Down 45%, Should You Buy the Dip on IonQ? - The Motley Fool
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IonQ's (IONQ +4.21%) stock went on a wild ride in 2025. It got caught up in the general excitement over quantum computing being the next big technology after artificial intelligence (AI), only to later tumble from its highs. For 2025, the stock managed an approximate 10% gain, although its shares ended the year well off the high of $84.64 they hit in October. The question on many investors' minds is whether they should buy the dip in IonQ's stock. A potential quantum computer leader Quantum computing was thrust into the investor spotlight this past summer after Nvidia (NVDA 0.35%) CEO Jensen Huang said in June that quantum computing was reaching an inflection point. In conjunction with this statement, Nvidia released CUDA-Q, an extension of its CUDA software platform designed to handle hybrid classical-quantum computing. The comments were in stark contrast to what Huang said in January 2025, when he suggested that the technology was decades away from game-changing performance. Quantum computing is an advancement on classical computing that uses quantum bits, or qubits, instead of traditional computing bits, which are in a fixed state of 0 or 1. In quantum computing, qubits can be in a state of superposition, which means they can potentially be a 0 or a 1. Through entanglement, qubits can then be connected to allow quantum computers to process certain calculations exponentially faster than traditional computers. CollapseIONQNYSE: IONQIonQToday's Change(4.21%) $2.05Current Price$50.76IONQYTD1w1m3m6m1y5yPriceVS S&PKey Data PointsMarket Cap$18BDay's Range$47.20 - $50.7752wk Range$17.88 - $84.64Volume320KAvg Vol25MGross Margin-747.41% The problem with quantum computing, though, is that because qubits are balancing themselves in a state of superposition, they are fragile to outside forces and thus the process is highly error-prone. However, IonQ's trapped-ion technology has proven to be one of the least error-prone, achieving 99.99% fidelity (accuracy). The company has achieved this by taking a different approach from most competitors, using actual atoms, which are identical by nature, instead of fabricated qubits, which are highly similar but not 100% identical. Advertisement 99.99% fidelity seems very accurate, but for computing, it is still considered very error-prone. However, achieving fidelity this high opens the door for the company to begin improving accuracy through other error-correcting techniques. On this front, IonQ uses Quantum Error Correction, which it says "acts like a shield, protecting the delicate quantum information from potential errors ... even when the physical qubits themselves experience problems." It has also developed Clifford Noise Reduction (CliNR) software to help reduce errors. While IonQ is nicely progressing in reaching the important quantum computing goal of fault tolerance (the ability of a quantum system to continue running accurately even when an individual qubit fails), the company has even bigger ambitions. It has stated that it wants to become the Nvidia of quantum computing, which basically means it wants to control the entire quantum ecosystem. Nvidia didn't become the powerhouse it is today just by designing graphics processing units (GPUs), but by creating a whole ecosystem around its chips with software and networking. IonQ is trying to do the same, and it's not shy about making acquisitions to achieve its goals. IonQ has made significant acquisitions in the areas of quantum sensing, quantum networking, and space-based quantum data transmission. Its largest acquisition, which closed in September, was for Oxford Ionics, which will give it technology that can shrink the size of its quantum computers. Meanwhile, its acquisition of LightSynq will give it control of photonic interconnect technology that will help it better scale its systems. Image source: Getty Images. Is the stock a buy? IonQ is doing a lot of the right things to help build a leading quantum computing company. However, the quantum computing race is still in its infancy, and what technology and companies ultimately prevail is a big unknown. With a market cap of $16 billion, investors are paying a lot of money for what is still largely a science experiment. That said, given its solid progress, I think investors can take a tiny speculative position and just tuck it away to see what happens. If IonQ's technology eventually breaks through, the stock will have a lot of upside, and it appears to be one of the companies furthest along in the space.