COLLEGE PARK, MD, November 06 2025 -- IonQ, the world’s leading quantum company, today announced its selection for Stage B of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). This selection follows IonQ’s successful completion of Stage A, where the company detailed its utility-scale quantum computing plans.

As a participant in QBI, IonQ plays a critical role in defining what it means for a quantum computer to achieve utility-scale performance - which will be defined through DARPA’s review of use cases and problem sets that require large scale machines.

“We’re honored to be selected for Stage B of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. With commercial deployments of IonQ quantum systems worldwide – and availability on all three of the major cloud platforms – IonQ is uniquely positioned to contribute practical insights and technical advancements to this initiative,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “We look forward to continuing our collaboration with DARPA to support both our national security and national economic security. IonQ is already working on applications to accelerate drug discovery, modernize energy grid scheduling, decrease transportation costs, build safer cars, and design life-saving medical devices.”

QBI is structured into three stages. This first stage, Stage A, focused on defining the technical concept for a utility-scale quantum computer. IonQ has now been selected for the second stage, Stage B, which is dedicated to developing a detailed research and development roadmap through 2033 that includes technical requirements and designs. In the final stage, Stage C, companies selected will seek to confirm that the proposed system can be built and operated as intended for real-world implementation.

IonQ’s involvement in QBI supports the company’s mission to deliver on its commercial and technical goals. In June, the company revealed its accelerated technical roadmap and its intention to deliver the world’s most powerful quantum computers with 2 million physical qubits and 80,000 logical qubits by 2030. The company also announced that it has achieved a world record in quantum computing performance – 99.99% two-qubit gate performance. Finally, IonQ announced it hit a landmark #AQ 64 on its IonQ Tempo system, three months ahead of schedule.