IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) 2022年年度報告「NYSE」.pdf

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1、Dear Stockholders,In 2022,we delivered what we promised to our customers and to investors.We achieved our technicalmilestone of 25 algorithmic qubits(#AQ),and delivered strong financial growth with$24.5 million innew bookings and$11.1 in revenue.We continue to distinguish IonQ as a leader in our ind

2、ustry,with asignificant head start relative to our peers.The 25 algorithmic qubits milestone is one more step towards“quantum advantage,”the point at whichquantum computers will exceed the capabilities of their classical computing counterparts and are likely topropagate broader commercial use cases.

3、We are confident we will hit an#AQ of 29 in 2023,putting usin clear striking range for#AQ 35 in 2024.The#AQ milestone of 35 is particularly significant because reaching it means that classical hardware willno longer be able to fully simulate our quantum hardware at commercial scale.And more importan

4、tly,weexpect that at#AQ 35,the commercial value of the first quantum machine learning(QML)applicationswill crystallize,driving adoption of IonQs industry-leading quantum computers.Today,we are laser-focused on building on our head start to be the first company to achieve quantumadvantage and scaling

5、 our system manufacturing to meet surging demand.IonQs Head Start Towards Quantum AdvantageAt IonQ,our primary focus has been not on the quantity of qubits in a system,but on the quality of thequbits and their operations.For quantum computers,this qualityalso known as fidelityis the keydifferentiato

6、r in successfully completing computational tasks.If the quality of the qubits and theiroperations is low,no number of qubits can lead to useful quantum computation.IonQ differs from most other commercial quantum computers by using trapped ion qubits,whichnaturally have the highest fidelities of any

7、mainstream quantum architecture.We have always maintainedthat the superior fidelity of our qubits and their operations will give us a head start over our peers.Othersmay proclaim they have over 100 qubits in their systems,but the fidelity of the 25 qubits in our IonQ Ariasystem is much higher,making

8、 it the most powerful commercial system we have yet to see.In the past months,we have seen our peers(somewhat reluctantly)accept the fact that the fidelities ofqubits and their operations are key indicators of performance.At least two have delayed their publictechnical roadmaps to give themselves ad

9、ditional time to improve their fidelities before scaling thenumber of qubits in their systems.At IonQ,our qubit and operation fidelities are already best in class.1Unlike our peers,our technicalroadmap has always focused on the operational fidelities of our qubits,and our public technical roadmaprem

10、ains unchanged.This means that while others are debugging their qubit technology,IonQ is alreadyhard at work scaling our qubit count,giving us a tangible advantage in addressing the quantum marketopportunity.1IonQ Aria has an average 1-qubit gate fidelity of 99.94%and an average 2-qubit gate fidelit

11、y of 99.4%.IonQ Fortehas an average 1-qubit gate fidelity of 99.98%and an average 2-qubit gate fidelity of 99.6%.The lead is ours.And we have full intent to take advantage of it.The(Short)Road to Quantum AdvantageOften I hear various individuals from academia and industry opine on when quantum will

12、take off.At arecent industry conference,this question was asked to various panelists,with answers ranging from thisyear to 20 years or more.It reminds me of the artificial general intelligence market prior to ChatGPT,alsowith a divergence of viewpoints from so-called experts.So how can there be such

13、 conflicting stories about when the industry will reach quantum advantage?Theanswer lies in that these narratives are conspicuously tied to each companys individual progress andtechnical approach,rather than the progress of our industry as a whole.Next time you hear a companyexecutive say,“I think q

14、uantum will take off in X years”you need to mentally append“.for ourcompanys technology.”The world is starting to come to grips with the implications of ChatGPT,with most caught off guard andwith some facing an existential threat to their business.Within approximately the next two years,we expect th

15、at quantum will have its own ChatGPT-likemoment,with QML in 2024,and line of sight for IonQs broader adoption with an#AQ of 64 in 2025.My prediction is that no matter how much we say it and deliver on our technology roadmap,bothinvestors and customers will be taken by surprise.Even for OpenAI,quantu

16、m will likely be highlydisruptive to their business too.The companies who choose to jump start their journey in quantum nowwill have the first-mover advantage in their industry sector.We are in the“development window”for quantum advantage:if preparations for the propagation ofquantum computing were

17、once theoretical or exploratory,they are now immediate and urgent.Todaysleading companies and US-friendly governments need to be building their first quantum applications nowif they want to benefit from the new opportunities enabled by quantum.IonQ is partnering with forward-looking companies to acc

18、elerate their quantum applications.Ourapproach in the near term is to form a limited number of highly strategic partnerships to develop solutionsthat open up quantum advantage in select industry sectors,while focusing on our technology developmentto reach quantum advantage.We challenge leading compa

19、nies that want to reap the benefits of quantumadvantage to step forward now with proposals for joint applications.Leveraging Existing Technology to ScaleWith quantum advantage on the horizon and IonQs technological head start,we have seen rapidlygrowing demand for our current supply of IonQ computer

20、s.As a result,our team is focused on scaling upour manufacturing processes to design increasingly modular,economical,and serviceable systems in thenear future.One may assume that scaling quantum computer manufacturing will be an uphill battle given thenascency of the technology.But while the ions at

21、 the core of our systems are quantum in nature,everything else in our systems is classical.This means we can leverage half a century of advancements inmanufacturing computer chips,optical networks and other semiconductor devices to accelerate themanufacturing of our IonQ systems.We see ample opportu

22、nity to optimize our hardware.Take,for example,our photonic interconnects technology,a technique invented and demonstrated by ourfounders that will allow us to scale to multiple,networked quantum processors in the same system.Thistechnology uses the same optical switching technology developed for op

23、tical communications that arenow deployed at scale in data centers.It is no coincidence that our co-founder and CTO,Dr.JungsangKim,led a team to build the worlds largest optical switch during his time at Bell Labs.Employingoptical switches makes IonQs networked system designs look like a data center

24、 made of a large networkof computers,and we can leverage the learnings from these highly mature industries to scale our systems.Another example lies in our laser technology,where we have already made great strides in improvingminiaturization and stability.While the high-powered lasers currently used

25、 in IonQs systems can bebulky and expensive,we remind investors of the rapid advances in laser technology we have seen play outhistorically,such as in the Blu-ray DVD industry.We deploy commodity semiconductor diode lasers andmature laser systems widely used in the semiconductor manufacturing proces

26、s to build our systems,ratherthan relying upon exotic laser systems normally used in scientific research labs.We are now starting tolearn how to miniaturize the lasers and their delivery systems to make them extremely stable,leading toeven higher performance quantum computing operations.We are alrea

27、dy at work deploying these classical computing technologies for the benefit of IonQ systems.With every new system we design,we methodically review each component technology and askourselves if we should buy it,build it,or partner on its development,which keeps us focused on whatmatters most to us at

28、 IonQ:delivering the best systems possible to service our customers.Over the past months,we have provided you with glimpses of how IonQ is scaling to meet the growingdemand in our market.We announced our new Bothell,Washington location,the first dedicated quantumcomputing manufacturing facility in t

29、he United States,a year ahead of schedule.We shared news ofrecent additions to the IonQ team who will spur growth in sales and production engineering.We havediscussed the potential for full-system sales to customers who see the immediate value of having quantumcompute capabilities on premises.In man

30、y ways,2023 is just the beginning,as the power of a quantum computer doubles with eachincremental#AQ.In the coming months,we expect to announce our progress in achieving new heights ofsystem performance,new projects with leading customers,and even a new system that incorporateslearnings from the lat

31、est generations.We encourage our investors to stay tuned for what should be athrilling couple of years ahead.Our ThanksOur first year as a public company was an opportunity for IonQ to demonstrate our ability to project anddeliver on our financial and technical milestones.We broke apart from the pac

32、k and have set our sights onbecoming the first quantum company to offer quantum advantage to the market.With a strong balancesheet and a healthy head start achieved by the outstanding IonQ team,we look to the future withconfidence.On behalf of the full IonQ team,we appreciate your support as an inve

33、stor in IonQ and look forward to anexciting journey together in 2023 and beyond.Best,Peter ChapmanPeter ChapmanPresident and Chief Executive OfficerIonQ,Inc.UNITED STATESSECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSIONWashington,D.C.20549FORM 10-K(Mark One)ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)OF THE SECUR

34、ITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934For the fiscal year ended December 31,2022ORTRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACTOF 1934 FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROMTOCommission File Number 001-39694IONQ,INC.(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)Delaware85-29921

35、92(State or other jurisdiction ofincorporation or organization)(I.R.S.EmployerIdentification No.)4505 Campus DriveCollege Park,MD20740(Address of principal executive offices)(Zip Code)Registrants telephone number,including area code:(301)298-7997Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b)of the

36、Act:Title of each classTrading Symbol(s)Name of each exchange on which registeredCommon Stock,$0.0001 par value per shareWarrants,each exercisable for one share ofcommon stock for$11.50 per shareIONQIONQ WSNew York Stock ExchangeNew York Stock ExchangeSecurities registered pursuant to Section 12(g)o

37、f the Act:NoneIndicate by check mark if the Registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer,as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.Yes No Indicate by check mark if the Registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)of the Act.Yes No Indicate by check mark whether the Regi

38、strant:(1)has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d)of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934during the preceding 12 months(or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports),and(2)has been subject to such filingrequirements for the past 90 days.Yes

39、 No Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 ofRegulation S-T(232.405 of this chapter)during the preceding 12 months(or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit suchf

40、iles).Yes No Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer,an accelerated filer,a non-accelerated filer,smaller reporting company,or anemerging growth company.See the definitions of“large accelerated filer,”“accelerated filer,”“smaller reporting company,”and“emerging gro

