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  "documentTitle": "IonQ Inc. (IONQ)",
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  "presentationDate": "2026-02-04 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide discusses the acquisition of SKYT and IDQ by IONQ, highlighting concerns about capital allocation and the viability of the acquired businesses.",
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      "text": "The fact that IONQ is using funds raised from investors hoping to get a first bite of the apple on a highly innovative, high-margin, secular growth story in quantum computing and using it to buy a highly cyclical low-margin business in a mature industry like semiconductor fabrication is an inconvenient fact to overlook.",
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      "text": "Their quantum computer is still theoretical. IONQ just had to buy Oxford Ionics, who had no pretensions of commercialization, because DARPA did not think IONQ's plan for a quantum computer even had a realistic shot at industrial utility in the next ten years.",
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      "kind": "paragraph",
      "text": "DoW Cuts the Legs Out from Quantum Key Distribution Companies Like ID Quantique (IDQ) As the Pentagon Moves to Post-Quantum Cryptography",
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      "text": "So, what is this purchase really about? We think there are two principal factors driving it. The first is that SKYT recently made its own acquisition and projected revenues of $600 million for FY 2026 and will allow IONQ to muddy the waters and confound the retail investors into believing IONQ is rapidly growing its quantum computing commercialization.",
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      "text": "On April 30th, 2025, IONQ purchased a controlling stake in IDQ for $116 million. Later disclosures indicate IDQ generates ~$6 million per quarter. IDQ sells a Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) system, which is a form of encryption or cryptography that relies on quantum physics to detect hacking attempts.",
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      "text": "Unlike IONQ, SKYT was able to get this earmark renewed in the FY 2026 budget after missing out on this earmark in FY 2025. While this $34.2 million earmark is only 10% of SKYT's TTM revenues, it is more than 10x SKYT's $3.1 million in TTM operating income.",
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      "text": "The second factor is that these companies may have known one another through their lobbying efforts in DC. SKYT used to have used the same lobbyist, Clark Street Associates, as IONQ. We believe we have even identified SKYT's own backdoor earmark, for a 'radiation hardened fully-depleted silicon on insulator microelectronics.'",
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