom, and superconducting machines into one network.
- IonQ, working with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, used light to link two independent trapped‑ion processors in what it describes as the first connection between commercial quantum computers.
- The company’s interconnect design relies on quantum memory chips made from synthetic diamond that hold and pass quantum states with targets for high speed and high fidelity.
- CEO Niccolo de Masi said the work aims to provide a backbone for scalable, networked quantum systems that can serve national security needs and future data center use.