Could IonQ be your ticket to becoming a millionaire by 2035?

It’s rare to find a company that can make you a millionaire with a modest investment. However, they are out there and sometimes right under investors’ noses. For example, $10,000 is invested Nvidia a decade ago is worth a staggering $2.71 million today. That’s why searching for millionaire stocks is so fun, because returns like this do exist, even if they’re rare.

One area where investors may be looking for the next millionaire is quantum computing. Although alphabet While the company recently made headlines with its Willow quantum computer chip, other players in the space are pure investments. One of them is IonQ (NYSE:IONQ)but could it make you a millionaire by 2035?

First, let’s discuss regular computing versus quantum computing without getting too deep into the subject matter. Normal computers work with bits that carry information in ones and zeros, making it a binary process. Quantum computers work with qubits, which can be better described as the probability that information is a 1 or 0. This makes the amount of information between these two numbers infinite, which can dramatically increase computing power.

The applications for quantum computing are enormous, and the number of contracts IonQ signed in the last quarter shows this. It announced a partnership with AstraZeneca to accelerate drug discovery and development. A contract was also signed with an engineering simulation company Ansys Bringing quantum computing into this industry too. But the cherry on top of the $63.5 million in bookings in the third quarter was a $54.5 million research contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab. All of these deals provide IonQ with revenue needed to further fund its research and development.

Image of the IonQ optical system. — Image source: IonQ.

While IonQ’s revenue rose 102% in the third quarter, it all came from contracts rather than large-scale sales of quantum computers. All quantum computing companies are still in the development phase as the benefits of the technology have not yet been achieved. Therefore, it should come as no surprise to investors that IonQ is burning cash.

In the third quarter, IonQ had revenue of $12.4 million but posted a net loss of $52.5 million. This is profoundly unprofitable and raises the question of how long it can go without turning a profit. At the end of the third quarter, IonQ had about $360 million in cash and short-term investments, so it had a lot of funding on the books.

Still, it needs to make a profit to ultimately justify the business. But is IonQ too far-fetched for investors?

Nobody knows who will win the quantum computing race. While Alphabet had a breakthrough recently, IonQ could have one tomorrow. There are also other heavyweights in this area, such as: IBM, Microsoftand Nvidia. While it won’t be a winner-take-all race, IonQ is up against some companies that would consider IonQ’s $50 million loss this quarter to be a rounding error.

However, IonQ has the advantage of having a major contract with the Air Force Research Lab and being a smaller company, which makes it more flexible.

Still, there is no guarantee that IonQ will win this race. If this is the case, the stock probably has a chance of making investors millionaires. However, that is far-fetched. So if you want to invest in some of these quantum computing companies, I would suggest this approach:

You can put together a basket of stocks by buying some of the small quantum computing companies as well as some of the larger players.
Keep position size low for long-term stocks like IonQ.

Doing these things may expose you to the winner, but there will be no harm if IonQ loses the race. If I invest in IonQ, I would probably not make up more than 0.5% of my total portfolio as this business involves huge risk. But if it works out, this small 0.5% investment could quickly become a large part of my portfolio.

Before you buy shares of IonQ, consider the following:

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Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Keithen Drury holds positions at Alphabet. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Microsoft and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Ansys, AstraZeneca Plc and International Business Machines and recommends the following options: long $395 January 2026 calls on Microsoft and short $405 January 2026 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Could IonQ be your ticket to becoming a millionaire by 2035? was originally published by The Motley Fool

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Could IonQ be your ticket to becoming a millionaire by 2035?

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