41、wthcompany”in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.Large accelerated filerAccelerated filerNon-accelerated filerSmaller reporting company Emerging growth company If an emerging growth company,indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with

42、any newor revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a)of the Exchange Act.Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its managements assessment of the effectiveness of its internalcontrol over financial reporting under Section

43、404(b)of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act(15 U.S.C.7262(b)by the registered public accounting firm thatprepared or issued its audit report.If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b)of the Act,indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in thefiling reflect th

44、e correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation receivedby any of the registrants executive officers during the relevant recovery period

45、 pursuant to 240.10D-1(b).Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company(as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).Yes No The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant,based on the closing price of$4.38,pershare o

46、f the Registrants common stock on the New York Stock Exchange on June 30,2022,was$675.6 million.This calculation excludes shares of theregistrants common stock held by current executive officers,directors and stockholders that the registrant has concluded are affiliates of theregistrant.This determi

47、nation of affiliate status is not a determination for other purposes.The number of shares of registrants common stock outstanding as of March 23,2023 was 201,551,436.DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCECertain information required in Item 10 through Item 14 of Part III of this Annual Report on Form 1

48、0-K is incorporated herein by reference to theRegistrants definitive proxy statement for its 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders,which shall be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commissionpursuant to Regulation 14A of the Securities Act of 1934,as amended.Table of ContentsPageCAUTIONARY NOTE RE

49、GARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS.iiiPART IItem 1.Business.1Item 1A.Risk Factors.16Item 1B.Unresolved Staff Comments.56Item 2.Properties.56Item 3.Legal Proceedings.56Item 4.Mine Safety Disclosures.57PART IIItem 5.Market for Registrants Common Equity,Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases

50、ofEquity Securities.58Item 6.Reserved.58Item 7.Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.59Item 7A.Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.70Item 8.Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.71Item 9.Changes in and Disagreements With Acc

51、ountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.71Item 9A.Controls and Procedures.71Item 9B.Other Information.72Item 9C.Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections.72PART IIIItem 10.Directors,Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.73Item 11.Executive Compensation.75Item

52、12.Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related StockholderMatters.75Item 13.Certain Relationships and Related Transactions,and Director Independence.75Item 14.Principal Accountant Fees and Services.75PART IVItem 15.Exhibit and Financial Statement Schedules.76Item 16.Fo

53、rm 10-K Summary.79SIGNATURESIn this report,unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise indicates,the terms“IonQ,Inc.,”“the company,”“we,”“us,”“our”and similar references refer to“IonQ”and our other registered and common law trade names,trademarks and service marks are property of IonQ,Inc.All o

54、ther trademarks,trade names and service marksappearing in this annual report are the property of their respective owners.Solely for convenience,thetrademarks and trade names in this report may be referred to without theandsymbols,but such referencesshould not be construed as any indicator that their

55、 respective owners will not assert their rights thereto.WHERE YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATIONInvestors and others should note that we announce material financial information to our investors using ourinvestor relations website at ,press releases,filings with the U.S.Securities and ExchangeCommission(“

56、SEC”)and public conference calls and webcasts.We also use IonQs blog and the followingsocial media channels as a means of disclosing information about the company,our products and services,ourplanned financials and other announcements and attendance at upcoming investor and industry conferences,ando

57、ther matters.This is in compliance with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD:IonQ Company Blog(https:/ LinkedIn Page(https:/ Twitter Account(https:/ YouTube Account(https:/ posted through these social media channels may be deemed material.Accordingly,in addition toreviewing our press relea

58、ses,SEC filings,public conference calls and webcasts,investors should monitor IonQsblog and our other social media channels.The information we post through these channels is not part of thisAnnual Report on Form 10-K.The channel list on how to connect with us may be updated from time to time andis a

59、vailable on our investor relations website.iiCAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTSThis Annual Report on Form 10-K(this“Annual Report”)contains statements that may constitute“forward-looking statements”within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933,as amended(the“Secur

60、ities Act”)and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934,as amended(the“Exchange Act”)thatinvolve substantial risks and uncertainties.All statements contained in this Annual Report other than statementsof historical fact,including statements regarding our future results of operations and fi

61、nancial position,ourbusiness strategy and plans,and our objectives for future operations,are forward-looking statements.The words“believes,”“expects,”“intends,”“estimates,”“projects,”“anticipates,”“will,”“plan,”“may,”“should,”orsimilar language are intended to identify forward-looking statements.The

62、se forward-looking statements includestatements concerning the following:our financial and business performance,including financial projections and business metrics;changes in our strategy,future operations,financial position,estimated revenues and losses,projectedcosts,prospects and plans;the imple

63、mentation,market acceptance and success of our business model and growth strategy;our expectations and forecasts with respect to market opportunity and market growth;our ability to sell full quantum computing systems to customers,either over the cloud or for localaccess;the ability of our products a

64、nd services to meet customers compliance and regulatory needs;our ability to attract and retain qualified employees and management;our ability to adapt to changes in consumer preferences,perception and spending habits and developand expand our product offerings and gain market acceptance of our prod

65、ucts,including in newgeographies;our ability to develop and maintain our brand and reputation;developments and projections relating to our competitors and industry;our expectations regarding our ability to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection and notinfringe on the rights of others;e

66、xpectations regarding the time during which we will be an emerging growth company under theJumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012(the“JOBS Act”);the impact of global economic and political developments on our business,as well as the value of ourcommon stock and our ability to access capital mar

67、kets;the impact of public health crises,or geopolitical tensions,such as the Russia-Ukraine war,on ourbusiness and the actions we may take in response thereto;our future capital requirements and sources and uses of cash;our ability to obtain funding for our operations and future growth;andour busine

68、ss,expansion plans and opportunities.You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events.We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report primarily on our current expectations and projections aboutfuture events and trends that we believe may

69、affect our business,financial condition and operating results.Theoutcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to risks,uncertainties and otherfactors described in the section titled“Risk Factors”and elsewhere in this Annual Report.A summary of selectedrisks associat

70、ed with our business are set forth below.Moreover,we operate in a very competitive and rapidlychanging environment.New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time,and it is not possible for us toiiipredict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements c

71、ontained in thisAnnual Report.The results,events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements may not beachieved or occur,and actual results,events or circumstances could differ materially from those described in theforward-looking statements.In addition,statements that“we believe”a

72、nd similar statements reflect our beliefs and opinions on the relevantsubject.These statements are based on information available to us as of the date of this Annual Report.Andwhile we believe that information provides a reasonable basis for these statements,that information may belimited or incompl

73、ete.Our statements should not be read to indicate that we have conducted an exhaustiveinquiry into,or review of,all relevant information.These statements are inherently uncertain,and investors arecautioned not to unduly rely on these statements.The forward-looking statements made in this Annual Repo

74、rt relate only to events as of the date on which thestatements are made.We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made in this AnnualReport to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this Annual Report or to reflect new information or theoccurrence of unanticipate

75、d events,except as required by law.We may not actually achieve the plans,intentionsor expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements,and you should not place undue reliance on ourforward-looking statements.Our forward-looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any futureacqu

76、isitions,mergers,dispositions,joint ventures or investments.ivPART IItem 1.Business.OverviewWe are developing quantum computers designed to solve some of the worlds most complex problems,andtransform business,society and the planet for the better.We believe that our proprietary technology,ourarchite

77、cture and the technology exclusively available to us through license agreements will offer us advantagesboth in terms of research and development,as well as the commercial value of our intended product offerings.Today,we sell access to several quantum computers of various qubit capacities and are in

78、 the process ofresearching and developing technologies for quantum computers with increasing computational capabilities.Wecurrently make access to our quantum computers available via three major cloud platforms,Amazon WebServices(“AWS”)Amazon Braket,Microsofts Azure Quantum and Googles Cloud Marketp

79、lace,and also toselect customers via our own cloud service.This cloud-based approach enables the broad availability ofquantum-computing-as-a-service(“QCaaS”).We supplement our QCaaS offering with professional services focused on assisting our customers inapplying quantum computing to their businesse

80、s.We also expect to sell full quantum computing systems tocustomers,either over the cloud or for local access.We are still in the early stages of commercial growth.Since our inception,we have incurred significantoperating losses.Our ability to generate revenue sufficient to achieve profitability wil

81、l depend heavily on thesuccessful development and further commercialization of our quantum computing systems.Our net losses were$48.5 million and$106.2 million for the years ended December 31,2022 and 2021,respectively,and we expectto continue to incur significant losses for the foreseeable future.A

82、s of December 31,2022,we had anaccumulated deficit of$194.3 million.We expect to continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future as weprioritize reaching the technical milestones necessary to achieve an increasingly higher number of stable qubitsand higher levels of fidelity than presently exist

83、sprerequisites for quantum computing to reach broad quantumadvantage.The Quantum OpportunityThroughout human history,technological breakthroughs have dramatically transformed society and alteredthe trajectory of economic productivity.In the 19th century,it was the industrial revolution,powered by th

84、escientific advances that brought us steam-powered machines,electricity,and advanced medicine.Thesetechnologies drastically improved human productivity and lengthened life expectancy.In the 20th century,computingarguably the greatest of all human inventionsleveraged humanintelligence to run complex

85、calculations,paving the way for profound advances in virtually every realm ofhuman experience,including information processing,communication,energy,transportation,biotechnology,pharmaceuticals,agriculture and industry.Since classical computing emerged in the mid-twentieth century,there has been expo

86、nential progress incomputer design,with processing power roughly doubling every few years(Moores law).The true economicand social impact of computing is difficult to measure because it has so thoroughly permeated every aspect oflife,altering the trajectory of society.However,as transformative as com

