IonQ, Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quinn Bolton: Hey, guys. I’ll echo the congratulations on another strong quarter and, both technically and on the sales front. I guess, Thomas, now that you’ve had the QuantumBasel transaction sort of behind you for a month or two, can you walk us through sort of how the accounting works? Is it sort of rev rec on shipment? Is it percentage of completion because it will take a little bit of customization and it’s not all delivered at one time? And then a related question is as you sell these systems, will there be sort of like a annual service and maintenance contract that could actually represent a recurring revenue sale alongside of the hardware?

Thomas Kramer: Absolutely. So, while we actually haven’t earned out the accounting quite yet because this will extend into several periods into the future, we have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to look for the remainder of this year. And we’re actually starting up with an access contract so that they can familiarize themselves with the power of, our flavor of quantum computing before they actually have on-prem machine. But this one will probably take a slightly different flavor of the essential complete, because of us also having the opportunity to resale some of this capacity ourselves and using this as a go-to-market entry point for Europe with localized service. But we will get back to that probably already on the next call when we can get into more details of how the recognition will work, but there will be ongoing service already today, but that will be remote.

When we install the systems on-premise in Europe, we will also have ongoing maintenance and actually people on the ground there.

Quinn Bolton: Perfect. And then for Peter, you guys hit AQ 29 seven months in advance. You’ve been sort of advancing AQs about one per month. So hitting 35 seems like you’re well on track and we’ve got still multiple months left in this year. So maybe even surprises on timing of AQ 35. But I guess as I look forward to AQ 64, that seems like it’s where you might start to achieve quantum advantage on certain applications. It’s obviously an acceleration in the AQs per month. And so, how are you feeling about hitting AQ 64 in ‘25? What are the biggest milestones? Is it the laser system? Is it the type of ion you’re using in the ion traps? What are kind of the biggest challenges to hitting AQ 64 in a couple of years’ time? Thank you.

Peter Chapman: Well, first is we do feel quite confident about hitting it in ‘25. And we have kind of here customer validation by QuantumBasel buying one of those machines, which is great. Just in — there is a technical challenge. I don’t want to make it sound like it’s easy, but it is, outback. They kind of have taken all the various technical challenges and have multiple, approaches to be able to de-risk the roadmap. So for — so outback, there’s kind of an appropriate risk analysis that’s going on. And we’re investing in multiple different ways to do it to be able to make sure that we hit that milestone. So — and it is a whole range of things, everything from quality of lasers to optics, it runs a gamut. So, but we are very confident in hitting it, just like we’ve done so far, hitting our roadmap, into the future.

Quinn Bolton: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question is from the line of Trevor Janoskie with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your questions.

Trevor Janoskie: Yeah. Hi, all. This is Trevor. Thanks for letting me ask some questions here and congrats on all the progress. So just to start with a clarification, with bookings being $28 million and QuantumBasel system sales equaling $28 million, does this mean there were no other bookings in the quarter or how should we think about this?