Quantum computing stocks rally after IonQ reports a fresh technical breakthrough - businessinsider.com

GPU Technology Conference 2026-09-23T14:55:00.068Z Read in app Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Listen to this story This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. Quantum computing stocks jumped on Wednesday, with IonQ leading a rally in the sector after reporting a breakthrough and a new deal to install its quantum tech in Nvidia's Accelerated Quantum Research Center.After a burst of burst of momentum throughout 2025, IonQ stock has struggled this year, down about 4% year to date after Wednesday's gain. The stock popped as much as 13% before paring.IonQ's peers in the sector also got a boost. Here were the big moves intraday in other quantum stocks: Here's where some of the sector's top movers were as markets opened on Wednesday.Infleqtion: +7%D-Wave Quantum: +7%Quantum Computing Inc: 7%Rigetti Computing: +7% The rally in the space on Wednesday was being driven by an announcement from IonQ regarding a breakthrough in "real-time quantum error-correction," marking a major technical milestone for the nascent technology.While the company's researchers showcased their work in this area in a paper published on September 3, they released a statement detailing further progress on Tuesday, highlighting what it describes as a significant milestone in quantum advancements. The gain was also being driven by news of a deal for IonQ to bring its quantum computing technology to an Nvidia research center meanto to "help drive the new breakthroughs needed to turn qubits into useful, large-scale quantum supercomputers capable of solving the world's hardest problems."Wednesday's momentum sparked enthusiasm from retail traders in online forums. The day trader crowd piled into quantum stocks during their big 2025 rally, and have been angling for a repeat this year, with little to show for it so far. Explore BI Games Take a smarter break in your day - and see how far you get. Play now Want more Business Insider in your news feed? Add BI in Google so our reporting is easier to find when you’re searching for what matters. Add to Preferred Sources Quantum machines perform computational tasks by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics. By leveraging quantum bits, known as qubits, of information, they are able to solve problems at a higher speed than classical computing machines.However, their systems are sensitive and prone to error. As IonQ noted in its statement, this has been a constant challenge for companies working in the space. "Successfully validating real-time decoding across hundreds of logical qubits and over millions of logical operations is an important milestone," said Nicolas Delfosse, a researcher at IonQ. "Moreover, the fact that our decoder runs on a single CPU provides a practical path to commercial-scale fault-tolerant quantum computing."