87、puting has been,many classes of problems strain the ability of classicalcomputers,and some will never be solvable with classical computing.In this traditional binary approach tocomputing,information is stored in bits that are represented logically by either a 0(off)or a 1(on).Quantumcomputing uses i

88、nformation in a fundamentally different way than classical computing.Quantum computers are1based on quantum bits(qubits),a fundamental unit that can exist in both states 0 and 1 simultaneously(superposition).As a result,we believe that quantum computers can address a set of problems classicalcomputi

89、ng may never solve.The types of problems that currently defeat classical computing include:thesimulation of quantum systems(e.g.,in materials science or pharmaceuticals);number factoring for decryption;and complex optimization problems.Many of these problems are fundamental,involving societys most p

90、ressingneeds,such as how to live sustainably on our planet,how to cure diseases,and how to efficiently move peopleand goods.Classical computers cannot solve these problems because the calculations would take far too long(i.e.,millions to trillions of years)or because the problems involve quantum sys

91、tems that are far too complex tobe represented on a classical computer,even if their remarkable pace of development were to continueindefinitely.While these problems are not solvable by todays quantum computers,we believe that a quantumcomputer currently offers the best possibility for computational

92、 power that could be used to solve them.The future success of quantum computing will be based on the development of a computer with asubstantially higher number of qubits than our current computers.We believe that we will find solutions to thesechallenges and that our proprietary technology and arch

93、itecture and the technology exclusively available to usthrough exclusive license agreements will offer advantages both in terms of research and development as well asthe ultimate product we wish to offer customers.There are certainly thousands,if not millions,of important and fundamental unanswered

94、questions abouthow the universe works and opportunities associated with the answers to those questions.We envision a futurepowered by quantum computing and believe the 21st century is poised to be the dawn of this era.Our StrategyOur mission is to be the leading quantum computing company enabling th

95、e new era of quantum computing.We intend to fulfill our mission by:Leveraging Our Technology.We believe that our technology offers substantial technologicaladvantages compared to other competing quantum computing systems.We intend to build upon ourtechnological lead by leveraging our world-class tea

96、m of leaders and engineers who are pioneers inquantum computing,with proven track records in innovation and technical leadership.To date,wehave developed and assembled eight generations of quantum computer prototypes and systems,haveconstructed quantum operating systems and software tools,and have w

97、orked with leading cloudvendors,quantum programming languages and quantum software development kits(“SDKs”).Offering QCaaS.We intend to provide QCaaS,complemented by access to quantum experts andalgorithm development capabilities.We plan to manufacture,own and operate quantum computers,with compute

98、units offered on a usage basis.Our quantum computing solution is currently deliveredvia AWSs Amazon Braket,Microsofts Azure Quantum and Googles Cloud Marketplace.We believethat by offering QCaaS,we can accelerate the adoption of our quantum computing solutions,whileefficiently promoting quantum comp

99、uting across our partner ecosystems.Selling Direct Access to Quantum Computers.We intend to sell direct access to the quantumcomputers we manufacture,with units offered on a whole system or usage basis.We believe that byoffering direct access to quantum computing,we can assist select customers in de

100、epening theirapplication of quantum solutions.Continuing to Enhance Our Proprietary Position.We have exclusively licensed our core technologyfrom the University of Maryland and Duke University(together,the“Universities”),and our complextechnology is protected by an extensive patent portfolio.We inte

101、nd to continue to drive innovation inquantum computing and seek intellectual property protection where appropriate to enhance ourproprietary technology position.Further Developing Our Quantum Computing Partner Ecosystem.We believe our relationships withleading technology enterprises and university r

102、esearch institutes will accelerate innovation,distributionand monetization of our quantum capabilities.2Market Opportunity:A Future Driven by Quantum ComputingThe potential uses for quantum applications are widespread and address a number of problems that would beimpossible to solve using classical

103、computing technology.According to a 2020 report from P&S Intelligence,thetotal addressable market of quantum computing is expected to be approximately$65 billion by 2030.Below are afew of the use cases in which we believe quantum computers,if they are successfully developed,will become animportant t

104、ool for businesses to remain competitive in the market over the coming years.Quantum Simulations in ChemistryWe believe that there are thousands of problems that could benefit from these quantum algorithms acrossthe pharmaceutical,chemical,energy and materials industries.An example of such a simulat

105、ion problem ismodeling the core molecule in the nitrogen fixation process to make fertilizer.Nature is able to fixate nitrogen(i.e.,turn atmospheric nitrogen into more useful ammonia)at room temperature.Scientists,however,have onlybeen able to achieve fixation using a resource-intensive,high-tempera

106、ture,high-pressure process,called theHaber-Bosch process.A cornerstone of the global agriculture industry,the Haber-Bosch process consumes aboutone percent of the worlds energy and produces about one percent of the worlds carbon dioxide.Agronomistshave attempted to model the core molecule in natures

107、 nitrogen fixation process,but the molecule is too large fortodays classical supercomputers to simulate.Understanding the quantum process used in nature to fixatenitrogen could lead directly to more efficient ways for scientists to do the same.Quantum chemistry simulation is expected to impact multi

108、ple markets and become an essential tool inchemical industries.For example,computer-aided drug discovery in the pharmaceutical industry is limited by thecomputing time and resources required to simulate a large enough chemical system with sufficient accuracy to beuseful.If future generations of more

109、 powerful quantum computers are successfully developed,we believe that wecould improve the speed and accuracy of virtual high-throughput screening and improve the molecular dockingpredictions used in structure-based drug discovery,dramatically reducing the development cost of new drugs andreducing t

110、he time to market.Similarly,we believe that developing a detailed understanding of chemical reactionscritical to various industries,such as catalytic reaction in battery chemistry for electric vehicles,can lead tohigher performing solutions with extended energy storage capacity.Quantum Algorithms fo

111、r Monte Carlo SimulationsMonte Carlo simulations are probability simulations used to calculate the expected distribution of possibleoutcomes in hard-to-predict processes involving random variables.Such simulations are used pervasively infinance,banking,logistics,economics,engineering and applied sci

112、ences.A key parameter of Monte Carlosimulations is the degree of accuracy desired to attain with the result.To obtain 99.9%accuracy,a classicalcomputer requires around one million simulations.Quantum algorithms,however,can achieve the same accuracyusing only one thousand simulations,thereby signific

113、antly reducing the time it takes to perform Monte Carlosimulations.This is especially important when running these simulations is expensive.One application of the quantum Monte Carlo algorithm is to price options for the financial industry.Simpleoptions models are used ubiquitously in finance,the mo

114、st famous of these being the Black-Scholes model.However,these models fail to capture the complexities of real markets,and financiers use more sophisticatedsimulations to obtain better model predictions.Currently,many of these models are limited by the number ofsimulations required to reach the desi

115、red accuracy within a fixed time budget.Quantum algorithms for MonteCarlo simulations could give some financial firms a competitive advantage by enabling them to price optionsmore quickly.Quantum Algorithms for OptimizationOptimization problems have enormous economic significance in many industries,

116、and they often cannot besolved with classical computers due to their daunting complexity.Quantum algorithms are naturally suited for3problems in which an exponential number of possibilities must be considered before an optimized output can beidentified.It is widely believed that quantum computers wi

117、ll be able to arrive at a better approximateoptimization solution than classical computers can,and with reduced computational cost and time.One methodof quantum optimization is a hybrid method called the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm,in whichlayers of quantum computations are executed w

118、ithin circuit parameters optimized using classical high-performance computers.Because optimization issues bedevil so many complicated processes in industriesranging from logistics to pharmaceutical drug design to climate modeling,the application of quantum algorithmsto optimization problems could ha

119、ve far-reaching impacts on society.Quantum Machine LearningQuantum computers can generate probability distributions that cannot be efficiently simulated on a classicalcomputer.Similarly,there are probability distributions that can only be efficiently distinguished from each otherusing a quantum comp

120、uter.In these examples,models utilizing quantum circuits can be used to capture complexinternal structures in the data set much more effectively than classical models.In other words,quantumcomputers can“learn”things that are beyond the capabilities of classical computers.Quantum computing islikely t

121、o offer new machine-learning modalities,greatly improving existing classical machine learning when usedin tandem with it.Examples of areas where quantum machine learning could have an impact are risk analysis infinance,natural language processing,and classification of multivariate data such as image

122、s and chemicalstructures.Machine learning is used broadly in industry today,and we believe quantum machine learning couldhave a similarly broad impact.As with any completely new technology,the use cases imagined by us today are only a subset of theopportunities that will emerge if future generations

123、 of more powerful quantum computers are successfullydeveloped,as users understand the power of quantum algorithms.Remaining Challenges in Quantum Computing EvolutionOne can compare any particular quantum algorithms performance to the best classical algorithm for thesame problem.The point at which a

124、quantum computer is able to perform a particular computation that exceedsits classical counterpart in speed or reduces its cost to solution is known as the point of“quantum advantage.”Given the substantial research and development required to build a modern quantum computer that is bothfunctional an

125、d practical,industry experts describe the remaining challenges in quantum computing to achievequantum advantage as being solved in three phases.Although none of these challenges have yet been fullysolved,we believe that we are well positioned to do so.A 2019 publicly available report by a leading th

126、ird-partyconsulting firm describes these phasesand the associated technical barriersas paraphrased below:Noisy and intermediate-scale quantum(NISQ)computers:The earliest stage of development will seecomponent demonstrations and intermediate-scale system development with limited commercialapplication

127、.The main technical barrier involves the mitigation of errors through improved fabricationand engineering of underlying qubit devices and advanced control techniques for the qubits.Thesedevices are used for developing and validating fundamentally new quantum approaches to tacklingdifficult problems,

128、but are not expected to generate substantial commercial revenues.Broad quantum advantage:In this stage,quantum computers are expected to provide an advantageover classical computers with a meaningful commercial impact.The main technical barrier is thedeployment of quantum error-correcting codes that

