World Quantum Day was established by a cohort of scientists in 2021, when the technology was in its nascent stages. Today, it is observed globally as a way to promote advancements in the community. But there was more lifting quantum stocks on Tuesday than general enthusiasm.
One of the drivers was an announcement from IonQ, which the company framed as a "foundational technical milestone." The College Park, Md.-based company said it had photonically interconnected two remote trapped-ion quantum systems -- in other words, linking two physically separate quantum computers.
Most classical computers exist over networks, but quantum networks don't exist yet. This means each quantum computer has to operate on its own. The concept of a quantum network, which would allow individual systems to communicate, could pave the way for a quantum internet.
Tuesday's announcement shows progress toward practically useful quantum computers is occurring faster than anticipated. IonQ, for one, aims to lead the charge. CEO Niccolo de Masi told Barron's earlier this year that he viewed the company as a leader across different types of quantum technology, including networking.
"We're doing all parts of quantum," de Masi said at the time of IonQ's last earnings report in February. "We continue to aim to deepen our lead in all of them. And all of them feel like they're inflecting at the same time, which is great."
The photonic interconnect work was funded through an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory, IonQ said. The company separately announced that it had been chosen to participate in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum program.
The inclusion in yet another Darpa program is significant for the company, which caught flak earlier this year after short sellers alleged IonQ wouldn't have progressed to Stage B of Darpa's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative without its acquisition of Oxford Ionics.
Tuesday's announcements sent the stock 20% higher, putting it on pace for its largest single-day jump since Feb. 26, when the company reported earnings. Peers SEALSQ Corp, D-Wave Quantum Rigetti Computing were getting a boost, rising 21%, 16% and 12%, respectively. Rigetti earlier this month announced the general availability of its most powerful quantum computer, putting an end to months of uncertainty following an initial delay.
Other players seized the excitement around World Quantum Day to share their own developments. In the midst of the stock's latest hot streak, Nvidia unveiled what it dubbed the world's first family of open-source models designed to help researchers build quantum processors.
The Ising family, named after a landmark mathematical model, "run the world's best quantum processor calibration and allow researchers to tackle larger, more complex problems," Nvidia said. The company promises Ising will deliver up to three times higher accuracy for the decoding process central to quantum error correction.
Nvidia may be best known as a heavyweight in artificial intelligence, but Tuesday's announcement doesn't mark its foray into quantum. In addition to its work with collaborators like International Business Machines, Nvidia is the developer behind CUDA-Q, a hybrid programming platform designed to integrate quantum processors with GPUs and CPUs.
Nvidia shares advanced 3.8% on Tuesday as the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1.96%.
