Quantum computing has long been the star of IonQ's growth story. But on Wednesday's second-quarter earnings call, executives pointed to a second business gaining traction: helping customers guard against the cybersecurity threats that quantum computers themselves will eventually pose.
Customer conversations, management said, increasingly open not with what quantum computing can do, but with how to protect sensitive data once quantum machines can break today's encryption. If that trend holds, quantum security could grow into a driver as significant as IonQ's core computing business.
Chief Operating Officer and CFO Inder Singh noticed the change in discussions with enterprise customers and government agencies.
"A year ago it was about computing. Now it's about computing," Singh said. "But equally, how can you protect me from the inevitable?"
Security Becomes A Recurring Theme In Customer Meetings
"Quantum security now enters into the discussion," Singh said, adding that organizations increasingly want to understand not only how quantum computing can create new capabilities, but also how it could expose them to future cybersecurity threats.
Earlier in the call, Singh also noted that "more and more customers are talking about security," suggesting demand is expanding beyond IonQ's traditional quantum computing offerings.
Together, those comments point to a broader shift in how the company views its opportunity. Rather than simply selling quantum computing systems, IonQ increasingly sees an opportunity to help customers prepare for the security challenges that widespread quantum computing could eventually bring.
Preparing for a Post-Quantum World
The concern stems from the possibility that future quantum computers could become powerful enough to break many of today's widely used encryption methods, which protect everything from financial transactions to government communications.
Although experts continue to debate when that point might arrive, IonQ executives said many organizations are no longer treating the issue as a distant research topic. Instead, they are beginning to plan for what the industry often calls a "post-quantum" world—a future in which existing cybersecurity tools may no longer provide adequate protection.
That changing mindset, management suggested, is creating demand not only for quantum computers, but also for technologies designed to secure data before that transition occurs.
IonQ Is Expanding Its Quantum Security Business
As part of that strategy, CEO Niccolo De Masi highlighted the company's newest Quantum Key Distribution, or QKD, product.
"We launched a new QKD product… making enterprise-grade quantum security practical, deployable and cheaper to operate," De Masi said.
Quantum Key Distribution is a communication technology that uses the principles of quantum physics to create encryption keys. Because any attempt to intercept those keys changes the underlying quantum signals, the technology can help detect eavesdropping, offering an additional layer of protection for sensitive communications.
Management also said recent White House executive orders focused on quantum technologies have increased engagement around quantum-safe security. Organizations are evaluating how to protect critical infrastructure before quantum computing becomes powerful enough to threaten existing encryption.
For investors, the takeaway extends beyond IonQ's quantum computing roadmap. The company still generates most of its business from quantum computing, but management's comments suggest it increasingly sees quantum security as a complementary growth engine.
If customers continue shifting from asking what quantum computers can do to asking how to defend against them, cybersecurity could become one of IonQ's most important long-term opportunities.