129、 allow bigger applications to be executed.If thisbarrier can be overcome,we believe that quantum computing will offer practical solutions tomeaningful problems superior to those provided by classical computers.Full-scale fault tolerance:This last stage will see large modular quantum computers with e

130、noughpower to tackle a wide array of commercial applications relevant to many sectors of the economy.At4this stage,classical computers are expected to no longer compete with quantum computers in manyfields.The technical barrier will be the adoption of a modular quantum computer architecture thatallo

131、ws the scalable manufacturing of large quantum computer systems.Building a Quantum ComputerRequirements for Building Useful Quantum ComputersQuantum computers are difficult to build and operate because the physical system of qubits must be nearlyperfectly isolated from its environment to faithfully

132、store quantum information.Yet the system must also beprecisely controlled through the application of quantum gate operations,and it must ultimately be measured withhigh accuracy.A practical quantum computer requires well-isolated,near-perfect qubits that are cheap,replicableand scalable,along with t

133、he ability to initialize,control and measure their states.Breakthroughs in physics,engineering,and classical computing were prerequisites for building a quantum computer,which is why formany decades the task was beyond the limits of available technology.To execute computational tasks,a quantum compu

134、ter must be able to(i)initialize and store quantuminformation in qubits,(ii)operate quantum gates to modify information stored in qubits and(iii)outputmeasurable results.Each of these steps must be accomplished with sufficiently low error rates to produce reliableresults.Moreover,to be practical,a q

135、uantum computer must be economical in cost and scalable in computepower(i.e.,the number of qubits and the number of gate operations)to handle real world problems.The development of large-scale quantum computing systems is still in early stages,and several potentialengineering architectures for how t

136、o build a quantum computer have emerged.We are developing quantumcomputers based on individual atoms as the core qubit technology,which we believe has key advantages inscaling.The ability to produce cheap error-corrected qubits at scale in a modular architecture is one of the keydifferentiators of o

137、ur approach.Today,we have achieved many engineering firsts in this field and we believethat,with our focus on achieving additional technical milestones over the next few years,we are well positionedto bring quantum computing advantage to the commercial market.Scientific Approaches to Quantum Computi

138、ngThere are a variety of different approaches to(or architectures for)building a quantum computer,each ofwhich involves tradeoffs in meeting the three functional and practical requirements outlined above.Roughly,approaches to performing a quantum computation fall into one of three categories:natural

139、 quantum bits,solidstate or classical computer simulation.Natural quantum bits:In natural qubit-based quantum computers,a system is built around naturallyoccurring substrates exhibiting quantum properties.Atoms:In atomic-based quantum computers,the qubits are represented by internal states of indivi

140、dualatoms trapped and isolated in a vacuum.There are two categories within this approach:the use ofionized(charged)atoms and the use of neutral atoms.Photons:In this approach,the state of a photon,a particle of light,is used as the qubit.Various aspectsof a photon,such as presence/absence,polarizati

141、on,frequency(color)or its temporal location can beused to represent a qubit.Solid state:In solid-state-based quantum computers,the qubits are engineered into the system.Spins in semiconductors:This approach uses the spins of individual electrons or atomic nuclei in asemiconductor matrix.There are tw

142、o categories within this approach:(1)the use of electrons trapped inquantum dot structures fabricated by lithographic techniques and(2)the use of atomic defects(ordopants)that capture single electrons.The nuclear spin of the dopant atoms,or the nearby atoms todefects,are often used to store qubits.5

143、Superconducting circuits:This approach uses circuits fabricated using superconducting material thatfeatures quantum phenomena at cryogenic temperatures.Two states of the circuit,either charge statesor states of circulating current,are used as the qubit.Classical computer simulation:Classical compute

144、rs in a data center can be used to simulate quantumcomputers.Although useful for small-scale quantum experiments,quantum simulation on classical computers isstill bound by the same limitations of classical computing and would require an impractical number of datacenters to tackle meaningful quantum

145、problems.Our Technology ApproachOur Approach to Quantum Computing:Trapped IonsWe have adopted the atom-based approach described above and use trapped atomic ions as the foundationalqubits to construct practical quantum computers.We are pursuing a modular computing architecture to scale ourquantum co

146、mputers,meaning that,if successful,individual quantum processing units will be connected to formincreasingly powerful systems.We believe that the ion trap approach offers the following advantages over otherapproaches:Atomic qubits are natures qubits:Using atoms as qubits means that every qubit is ex

147、actly identical andperfectly quantum.This is why atomic qubits are used in the atomic clocks that do the precisetimekeeping for mankind.Many other quantum systems rely upon fabricated qubits,which bring aboutimprecisions such that no single qubit is exactly the same as any other qubit in the system.

148、Forexample,every superconducting qubit comes with a different frequency(or must be tuned to afrequency)due to manufacturing imprecision.Overall,we believe that systems relying upon fabricationof their qubits are more susceptible to error.Trapped ion qubits are well-isolated from environmental influe

149、nces:When a quantum system interactswith its environment,the quantum state loses coherence and is no longer useful for computing.Forexample,in a superconducting qubit,the qubit tends to lose its coherence within approximately 10 to50 microseconds.Even neutral atoms are perturbed to some extent when

150、they are trapped in space.Incontrast,trapped ion qubits are confined via electric fields in an ultra-high vacuum environment,andtheir internal qubits are hence perfectly isolated.As a result,the coherence of trapped ions can bepreserved for about an hour,and may be able to be preserved for longer if

151、 isolation technologyimproves.Longer coherence times mean more computations can be performed before noiseoverwhelms the quantum calculation and are key to minimizing the overhead of error correctionneeded for large-scale quantum computers.Lower overhead for quantum error-correction.Quantum error-cor

152、rection will likely be necessary toreduce the operational errors in any large-scale quantum computations relevant to commercialproblems.Quantum error-correction uses multiple physical qubits to create an error-corrected qubitwith lower levels of operational errors.For solid-state architectures,we es

153、timate that it may take atleast 1,000 physical qubits to form a single error-corrected qubit,while for near-term applications withion traps the ratio is closer to 16:1.Trapped ion quantum computers can run at room temperature:Solid-state qubits currently requiretemperatures close to absolute zero(i.

154、e.,-273.15C,or-459.67F)to minimize external interferenceand noise levels.Maintaining the correct temperature requires the use of large and expensive dilutionrefrigerators,which can hamper a systems long-term scalability because the cooling space,and hencethe system space,is limited.Trapped ion syste

155、ms,on the other hand,can operate at room temperature.This is because the qubits themselves are not in thermal contact with the environment,as they areelectromagnetically confined in free space inside a vacuum chamber.Although modest cryogenics(10 degrees above absolute zero)can be used to dramatical

156、ly improve the vacuum environment,theinherent properties of the qubits themselves do not degrade at room temperature.The laser-cooling of6the qubits themselves is extremely efficient because the atomic ions have very little mass and thisrequires just a single low-power laser beam(microwatts).This al

157、lows us to minimize the system size astechnology progresses,while scaling the compute power and simultaneously reducing costs.All-to-all connectivity:In superconducting and other solid-state architectures,individual qubits areconnected via physical wires,hence a particular qubit can only communicate

158、 with a further-removedqubit by going through the qubits that lie in-between.In the trapped ion approach,however,qubits areconnected by electrostatic repulsion rather than through physical wires.As a result,qubits in ourexisting systems can directly interact with any other qubit in the system.Our mo

159、dular architecturebenefits from this flexible connectivity,significantly reducing the complexity of implementing a givenquantum circuit.Ion traps require no novel manufacturing capabilities:Ion trap chips consist of electrodes and theirelectrical connections,which are built using existing technologi

160、es.The trap chips themselves are notquantum materials.They simply provide the conditions for the ion qubits to be trapped in space,and intheir current state,they can be fabricated with existing conventional and standard silicon or othermicro-fabrication technologies.By contrast,solid-state qubits,su

161、ch as superconducting qubits or solid-state silicon spins,require exotic materials and fabrication processes that demand atomic perfection inthe structures of the qubits and their surroundings;fabrication with this level of precision is anunsolved challenge.Technological Complexity Creates Significa

162、nt Barriers to EntryAlongside the benefits of the trapped ion approach,there are several challenges inherent in it that serve asbarriers-to-entry,strengthening the advantages of our systems.These key challenges include:Complex laser systems:One of the challenges of trapped ion quantum computing is t

163、he set of lasersrequired and the degree to which they must be stable to operate the system.Traditionally,these lasersystems were assembled on an optical table on a component-by-component basis,which led to seriousstability and reliability issues.We believe that we have resolved this issue from an en

164、gineeringstandpoint and that our future roadmap will further improve manufacturability.Ultra-high vacuum(UHV)technology:The conventional method to achieve UHV conditions for iontrapping experiments involves using vacuum chamber designs with carefully chosen materials,assembly procedures with cumbers

165、ome electrical connections,and a conditioning procedure to prepareand bake the chamber at elevated temperatures for extended periods of time.We have developed newapproaches,such as environmental conditioning,that we believe will substantially reduce the time andcost to prepare the UHV environment to

166、 operate the quantum computer.Executing high fidelity gates with all-to-all connectivity:While trapped ion qubits feature the highestfidelity entangling gates,it is nevertheless a major technical challenge to design a control scheme thatenables all qubits in a system to form gates with each other un

167、der full software control.Throughinnovation in gate-implementation protocols,we believe that we have developed laser delivery andcontrol systems that will allow us to implement fully programmable,fully connected gate schemes inour system.Slow gate speeds:Compared to their solid-state counterparts,tr

