IonQ will be coming public via SPAC, through a merger with dMY Technology Group Inc. This will now be the world’s first publicly-traded quantum computing company.
At first glance, this looks like a massive bubble might be forming. The combined entity is expected to have a valuation of $2 billion. However, IonQ won’t have a commercially available quantum computer ready until 2023 and is still doing just $1 million in total revenue. That means the company is coming public at a nosebleed multiple of 2,000 times sales.
From a business perspective, we will need to see the creation of a flywheel over time (acquisition of software, security services, developer portals etc.) to continue to attract talent and provide top notch customer service, just like Amazon has with AWS.