IonQ Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) was trading at approximately $63.60 on Friday, May 22, having surged from a session low of $57.05 to a high of $65.80 in elevated volume of 42.22 million shares, above the 35.65 million daily average.
The stock closed the session up approximately 7.87%, extending a 12% rally from the prior day that was triggered by a landmark federal government quantum computing funding announcement.
The Trump administration, through the Department of Commerce, announced letters of intent to distribute $2.013 billion under the CHIPS and Science Act to nine quantum computing companies, covering trapped-ion, superconducting, neutral-atom, photonic, and silicon-spin quantum systems.
IBM was allocated approximately $1 billion to build the first purpose-built quantum foundry in the United States, while D-Wave, Rigetti, Quantinuum, PsiQuantum, Atom Computing, Infleqtion, and Diraq were each in line for up to $100 million.
Notably, IONQ was not included in the nine named recipients, yet the stock rallied sharply alongside its peers as investors interpreted the government’s commitment as a sector-wide endorsement of quantum computing as a national priority.
The Department of Commerce stated it would continue soliciting proposals from eligible applicants, leaving the door open for IonQ to participate in future funding rounds.
Rigetti surged 17% and D-Wave popped 13% on Friday in the broader quantum sector rally, reflecting how powerfully the government announcement shifted sentiment across the entire space.
IonQ previously reported Q1 2026 revenue of $64.67 million, its strongest quarter to date, and raised its full-year guidance and backlog to $470 million, but the stock fell 13.3% after those results as investors focused on widening operating losses.
The company’s 52-week range of $25.89 to $84.64 illustrates the volatility that has characterised IONQ throughout the past year, with the stock having rallied approximately 60% in the month leading up to the government announcement.
The price-to-sales ratio of approximately 130 times trailing revenue remains a significant valuation concern among cautious analysts, though bulls argue the ratio will compress rapidly as government and enterprise contracts convert the growing backlog into recognised revenue.