168、apped ions are widely believed to haveslow gate speeds.While slow gate speeds are the case for many systems in operation today,boththeoretical analyses and experimental demonstrations suggest this may not be a fundamental limit oftrapped ion qubits(although this has not yet been demonstrated in comm

169、ercial applications).In fact,high-fidelity gates with speeds comparable to those of solid-state qubits have been realized in severalresearch laboratories.We expect that our future quantum computers based on barium ions will befaster,more powerful,more easily interconnected,and that feature more upti

170、me for customers.Moreover,we believe that as systems with other qubit technologies scale up,their restricted7connectivity and high error-correction overhead will significantly slow down their overall computationtime,which we believe will make the trapped ion approach more competitive in terms of ope

171、rationalspeed.Our Trapped Ion ImplementationThe specific implementation of our trapped ion systems leverages the inherent advantages of the substrateand creates what we believe is a path for building stable,replicable and scalable quantum computers.Trapped Ion InfrastructureOur systems are built on

172、individual atomic ions that serve as the computers qubits.Maintaining identical,replicable,and cost-effective qubits is critical to our potential competitive advantage,and we have developed aprocess to produce,confine and manipulate atomic ion qubits.To create trapped atomic ion qubits using our app

173、roach,a solid source containing the element of interest iseither evaporated or laser-ablated to create a vapor of atoms.Laser light is then used to strip one electronselectively from each of only those atoms of a particular isotope,creating an electrically charged ion.Ions arethen confined in a spec

174、ific configuration of electromagnetic fields created by the trapping structure(i.e.,the iontrap),to which their motion is confined due to their charge.The trapping is done in an UHV chamber to keep theions well-isolated from the environment.Isolating and loading a specific isotope of a specific atom

175、ic speciesensures each qubit in the system is identical.Two internal electronic states of the atom are selected to serve asthe qubit for each ion.The two atomic states have enough frequency separation that the qubit is easy to measurethrough fluorescence detection when an appropriate laser beam is a

176、pplied.To build quantum computers,many atomic ions are held in a single trap,and the repulsion from theircharges naturally forces them into a stable linear crystal(or chain)of qubits.The qubits are highly isolated in theUHV chamber,only perturbed by occasional collisions with residual molecules in t

177、he chamber,which providesnear-perfect quantum memory that lasts much longer than most currently envisioned quantum computing tasksrequire.The qubits are initialized and measured through a system of external gated laser beams.An additional setof gated laser beams applies a force to selected ions and

178、modulates the electrical repulsion between the ions.Thisprocess allows the creation of quantum logic gates between any pair of qubits,regardless of their distance withinthe crystal,which can be arbitrarily reconfigured in software.System Modularity and ScalabilityToday,all qubits in our systems are

179、stored on a single chip,referred to as a quantum processing unit(“QPU”).QPUs can have several cores,or zones for trapping chains of ions,comparable to multicore centralprocessing unit(“CPU”)chips in classical computing.Each core can contain up to about 100 qubits in a linearcrystal,and dozens of cor

180、es can potentially be co-located in a single QPU.Within a QPU,some qubits can bephysically moved between cores to accommodate quantum communication between the cores.This process ofmoving ions within a QPU is called“shuttling”and is achieved by modifying the electromagnetic fields thatform the trap.

181、In addition to increasing the number of qubits per QPU,we believe we have identified,and we are currentlydeveloping,the technology needed to connect qubits between trapped ion QPUs,which may be commerciallyviable in the future.This technology,known as a photonic interconnect,uses light particles to

182、communicatebetween qubits while keeping information stored stably on either end of the interconnect.The basic protocol forthis photonic interconnect between ion traps in two different vacuum chambers was first realized by ourco-founder Christopher Monroes research team in 2007.We believe this protoc

183、ol can be combined withall-optical switching technology to enable multi-QPU quantum computers at large scale.We have deep expertise8in photonics;while at Bell Labs,co-founder Jungsang Kim led a team to build the worlds largest optical switch.Photonic interconnects are designed to allow our systems t

184、o compute with entangled qubits spanning multipleQPUs,which we believe can open up the possibility of scaling quantum computers indefinitely,similar to howhigh-performance computers and data centers have been scaled.Our quantum architecture is modular,meaning that if development of this architecture

185、 is successful,thenumber of qubits in a QPU,or the number of QPUs in a system,could be scaled.Also,by allowing for each qubitin a system to entangle with any other qubit in that system,we believe that a systems number of quantum gatescould increase rapidly with each additional qubit added.This all-t

186、o-all connectivity is one of the key reasons webelieve our systems will be computationally powerful.Gate ConfigurationOur qubits are manipulated(for initialization,detection,and forming quantum logic gates)by shiningspecific laser beams onto the trapped ions.Our systems employ a set of lasers and a

187、sophisticated optical systemto deliver beams precisely tailored to achieve this manipulation.The laser beams are tailored by programmingradio frequency(“RF”)signals using state-of-the-art digital chipsets,which are custom-configured to generatethe signals for qubit manipulation.An operating system m

188、anages the quantum computer,maintaining the systemin operation.It includes software toolsets for converting quantum programs from users into a set of instructionsthe computer hardware can execute to yield the desired computational results.To support system access from thecloud,we offer cloud managem

189、ent tools and application programming interfaces(“APIs”)that permitprogramming jobs to run remotely.Our quantum gates are fully programmable in software;there is no“hard-wiring”of qubit connections in thequantum computing hardware.The structure of a quantum circuit or algorithm can therefore be opti

190、mized insoftware,and the appropriate laser beams can then be generated,switched,or modulated to execute any patternof gate interactions.Our programmable gate configurations make our systems adaptable.Unlike quantumcomputer systems that are limited to a single class of problems due to their architect

191、ure,we believe that anycomputational problem with arbitrary internal algorithmic structure could be optimized to run on our system(although this has not been demonstrated at scale).Quantum Error CorrectionA key milestone in building larger quantum computers is achieving fault-tolerant quantum error-

192、correction.In quantum error-correction,individual physical qubits prone to errors are combined to form an error-correctedqubit(sometimes referred to as a logical qubit)with a much lower error rate.Determining how many physicalqubits are needed to form a more reliable logical qubit(the resource“overh

193、ead”)depends on both the error rateof the physical qubits and the specific error-correcting codes used.In 2020,our co-founder Dr.Monroesresearch team at the University of Maryland demonstrated the first error-corrected qubit using 13 trapped ionqubits.With our unique architecture,we believe quantum

194、error-correction can be completely coded in software,allowing varying levels and depths of quantum error-correction to be deployed as needed.Because the ion qubitsfeature very low idle and native error rates and are highly connected,we expect the error-correction overhead tobe about 16:1 to achieve

195、the first useful quantum applications.This contrasts with other approaches,for whichwe estimate the overhead to be in the range of 1,000:1 to 100,000:1.We believe our architectural decisions will make our systems uniquely capable of achieving scale.We havepublished a roadmap for scaling to larger qu

196、antum computing systems,with concrete technological innovationsdesigned to significantly improve the performance of the systems.For example,last year,we announced thatthrough our partnership with the U.S.Department of Energys Pacific Northwest National Laboratory(“PNNL”),we were able to shrink the b

197、arium source material down to a microscopic scale.We believe this is significantbecause it will allow us to reduce the size of core system components,an important step in the creation ofquantum computers small enough to be networked together.However,meeting future milestones included in our9roadmap

198、is not guaranteed and is dependent on various technological advancements,which could take longerthan expected to realize or turn out to be impossible to achieve.We believe that,with engineering advancementsand firsts yet to be achieved,our quantum computers will become increasingly compact and trans

199、portable,opening up future applications of quantum computing at the edge.Our Forward-Looking RoadmapIn December 2020,we publicly released a forward-looking technical roadmap for the next eight years.Ourtechnical roadmap was designed to provide transparent guidance to our quantum computer users regar

200、ding whenwe expect certain quantum computing capabilities to become available.As part of this roadmap,we introducedthe notion of“algorithmic qubits”as a metric to measure progress,and a detailed description of how to defineand measure the number of algorithmic qubits(#AQ)in early 2022.Roughly speaki

201、ng,#AQ represents the totalnumber of qubits that can be used to perform a quantum computational task that involves an order of(#AQ)2entangling gate operations in a list of quantum algorithms that reflect representative real-world use cases of aquantum computer.This metric provides a simple and effec

202、tive measure to estimate the computational power ofeach generation of quantum computers.At low#AQ,the size of the problem the quantum computer can tackle islimited by the error rate of the entangling gate operations,rather than by the number of physical qubits availablein the computer.The aggressive

203、 push for improving the power of quantum computers,including the earlyintroduction of quantum error-correction,is intended to significantly compress the time required for reaching thepoint when we expect quantum computers may become commercially impactful at scale.We believe that manyof the technolo

204、gical components needed to accomplish the performance goals of the roadmap,such as high-fidelity gate operations,photonic interconnects and quantum error-correction,have been realized inproof-of-concept demonstrations in trapped ion systems.Given our track record of engineering and technologydevelop

205、ment,we believe that,over time,we will be able to successfully translate these technology componentsinto products,which may enable successful deployment of our quantum computers and deliver materialcommercial value to customers.We are targeting a Modular Architecture,Designed to Scale,resulting in S

206、maller Systems and CheaperCompute Power for Each GenerationThe scaling of classical computer technology,which unlocked continuously growing markets over manydecades,was driven by exponential growth in computational power coupled with exponential reduction in thecost of computational power for each g

207、eneration(Moores law).The key economic driver permitting theexpansion of digital computer applications to new segments of the market was this very phenomenon ofcapability doubling in each generation with costs rising only modestly.We believe the scaling of quantumcomputing may follow a similar traje

