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

Thomas Kramer: It does not mean that. The reason is due to rounding and also foreign currency conversion. But it does mean of course that the majority of the bookings came from QuantumBasel.

Trevor Janoskie: Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. And another one on the systems. So with your QuantumBasel agreement for two systems being $28 million, I guess we can infer about $14 million for each system, give or take, but you’re also managing 50% of these systems. Does that mean that the ASP of a single system could be $28 million if you’re not managing all of it or any of it at all? And what could the gross margin be for a single system sale where you were not co-managing the system?

Thomas Kramer: That’s an excellent question. I think the — let’s go backwards. The gross margin shouldn’t be all that different because when you sell 100%, we aim to use the same pricing model for the second 50%. And when it comes to the actual pricing, there’s a lot of different elements that goes into this. I mentioned already that, QuantumBasel is already up and running on a remote access to our current service here in the US. And we will also have, service and maintenance on the ground. And we prefer not to break out the, the specific elements and their pricing, but you are in the right ballpark. These are not cheap machines, which I think we alluded to in an earlier call when we said that we do large deals and we look forward to doing more.

Peter Chapman: Trevor, for you, we’re willing to take you up with a machine at a reasonable price right now. You can drive it off the lot as we’re speaking. I’ll just add a little bit to that as we have customers in the pipeline here who have different needs. And so there’s different pricing. For instance, there’s companies now which are working on quantum networking and they have different needs and those will be priced differently. They’re not looking for AQ 64 systems. They’re looking for quantum memory to build quantum networks in the future quantum internet. So each customer is a little different and the pricing is a little different based on what the customer wants.

Trevor Janoskie: Okay. And one more, if I may. So are these customers that are coming to you, that are interested in system sales, are they mostly considering the 35 AQ and 64 AQ like QuantumBasel, or is there also interest in your Aria 29 as well?

Peter Chapman: In terms of system sales, usually these are, as you know, kind of big ticket items that you have to run through a budget year and also a manufacturing cycle. So people are usually looking forward by at least a year. And so they’re looking at the roadmap. So what I would say is, people very much are interested in AQ 64. They know they can’t get that delivered next year. So then they’re thinking, well, can I get a access to an AQ 35 system so I can get started and start programming and get my application started. But people are really, I think we see lots of excitement for AQ 64 systems.

Trevor Janoskie: Awesome. Thanks for the color guys.

Peter Chapman: Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from the line of Kevin Garrigan with WestPark Capital. Please proceed with your questions.

Kevin Garrigan: Yeah. Hey, Peter and Tom, let me echo my congrats on the strong results. Going off of David and Trevor’s questions about kind of customer interest, since you since you last launched Forte for commercial use for everyone, can you kind of give us a sense on how many new commercial customers you signed up since and any to point out?