IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) is one of the 12 tech stocks with the biggest upside potential. Despite recent stock volatility, IonQ maintains a market capitalization of $16.12 billion and strong liquidity. The company announced on January 28 that it had completed its acquisition of Skyloom Global, a US-based developer of lightwave-optics technology for secure communications. The transaction was initially disclosed in November 2025. Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of the company, described the acquisition as a key step toward scalable quantum networking.
The company highlighted the potential impact of this acquisition by saying:
The acquisition strengthens IonQ’s quantum networking roadmap by adding Skyloom’s deep expertise in free-space optical communications, photonic systems engineering, and secure data transmission. These capabilities are expected to accelerate IonQ’s work across quantum networking, quantum key distribution, and future quantum-enabled communications infrastructure.
The Skyloom acquisition follows other strategic moves aimed at strengthening the company’s long-term position in the quantum ecosystem. On January 26, Wedbush Securities described IonQ’s proposed $1.8 billion acquisition of SkyWater Technologies as a “positive step forward”, emphasizing that it could position the company as a potential quantum champion. The acquisition is expected to accelerate production and chip design for its 200K and 2M qubit systems.
Wedbush analyst Antoine Legault stated:
In our view, the most significant competitive advantage for IONQ will be the ability to bring manufacturing and packaging in-house to accelerate its development cycle (IONQ expects cycle times to reduce from 9 to 2 months) while also receiving instant and critical engineering feedback on each iteration of its quantum systems. We note that this acquisition would make IONQ the only vertically integrated trapped-ion player.
Together, the completed Skyloom Global deal and the planned SkyWater acquisition highlight the company’s strategy to expand across both quantum networking and manufacturing, supporting faster development cycles.
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) operates as a developer of quantum computers and networks across the United States. The company sells access to quantum computers of various qubit capacities. It is also involved in quantum detection systems and quantum-safe networking. IonQ was founded in 2015 and is based in College Park, Maryland.
While we acknowledge the risk and potential of IONQ as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than IONQ and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
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