208、ctory:as the#AQ available in each generation scales,the per-AQ cost isalso reduced and enables true scaling of quantum computers.Our systems have benefitted from years ofarchitectural focus on scalability that addresses both#AQ and per-AQ cost and,as such,we believe that if we areable to successfull

209、y solve remaining scalability challenges,these systems may become increasingly powerful andaccessible in tandem.At the heart of our approach is the modular architecture that may enable such growth.We expect our futuresystems to be modular networks of many QPUs working together as a large quantum com

210、puter,similar to howclassical data centers are designed,constructed and operated today.Our engineering effort is focused on reducingthe size,weight,cost and power consumption of the QPUs that will be the center of each generation of themodular quantum computer,while increasing the number of QPUs man

211、ufactured each year.We intend to focuson achieving these engineering efforts over the next several years.If successful,we expect that we may be able toachieve compact,lightweight and reliable quantum computers,which can be deployed at the edge,similarly tohow personal computers have enabled new appl

212、ications for both government and commercial use.10Our Business ModelQuantum Computing and the Software-as-a-Service ModelAs quantum hardware matures,we expect the quantum computing industry to increasingly focus onpractical applications for real-world problems,known as quantum algorithms.Today,we be

213、lieve that there are alarge number of quantum algorithms widely thought to offer advantages over classical algorithms in that each ofthese algorithms can solve a problem more efficiently,or in a different manner,than a classical algorithm.Ourbusiness model is premised on the belief that businesses w

214、ith access to quantum computers will likely have acompetitive advantage in the future.We envision providing quantum computing services,complemented by access to quantum experts andalgorithm development capabilities,to solve some of the most challenging issues facing corporations,governments and othe

215、r large-scale entities today.We intend to manufacture,own and operate quantumcomputers,with compute units being offered to potential customers on a QCaaS basis.We expect our target markets to experience two stages of quantum algorithm deployment:the developmentstage and the application stage.We expe

216、ct our involvement in these two stages,to the extent they will take place,to be as follows:During the development stage,our experts will assist customers in developing an algorithm to solvetheir business challenges.Customers may be expected to pay for quantum compute usage,in additionto an increment

217、al amount for the consulting and development services provided in the creation ofalgorithms.We may choose to sell this computing time to customers in a variety of ways.In this stage,we expect revenue to be unevenly distributed,with individual customers potentially contributing topeaks in bookings.Du

218、ring the application stage,once an algorithm is fully developed for a market,we anticipate thatcustomers would be charged to run the algorithm on our hardware.Given the mission critical nature ofthe use cases we anticipate quantum computing will attract,we believe a usage-based revenue modelwill res

219、ult in a steady stream of revenue while providing the incremental ability to grow with customersas their algorithm complexity and inputs scale.Our Customer JourneyIn each new market that stands to benefit from quantum computing,we intend to guide our customers andpartners through two stages:the deve

220、lopment phase and the application phase.Development Phase:This first stage focuses on quantum algorithm development and we expect it to involvedeep partnerships between us and our customers to lay the groundwork for applying quantum solutions to thecustomers industry.We also anticipate uneven revenu

221、e for this period given that the quantum computing marketis still nascent.We expect the development phase for each market to be characterized by the followinggo-to-market channels:Co-development of quantum applications with strategic partners.We intend to form long-termpartnerships with select indus

222、try-leading companies(aligned with our technology roadmap)toco-develop end-to-end solutions for the partner and to provide an early-adopter advantage to thepartner in their industry.IonQ has announced co-development agreements with Hyundai MotorCompany to pursue solutions for battery chemistry and w

223、ith GE Research to apply quantum computingto risk management.Preferred compute agreements with clients.We expect our preferred offerings to give the customersapplication engineers direct access to our cutting-edge quantum systems,as well as technical support topursue their solution development.11Clo

224、ud access to quantum computing.Our current and future cloud partnerships with AWSs AmazonBraket,Microsofts Azure Quantum,Googles Cloud Marketplace and other cloud providers are or willbe designed to make access to quantum computing hardware available to a broader community ofquantum programmers.Dedi

225、cated hardware.We anticipate manufacturing and selling complete quantum systems fordedicated use by a single customer,to be hosted on premises by the customer or remotely by us.Application Phase:This second phase is expected to commence if we are successful in demonstrating thecommercial viability o

226、f quantum advantage in the industry and can therefore commence with developingcommercial applications and applying that advantage broadly throughout the market with new customers.Delivery of a full-scale quantum compute platform.For customers who have worked alongside us inthe development phase to c

227、urate deep in-house technical expertise in quantum computing capabilitiesat the time quantum advantage is achieved for the customers application,our preferred computeagreements,cloud offerings,and dedicated hardware sales are expected to offer sufficient quantumcomputational capacity.Packaged soluti

228、on offerings.When appropriate,we may develop full-stack quantum solutions that canbe provided directly to customers,regardless of their in-house quantum expertise.Accelerated high-impact applications development.We intend to provide opportunities for acceleratedapplications development to customers

229、seeking compressed development timelines to solve some oftheir biggest problems and drive efficiencies.We expect the technical complexity of the solutions required for quantum algorithms to address eachapplication area will impact the timing of that markets inflection point and transition from the d

230、evelopmentphase to the application phase.During the NISQ computing era,we expect quantum machine learning to be thefirst solution to transition into broadly available applications.Additional markets taking advantage of quantummaterial science research and optimization speed-ups may come online next

231、if broad-scale quantum advantagebecomes accessible.If our quantum computers achieve full-scale fault tolerance,a diverse array of industries,ranging from quantum chemistry to deeper optimization,may be able to be transitioned to the application phase.Customers and ProspectsQCaaSWe sell access to our

232、 quantum computing solutions via AWSs Amazon Braket,Microsofts AzureQuantum,and Googles Cloud Marketplace,and directly to select customers via our own cloud service.Makingsystems available through the cloud in both cases enables wide distribution.Through our cloud service providers,potential custome

233、rs across the world in industry,academia and government can access our quantum hardwarewith just a few clicks.These platforms serve an important purpose in the quantum ecosystem,allowing virtuallyanyone to try our systems without an upfront commitment or needing to integrate with our platform.Direct

234、 Access CustomersBy directly integrating with us,customers can reserve dedicated execution windows,receive concierge-levelapplication development support,gain early access to next-generation hardware,or host their own quantumcomputer.Such access is currently limited to a select group of end-users.We

235、 expect our standard offerings will include additional bundled value-add services in exchange for anannual commitment,such as usage-based access to our cloud platform,reserved system time,consultations withsolution scientists,and other application and integration support.12Quantum Computing Systems

236、and HardwareWe are engaged with certain prospects who are interested in purchasing partial or entire quantum computingsystems,either over the cloud or for local access.We also sell certain specialized quantum computing hardwareto select customers.Government AgenciesOur customers,potential customers

237、and partners include government agencies such as the United States AirForce Research Lab.Government agencies and large organizations often undertake a significant evaluationprocess.Our contracts with government agencies are typically structured in phases,with each phase subject tosatisfaction of cer

238、tain conditions.Agreements with the University of Maryland and Duke UniversityExclusive License AgreementIn July 2016,we entered into a license agreement with the University of Maryland and Duke University,which was subsequently amended in September 2017,October 2017,October 2018,February 2021,April

239、 2021and September 2021(as amended,the“License Agreement”),under which we obtained a worldwide,royalty-free,sublicensable license under certain patents,know-how and other intellectual property to develop,manufacture and commercialize products for use in certain licensed fields,the scope of which wou

240、ld include theapplication of the licensed intellectual property in ion trap quantum computing.The License Agreement providesan exclusive license under the Universities interest in all patents(and non-exclusive for other types ofintellectual property),subject to certain governmental rights and retain

241、ed rights by the Universities and othernon-profit institutions to use and practice the licensed patents and technology for internal research and othernon-profit purposes.We also entered into an exclusive option agreement(“Option Agreement”)with each of theUniversities in 2016 whereby we have the rig

242、ht to exclusively license additional intellectual property developedby the Universities by exercising an annual option and issuing a certain number of common shares to each ofDuke University and University of Maryland.We are obligated to use commercially reasonable efforts to commercialize the inven

243、tions covered by thelicensed patent rights and achieve certain milestones,including the hiring of a Chief Executive Officer,obtainingequity financing by specified times and such other milestones that we may specify in a development planprovided by us to the universities.We have met all existing mile

244、stones as provided for in the License Agreement,have not included any additional milestones in any development plan provided to the universities,and no longerhave any obligation to submit any future development plans to the universities.We are also responsible for theprosecution and maintenance of t

245、he licensed patents,at our expense and using commercially reasonable efforts.We have the sole right to enforce the licensed patents,at our expense.We may terminate the License Agreement at any time for any reason with at least 90 days written notice tothe University of Maryland.The University of Mar

246、yland and Duke University may terminate the LicenseAgreement if we enter into an insolvency-related event or in the event of our material breach of the agreement orother specified obligations therein,in each case,that remains uncured for 90 days after the date that it is providedwith written notice

247、of such breach by either university.In consideration for the rights granted to us under the License Agreement,we issued the University ofMaryland and Duke University shares of our common stock.Pursuant to the University of Maryland policy,Christopher Monroe,our Chief Scientist,may receive renumerati

248、on from the University of Maryland relating toany stock we have issued to the University of Maryland.Pursuant to Duke Universitys policy,ChristopherMonroe and Jungsang Kim,our Chief Technology Officer and Director,may receive renumeration from DukeUniversity relating to any stock we have issued to D

249、uke University.Option Agreement with Duke UniversityIn July 2016,we entered into an option agreement with Duke University,which was subsequently amendedin December 2020 and March 2021(as amended,the“Duke Option Agreement”),under which it obtained the13right to add Duke Universitys interests in certa

