IonQ Falls 8% as Quantum Stocks Slide After Record Quarter

IonQ stock fell 8% to $28.39 in early trading on November 13, giving back part of a strong one-week bounce even after the company posted a record quarter. The stock remains down 34% year to date.

The retreat hit every major quantum computing name at once. Rigetti Computing dropped 6% to $9.68, down 54% year to date. D-Wave Quantum fell 4% to $9.43, down 63% year to date. Quantum Computing Inc. declined 4% to $5.57.

Speculative technology has been under pressure as fallout around NVIDIA weighs on AI-adjacent stocks. IonQ's high-beta profile leaves it exposed to the shift in risk appetite.

What did IonQ's Q3 2026 report show?

IonQ reported third-quarter results on November 5. Revenue reached $173.83 million, beating a $141.20 million consensus estimate. The top line rose 336% year over year, lifted by consolidation of the newly acquired SkyWater foundry business.

Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to a range of $505 million to $515 million.

Headline profit got a one-time lift. A non-cash warrant liability gain of $896.16 million pushed GAAP net income to $563.96 million. On an adjusted basis, excluding that gain, IonQ lost $0.29 per share. Its adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $133.61 million from $48.91 million a year earlier.

Why did the stock fall after a beat?

The quarterly report is already absorbed. The best-supported explanation is profit taking after IonQ's bounce, reinforced by a sector-wide pullback in high-beta speculative technology.

Notably, the two smaller names fell less than IonQ in percentage terms. That detail cuts against the idea that scale protects IonQ in a selloff. IonQ's recent rebound left gains available to lock in, which may explain the gap.

How did D-Wave and Rigetti perform?

D-Wave reported results on November 10. Revenue rose 20.7% to $4.51 million. Gross margin fell to 52.9% from 71.4%, reflecting a shift toward lower-margin professional services. D-Wave offers no quantitative guidance.

Rigetti also reported on November 10. Third-quarter revenue came in at $1.41 million, down 27.5% and short of the $3.52 million consensus. The company held its full-year 2026 revenue outlook of approximately $20 million. The forecast rests on expected customer acceptance of a C-DAC system in the fourth quarter of 2026.

How do the three business models differ?

IonQ runs the broadest model of the group. It sells trapped-ion quantum computers, offers cloud access through major providers, and adds networking, sensing and post-quantum cybersecurity products. Through SkyWater, IonQ also manufactures for third parties, including D-Wave. It therefore collects foundry revenue from a rival it competes with for computing customers.

D-Wave takes a dual-platform approach. It sells access to annealing systems it describes as production-ready while building gate-model machines through its Quantum Circuits acquisition. Most revenue comes from cloud access, professional services and system sales.

Rigetti is the purest hardware play of the three. It builds superconducting qubit chips in its own fabrication facility and sells on-premises systems to national labs and quantum computing centers. Government research contracts round out its revenue. Quantum Computing Inc. stands apart with photonics technology designed to run at room temperature.

What comes next for the quantum group?

With third-quarter reports now behind IonQ, D-Wave and Rigetti, the group heads into a stretch where sentiment and sector news may drive trading. Investors can watch for shifts in appetite for AI-linked technology, since the quantum names are moving as a block.

Bulls point to IonQ's raised guidance, a pro forma cash position of $3.7 billion and NVIDIA's plan to deploy a Superion 256 system at its Accelerated Quantum Research Center. Bears cite extended adjusted losses, dilution from equity offerings and stock-based deals, and integration risk from recent acquisitions.

Rigetti's outlook depends on a single system acceptance, while D-Wave offers no quantitative revenue targets. Until the pullback in speculative technology resolves, the group's near-term direction likely hinges on whether IonQ's weekly bounce holds.