IonQ’s Niccolo de Masi Charts a Multi-Front Quantum Future
IonQ President & CEO Niccolo de Masi speaks at Quantum World Congress 2025, sharing his vision for building a global quantum leader and the path ahead for the industry.
IonQ President & CEO Niccolo de Masi took the stage to share how the company is moving beyond quantum computing into a fully integrated platform of computing, networking, and sensing—with the ambition to become, in his words, the “800-lb gorilla” of the quantum business.
From Pioneering Systems to Commercial Advantage
De Masi traced IonQ’s evolution over the past decade: first powering on machines in 2017, bringing systems to the public cloud by 2020, and building a commercialization roadmap that now stretches into the 2030s. IonQ has demonstrated tangible examples of quantum commercial advantage—turning what once took months of computation into days—through partnerships with companies like AstraZeneca, ANSYS, and collaborations on large language models.
This progress is underpinned by a steady cadence of hardware releases. At QWC, de Masi highlighted IonQ’s new AQ64 system, benchmarked at an unprecedented computational scale, and reaffirmed the company’s strategy of shipping successive generations every few years, each moving rapidly from lab validation into manufacturing.
Expanding the Platform: Networking and Sensing
While computing remains the core, de Masi emphasized that IonQ is also investing deeply in quantum networking and sensing:
Networking: IonQ is advancing fiber-based quantum communications through major collaborations, including a $100M program with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab. Acquisitions like ID Quantique and Capella Space enable ground-to-space secure links, paving the way for a future quantum internet.
Sensing: The planned acquisition of Vector Atomic positions IonQ to lead in positioning, navigation, and timing systems. These capabilities are critical to sectors ranging from defense to energy exploration, ensuring resilient infrastructure in an era of increasing cyber threats.
Together, these pillars create what de Masi described as the most complete quantum platform in the world, with over 1,100 employees and more than 1,000 patents worldwide.
Scaling for the 2030s and Beyond
IonQ’s roadmap doesn’t stop with today’s systems. De Masi outlined a pathway toward a 2 million-qubit fault-tolerant machine by 2030, validated by independent supply chain analysis projecting achievable costs below $30 million. This vision rests on relentless improvements in fidelity, error correction, and photonic interconnects that can eventually align logical qubits with physical ones.
He positioned IonQ as already operating in the era of early commercial advantage and on track to enter broad commercial advantage ahead of competitors—giving the company years to expand its customer ecosystem.
Partnerships and Ecosystem Growth
De Masi highlighted IonQ’s strong ties to academic and industry partners, including the University of Maryland, Oxford Ionics, Harvard-based Lightsync, and corporate leaders like NVIDIA and Amazon Web Services. He also praised forward-thinking utilities such as EPB of Chattanooga, which is building the first commercial U.S. hub for combined quantum computing and networking.
“Computing revolutions are always about unit economics, miniaturization, and power. With IonQ, you get the most qubits, the lowest cost, and the broadest platform. We’re building the future of quantum together.”
These collaborations, he noted, illustrate IonQ’s “land and expand” strategy: once customers deploy IonQ systems, they quickly add networking and sensing capabilities to unlock new value.
Closing Call: Join the Momentum
In closing, de Masi invited researchers, engineers, and professionals across the industry to join IonQ as employees, partners, or customers. With computing, networking, and sensing now linked under one roof, he argued, IonQ is uniquely positioned to define the next era of the field.