250、in patents or other intellectual property to the License Agreement,including if they were developed by Jungsang Kim,Christopher Monroe or Kenneth Brown,a professor at DukeUniversity,or by individuals under their respective supervision and such patents or intellectual property relates tothe field of

251、quantum information processing devices.We have added patents and other intellectual property to theLicense Agreement through the Duke Option Agreement.Pursuant to the terms of the Duke Option Agreement,we issued Duke University shares of common stock,including shares of common stock issued pursuant

252、to theamendment of the Duke Option Agreement.The Duke Option Agreement terminates in July 2026.Lease with the University of MarylandIn March 2020,we entered into an amended and restated office lease with the University of Maryland forthe lease of our corporate headquarters and our research and devel

253、opment and manufacturing facility.This leaseexpires on December 31,2030.We may terminate this lease with not less than 120 days written notice beginningin year six.Any early termination will result in a termination fee ranging from$2.5 million in year six to$500,000 in year ten,with each year subjec

254、t to a reduction of$0.5 million.Annual base rent starts at$684,472and increases approximately 3.0%each subsequent year.CompetitionThere are many other approaches to quantum computing that use qubit technology besides the trapped ionapproach we are taking.In some cases,conflicting marketing messages

255、from these competitors can lead toconfusion among our potential customer base.Large technology companies such as Google and IBM,and startupcompanies such as Rigetti Computing,are adopting a superconducting circuit technology approach,in whichsmall amounts of electrical current circulate in a loop of

256、 superconducting material(usually metal where theelectrical resistance vanishes at low temperatures).The directionality of the current flow,in such an example,canrepresent the two quantum states of a qubit.An advantage of superconducting qubits is that the microfabricationtechnology developed for si

257、licon devices can be leveraged to make the qubits on a chip;however,a disadvantageof superconducting qubits is that they need to be operated in a cryogenic environment at near absolute-zerotemperatures,and it is difficult to scale the cryogenic technology.Compared to the trapped ion approach,thequbi

258、ts generated via superconducting suffer from short coherence times,high error rates,limited connectivity,and higher estimated error-correction overhead(ranging from 1,000:1 to 100,000:1 to realize the error-correctedqubits from physical qubits).There are companies pursuing photonic qubits,such as Ps

259、iQuantum and Xanadu,among others.PsiQuantum uses photons(i.e.,individual particles of light)as qubits,whereas Xanadu uses a combination ofphotons and a collective state of many photons,known as continuous variable entangled states,as the qubits.Each companys approach leverages silicon photonics tech

260、nology to fabricate highly integrated on-chip photonicdevices to achieve scaling.The advantages to this approach are that photons are cheap to generate,they canremain coherent depending on the property of the photons used as the qubit,and they integrate well withrecently-developed silicon photonics

261、technology;however,the disadvantages of photonic qubit approachesinclude the lack of high-quality storage devices for the qubits(photons move at the speed of light)and weak gateinteractions(photons do not interact with one another easily).Both of these problems lead to photon loss duringcomputation.

262、Additionally,this approach requires quantum error correcting protocols with high overhead(10,000:1 or more).Several other companies use a trapped ion quantum computing approach similar to ours,includingQuantinuum Ltd.and Alpine Quantum Technologies GmbH.These companies share the fundamental advantag

263、esof the atomic qubit enjoyed by our approach.The differences between our technology and that of thesecompanies lies in our processor architecture,system design and implementation and our strategies to scale.Basedon publicly available information,Quantinuum processors operate with the application ci

264、rcuits broken down totwo qubits at a time,with a bus width of two,and the ion qubits are shuffled between each gate operation.Ourprocessor core involves a wide-bus architecture,where the interaction among a few dozens of atomic ion qubitscan be controlled using programmable laser pulses.This typical

265、ly allows quantum logic gates between allpossible pairs of qubits in the processor core without extraneous operations,which will enable us to operate somequantum gates that are not possible on other quantum architectures.We have also demonstrated the ability to14shuttle multiple processor cores on t

266、he same chip,increasing the potential qubit capacity of a system.At scale,we believe these architectural features will confer benefits in the speed and efficiency of running algorithms.At ahigher level,our scaling architecture will exploit optical interconnects among multiple QPUs in a way that allo

267、wsfull connectivity between any pair of qubits across the entire system.The modular scaling of multiple QPUs withphotonic interconnects is unique in our architecture.Lastly,there are alternative approaches to quantum computing being pursued by other private companies aswell as the research departmen

268、ts at major universities or educational institutions.For example,D-Wavecomputing produces quantum annealers,a separate form of computing technology that hopes to tackle a class ofproblems with some overlap to those solved by quantum computing.To our knowledge,none of these alternativeapproaches has

269、produced a commercial-grade quantum computer.Intellectual PropertyWe protect our intellectual property rights via a combination of patent,trademark and trade secret laws inthe United States and other jurisdictions,as well as with contractual protections,to establish,maintain andenforce rights in its

270、 proprietary technologies.Unpatented research,development,know-how and engineeringskills make an important contribution to our business.We pursue patent protection only when it is consistent withour overall strategy for safeguarding intellectual property.In addition,we seek to protect our intellectu

271、al property rights through non-disclosure and invention assignmentagreements with our employees and consultants and through non-disclosure agreements with business partners andother third parties.We have accumulated a broad patent portfolio,both owned and exclusively licensed,across therange of tech

272、nological fronts that make up our systems and will continue to protect our innovative inventions in theUnited States and other countries.Our patent portfolio is deepest in the area of devices,methods and algorithms forcontrolling and manipulating trapped ions for quantum computing.Our trade secrets

273、primarily cover the design,configuration,operation and testing of its trapped-ion quantum computers.As of March 1,2023,we own or license,on an exclusive basis,57 issued U.S.patents and 136 pending orallowed U.S.patent applications,7 issued foreign patents and 99 pending or allowed foreign patent app

274、lications,8 registered U.S.trademarks and 11 pending U.S.trademark applications,and 17 registered internationaltrademarks and 7 pending international trademark applications.Our issued patents expire between 2029 and2041.Human Capital ManagementOur employees are critical to our success.As of December

275、 31,2022,we had a 202 person-strong team ofquantum hardware and software developers,engineers,and general and administrative staff.Approximately 49%of our full-time employees are based in the greater Washington,D.C.metropolitan area and approximately 12%of our full-time employees are based in the gr

276、eater Seattle,WA metropolitan area.We also engage a smallnumber of consultants and contractors to supplement our permanent workforce.A majority of our employees areengaged in research and development and related functions,and more than half of our research and developmentemployees hold advanced engi

277、neering and scientific degrees,including many from the worlds top universities.To date,we have not experienced any work stoppages and maintain good working relationships with ouremployees.None of our employees are subject to a collective bargaining agreement or are represented by a laborunion at thi

278、s time.Corporate InformationIonQ,formerly known as dMY Technology Group,Inc.III(“dMY”)was incorporated in the state ofDelaware in September 2020 and formed as a special purpose acquisition company.Our wholly ownedsubsidiary,IonQ Quantum,Inc.(formerly known as IonQ,Inc.,and referred to as“Legacy IonQ

279、”herein),wasincorporated in the state of Delaware in September 2015.15On March 7,2021,Legacy IonQ entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger(the“Merger Agreement”),with dMY and Ion Trap Acquisition Inc.,a direct,wholly owned subsidiary of dMY(the“Merger Sub”).Pursuant to the Merger Agreement,on Se

280、ptember 30,2021,the Merger Sub was merged with and into LegacyIonQ with Legacy IonQ continuing as the surviving corporation following the Merger,becoming a wholly ownedsubsidiary of dMY and the separate corporate existence of the Merger Sub ceased(the“Business Combination”).Commensurate with the clo

281、sing of the Business Combination,dMY changed its name to IonQ,Inc.and LegacyIonQ changed its name to IonQ Quantum,Inc.Our principal executive offices are located at 4505 Campus Drive,College Park,MD 20740,and ourtelephone number is(301)298-7997.Our corporate website address is .Information contained

282、 onor accessible through our website is not a part of this Annual Report,and the inclusion of our website address inthis Annual Report is an inactive textual reference only.Available InformationOur website address is .We make available on our website,free of charge,our AnnualReports,our Quarterly Re

283、ports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K and any amendments tothose reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a)or 15(d)of the Exchange Act,as soon as reasonablypracticable after we electronically file such material with,or furnish it to,the Securities and ExchangeCommission(th

284、e“SEC”).The SEC maintains a website that contains reports,proxy and information statementsand other information regarding our filings at www.sec.gov.The information found on our website is notincorporated by reference into this Annual Report or any other report we file with or furnish to the SEC.Ite

285、m 1A.Risk Factors.RISK FACTORSInvesting in our securities involves a high degree of risk.Before you make a decision to buy our securities,in addition to the risks and uncertainties described above under“Special Note Regarding Forward-LookingStatements,”you should carefully consider the risks and unc

286、ertainties described below together with all of theother information contained in this Annual Report.If any of the events or developments described below were tooccur,our business,prospects,operating results and financial condition could suffer materially,the tradingprice of our common stock could d

287、ecline,and you could lose all or part of your investment.The risks anduncertainties described below are not the only ones we face.Additional risks and uncertainties not presentlyknown to us or that we currently believe to be immaterial may also adversely affect our business.Summary Risk FactorsOur b

288、usiness is subject to a number of risks of which you should be aware before making a decision toinvest in our securities.These risks include,among others,the following:We are an early-stage company and have a limited operating history,which makes it difficult toforecast our future results of operati

289、ons.We have a history of operating losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses forthe foreseeable future.We may not be able to scale our business quickly enough to meet customer and market demand,whichcould result in lower profitability or cause us to fail to execute on our

