IonQ deploys largest European quantum key distribution network
IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) said that it has successfully deployed the technology powering one of the largest and most complex quantum key distribution networks in Europe, and one of the largest that exists outside of China.
The company's technology will be powering the Romanian National Quantum Communication Infrastructure. IonQ notes that Romania’s quantum infrastructure now includes 36 quantum-secured links spanning more than 1,500 kilometers.
This will now account for more than 20% of Europe’s terrestrial quantum communications infrastructure to date, the company said
IonQ delivered the technology in partnership with the National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest and RoEduNet, Romania’s national research and education network. It called the project "a major milestone in Europe’s efforts to protect critical communications against current and future cyber threats."
The company said that the nationwide network in Romania was built using IonQ’s commercially available QKD technology, "demonstrating that quantum-secure communications are scalable and operational for national infrastructure today."
“IonQ is proud to support this large operational quantum-secure communications network deployed in Europe, and to directly contribute to the realization of EuroQCI, which is building Europe's flagship quantum communication infrastructure,” IonQ chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi said in a statement.
"This deployment of QKD at national scale supports critical security initiatives and protects sensitive communications across government, healthcare, research, education, and data center environments.”
IonQ's shares jumped 22% on Thursday, but faced a pullback on Friday and dropped over 6%.
Although quantum companies are still seen as being years away from reaching mass commercialization - making their shares mostly speculative bets at the moment - de Masi is proving to be a chief executive who is not afraid to hype up his company's place in the industry.
He told Barron's in May that he sees IonQ as becoming the Nvidia (NVDA) of the quantum space. In an interview with Barron's last week, de Masi made the comparison again.
“I look at companies with $100 billion market caps, and I go, that’s not an absurd concept,” he said. “Nvidia had $60 billion in quarterly revenue and we had $62 million, but they had $60 million of revenue in a quarter at one point.”
And speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference last March, de Masi told Joseph Moore, a managing director and analyst of the semiconductor industry for Morgan Stanley, that IonQ is the “only quantum commercial business” in the industry at the moment.
“We consider ourselves to be the 800-pound gorilla of the quantum computing business,” he said.
However, Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore is not yet ready to call IonQ the "800-pound gorilla" of quantum computing. In a client note on Thursday, Moore said that the company's "organic growth has been impressive, but none of it really answers the question of who will be first to commercialize in quantum tech."
"Clearly, the company's ion trap methodology has merit, but it is not the only technology with merit, and revenue generation at this stage is somewhat secondary," he added. "We see the company as being in a strong position, and the balance sheet continues to be an asset, but to us this is a market that still looks nascent and the uncertainty in picking leaders high."