290、 business strategies.We may not manage our growth effectively.Our management has limited experience in operating a public company.Our estimates of market opportunity and forecasts of market growth may prove to be inaccurate.16Even if the market in which we compete achieves the forecasted growth,our

291、business could fail togrow at similar rates,if at all.Our operating and financial results forecast relies in large part upon assumptions and analyses wedeveloped.If these assumptions or analyses prove to be incorrect,our actual operating results may bematerially different from our forecasted results

292、.We may need additional capital to pursue our business objectives and respond to businessopportunities,challenges or unforeseen circumstances,and we cannot be sure that additional financingwill be available.We have not produced a scalable quantum computer and face significant barriers in our attempt

293、s toproduce quantum computers.The quantum computing industry is competitive on a global scale and we may not be successful incompeting in this industry or establishing and maintaining confidence in our long-term businessprospects among current and future partners and customers.Even if we are success

294、ful in developing quantum computing systems and executing our strategy,competitors in the industry may achieve technological breakthroughs that render our quantumcomputing systems obsolete or inferior to other products.We may be unable to reduce the cost per qubit,which may prevent us from pricing o

295、ur quantumsystems competitively.The quantum computing industry is in its early stages and volatile,and if it does not develop,if itdevelops slower than we expect,if it develops in a manner that does not require use of our quantumcomputing solutions,if it encounters negative publicity or if our solut

296、ion does not drive commercialengagement,the growth of our business will be harmed.If our computers fail to achieve a broad quantum advantage,our business,financial condition andfuture prospects may be harmed.We could suffer disruptions,outages,defects and other performance and quality problems with

297、ourquantum computing systems or with the public cloud and internet infrastructure on which they rely.We have and may continue to face supply chain issues that could delay the introduction of our productand negatively impact our business and operating results.If we cannot successfully execute on our

298、strategy or achieve our objectives in a timely manner,ourbusiness,financial condition and results of operations could be harmed.Our products may not achieve market success,but will still require significant costs to develop.We are highly dependent on our co-founders,and our ability to attract and re

299、tain senior managementand other key employees is critical to our success.We may not be able to accurately estimate the future supply and demand for our quantum computers,which could result in a variety of inefficiencies in our business and hinder our ability to generaterevenue.Our systems depend on

300、the use of a particular isotope of an atomic element that provides qubits for ourion trap technology.If we are unable to procure these isotopically enriched atomic samples,or areunable to do so on a timely and cost-effective basis,and in sufficient quantities,we may incursignificant costs or delays,

301、which could negatively affect our operations and business.If our quantum computing systems are not compatible with some or all industry-standard software andhardware in the future,our business could be harmed.If we are unable to maintain our current strategic partnerships or we are unable to develop

302、 futurecollaborative partnerships,our future growth and development could be negatively impacted.17Our business depends on our customers abilities to implement useful quantum algorithms andsufficient quantum resources for their business.Our future growth and success depend in part on our ability to

303、sell effectively to government entitiesand large enterprises.Contracts with government and state agencies are subject to a number of challenges and risks.Our future growth and success depend on our ability to sell effectively to large customers.Contracts with government and state agencies are subjec

304、t to a number of challenges and risks.If our information technology systems,data,or physical facilities where our quantum computers arestored,or those of third parties upon which we rely,are or were compromised,we could experienceadverse business consequences resulting from such compromise.Unfavorab

305、le conditions in our industry or the global economy,could limit our ability to grow ourbusiness and negatively affect our results of operations.Government actions and regulations,such as tariffs and trade protection measures,may limit our abilityto obtain products from our suppliers.Because our succ

306、ess depends,in part,on our ability to expand sales internationally,our business willbe susceptible to risks associated with international operations.Licensing of intellectual property is of critical importance to our business.If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent protection for our products

307、 and technology,or if thescope of the patent protection obtained is not sufficiently broad or robust,our competitors coulddevelop and commercialize products and technology similar or identical to ours,and our ability tosuccessfully commercialize our products and technology may be adversely affected.

308、Moreover,ourtrade secrets could be compromised,which could cause us to lose the competitive advantage resultingfrom these trade secrets.We may face patent infringement and other intellectual property claims that could be costly to defend,result in injunctions and significant damage awards or other c

309、osts and limit our ability to use certainkey technologies in the future or require development of non-infringing products,services,ortechnologies.Some of our in-licensed intellectual property,including the intellectual property licensed from theUniversity of Maryland and Duke University,has been con

310、ceived or developed through government-funded research and thus may be subject to federal regulations providing for certain rights for the U.S.government or imposing certain obligations on us and compliance with such regulations may limit ourexclusive rights and our ability to contract with non-U.S.

311、manufacturers.Risks Related to Our Financial Condition and Status as an Early Stage CompanyWe are an early stage company and have a limited operating history,which makes it difficult to forecast ourfuture results of operations.As a result of our limited operating history,our ability to accurately fo

312、recast our future results of operationsis limited and subject to a number of uncertainties,including our ability to plan for and model future growth.Ourability to generate revenues will largely be dependent on our ability to develop and produce quantum computerswith increasing numbers of algorithmic

313、 qubits.As a result,our scalable business model has not been formed andour technical roadmap may not be realized as quickly as expected,or even at all.The development of ourscalable business model will likely require the incurrence of a substantially higher level of costs than incurred todate,while

314、our revenues will not substantially increase until more powerful,scalable computers are produced,that requires a number of technological advancements which may not occur on the currently anticipated18timetable or at all.As a result,our historical results should not be considered indicative of our fu

315、tureperformance.Further,in future periods,our growth could slow or decline for a number of reasons,including butnot limited to slowing demand for our service offerings,increased competition,changes to technology,inabilityto scale up our technology,a decrease in the growth of the overall market,or ou

316、r failure,for any reason,tocontinue to take advantage of growth opportunities.We have also encountered,and will continue to encounter,risks and uncertainties frequently experienced bygrowing companies in rapidly changing industries.If our assumptions regarding these risks and uncertainties and ourfu

317、ture growth are incorrect or change,or if we do not address these risks successfully,our operating and financialresults could differ materially from our expectations,and our business could suffer.Our success as a businessultimately relies upon fundamental research and development breakthroughs in th

318、e coming years and decade.There isno certainty these research and development milestones will be achieved as quickly as expected,or even at all.We have a history of operating losses and expect to incur significant expenses and continuing losses for theforeseeable future.We have historically experien

319、ced net losses from operations.For the year ended December 31,2022,weincurred a loss from operations of$48.5 million.As of December 31,2022,we had an accumulated deficit of$194.3 million.We believe that we will continue to incur losses each year until at least the time we beginsignificant production

320、 and delivery of our quantum computers,which is not expected to occur until 2025,at theearliest,and may occur later,or never.Even with significant production,such production may never becomeprofitable.We expect the rate at which we will incur operating losses to be significantly higher in future per

321、iods as we,among other things,continue to incur significant expenses in connection with the design,development andconstruction of our quantum computers,and as we expand our research and development activities,invest inmanufacturing capabilities,build up inventories of components for our quantum comp

322、uters,increase our salesand marketing activities,develop our distribution infrastructure,and increase our general and administrativefunctions to support our growing operations and costs of being a public company.We may find that these effortsare more expensive than we currently anticipate or that th

323、ese efforts may not result in revenues,which wouldfurther increase our losses.If we are unable to achieve and/or sustain profitability,or if we are unable to achievethe growth that we expect from these investments,it could have a material effect on our business,financialcondition or results of opera

324、tions.Our business model is unproven and may never allow us to cover our costs.We may not be able to scale our business quickly enough to meet customer and market demand,which couldresult in lower profitability or cause us to fail to execute on our business strategies.In order to grow our business,w

325、e will need to continually evolve and scale our business and operations tomeet customer and market demand.Quantum computing technology has never been sold at large-scalecommercial levels.Evolving and scaling our business and operations places increased demands on ourmanagement as well as our financi

326、al and operational resources to:effectively manage organizational change;design scalable processes;accelerate and/or refocus research and development activities;expand manufacturing,supply chain and distribution capacity;increase sales and marketing efforts;broaden customer-support and services capa

327、bilities;maintain or increase operational efficiencies;19scale support operations in a cost-effective manner;implement appropriate operational and financial systems;andmaintain effective financial disclosure controls and procedures.Commercial production of quantum computers may never occur.We have n

328、o experience in producing largequantities of our products and are currently constructing advanced generations of our products.As noted above,there are significant technological and logistical challenges associated with developing,producing,marketing,selling and distributing products in the advanced

329、technology industry,including our products,and we may not beable to resolve all of the difficulties that may arise in a timely or cost-effective manner,or at all.We may not beable to cost-effectively manage production at a scale or quality consistent with customer demand in a timely oreconomical man

330、ner.Our ability to scale is dependent also upon components we must source from the optical,electronics andsemiconductor industries.Shortages or supply interruptions in any of these components will adversely impact ourability to deliver revenues.The stability of ion traps may prove poorer than hoped,

331、or more difficult to manufacture.It may also provemore difficult or even impossible to reliably entangle/connect ion traps together.Both of these factors wouldadversely impact scalability and costs of the ion trap system.If commercial production of our quantum computers commences,our products may co

332、ntain defects indesign and manufacture that may cause them to not perform as expected or that may require repair,recalls anddesign changes.Our quantum computers are inherently complex and incorporate technology and components thathave not been used for other applications and that may contain defects

333、 and errors,particularly when firstintroduced.We have a limited frame of reference from which to evaluate the long-term performance of ourproducts.There can be no assurance that we will be able to detect and fix any defects in our quantum computersprior to the sale to potential consumers.If our products fail to perform as expected,customers may delaydeliveries,terminate further orders or initiate