IONQ Inc (IONQ) 2024 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the IonQ first-quarter 2024 earnings call. (Operator instructions) Please note this conference is being recorded.

女士們、先生們，下午好，謝謝你們的支持。歡迎參加 IonQ 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，本次會議正在錄音。

I will now turn the conference over to your host, George Shapiro, Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.

現在，我將會議交給主持人、財務規劃和分析副總裁兼投資者關係主管喬治·夏皮羅 (George Shapiro)。謝謝。你可以開始了。

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to IonQ's first-quarter 2024 earnings call. My name is Jordan Shapiro, and I'm the Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis and Head of Investor Relations here at IonQ. I'm pleased to be joined on today's call by Peter Chapman, IonQ's President and Chief Executive Officer; Thomas Kramer, our Chief Financial Officer; and Dr. Dean Kassmann, our Vice President of Engineering. By now, everyone should have access to the company's first-quarter 2024 earnings press release issued this afternoon, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.ionq.com.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 IonQ 2024 年第一季財報電話會議。我叫喬丹‧夏皮羅 (Jordan Shapiro)，是 IonQ 的財務規劃與分析副總裁兼投資人關係主管。我很高興在今天的電話會議上與 IonQ 總裁兼執行長 Peter Chapman、財務長 Thomas Kramer 和工程副總裁 Dean Kassmann 博士一起參加。現在，每個人都應該可以看到今天下午發布的公司 2024 年第一季收益新聞稿，該新聞稿可在我們網站 investors.ionq.com 的投資者關係部分找到。

Please note that on today's call, management will refer to adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. While the company believes this non-GAAP financial measure provides useful advice for investors, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. We are directed to our press release for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its closest comparable GAAP measure.

請注意，在今天的電話會議上，管理層將參考調整後的 EBITDA，這是非 GAAP 財務指標。雖然公司認為該非公認會計準則財務指標為投資者提供了有用的建議，但該資訊的呈現並非旨在單獨考慮或取代根據公認會計準則呈現的財務資訊。我們被引導至我們的新聞稿，以對調整後的 EBITDA 與最接近的可比較 GAAP 指標進行調整。

During the call, we will discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. These comments are based on our beliefs as of today. Actual events or results could differ materially from the outlook and other forward-looking statements due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in our 10-Q filing with the SEC this week. We undertake no obligation to revise any statements to reflect changes that occur after this call, except as required by law.

在電話會議中，我們將討論我們的業務前景並做出前瞻性陳述。這些評論是基於我們今天的信念。由於存在多種風險和不確定因素，包括本週我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-Q 文件中提到的風險和不確定因素，實際事件或結果可能與展望和其他前瞻性陳述有重大差異。除非法律要求，否則我們不承擔修改任何聲明以反映本次電話會議後發生的變更的義務。

Now, I will turn it over to Peter Chapman, President and CEO of IonQ. Peter?

現在，我將把麥克風交給 IonQ 總裁兼執行長 Peter Chapman。彼得？

Thanks, Jordan, and thanks again to everyone for joining us today. I'm very pleased with our results for this quarter. There was a lot to discuss during our call, but the four key takeaways are as follows. IonQ started 2024 by exceeding the high end of our revenue guidance range. Specifically, we delivered $7.6 million in revenue relative to our range of $6.5 million to $7.5 million and we discussed in our most recent call.

謝謝喬丹，再次感謝大家今天的到來。我對本季的業績非常滿意。我們通話期間有很多內容需要討論，但主要有以下四個要點。IonQ 在 2024 年開始就超越了我們收入預期範圍的高端。具體來說，我們的收入為 760 萬美元，而我們的收入範圍是 650 萬美元至 750 萬美元，我們在最近的電話會議中討論了這一點。

With the US federal budget passed and continued interest from customers in quantum computing and quantum networking, we are raising our bookings guidance for the year. We booked 250,000 in the first quarter, and our current pipeline is stronger than ever. Between our work with customers and our internal research, IonQ is making serious headway towards identifying the first potential production applications of quantum computing. IonQ operations continue to gain momentum. Our Seattle manufacturing facility is now fully operational, and we are already building the first production IonQ Forte Enterprise system that has been sold to a customer. Meanwhile, between new Board members, executives, and team members. IonQ continues to hire as the leading minds in the quantum computing space.

隨著美國聯邦預算的通過以及客戶對量子運算和量子網路的持續關注，我們提高了今年的預訂量預期。我們在第一季的訂單量為 25 萬份，而且我們目前的訂單管道比以往更強大。透過與客戶的合作和內部研究，IonQ 在確定量子計算的首個潛在生產應用方面取得了重大進展。IonQ 營運持續獲得發展動能。我們位於西雅圖的製造工廠現已全面投入運營，我們正在建造第一個已出售給客戶的 IonQ Forte Enterprise 生產系統。同時，在新董事會成員、高階主管和團隊成員之間。IonQ 繼續聘請量子運算領域的領軍人才。

Let's walk through each area in more detail. First on revenue, IonQ's continue to outperform financially exceeding the high end of revenue guidance range by bringing in $7.6 million last quarter. This marks the 10th quarter we have outperformed our quarterly revenue midpoint since going public in 2021. We attribute this feat to outstanding execution by our technical delivery team, which has allowed us to accelerate the progress on deliverables towards our contracts. Given that these great results reflect the acceleration of existing contracts, we are maintaining our full-year revenue guidance. We remain highly confident in our revenue performance, and we'll continue to update the market on our full-year outlook during our quarterly earnings call.

讓我們更詳細地了解每個區域。首先是營收方面，IonQ 的財務表現繼續超出預期，上個季度的收入達到 760 萬美元，超過了收入預期範圍的高端。這是自 2021 年上市以來，我們第 10 季的業績超過季度營收中位數。我們將這項成就歸功於我們的技術交付團隊的出色執行，這使我們能夠加快合約交付的進度。鑑於這些出色的業績反映了現有合約的加速，我們維持全年收入預期。我們對我們的收入表現仍然充滿信心，我們將在季度收益電話會議上繼續向市場更新我們的全年展望。

In our last call, we mentioned that our bookings guidance was impacted due to the uncertainty around the approval of the US 2024 federal budget. Without risk now passed, we believe that we have identified in excess of $50 million of federal opportunities in 2024 not related to system sales.

在我們上次電話會議中，我們提到，由於美國 2024 年聯邦預算批准的不確定性，我們的預訂指導受到了影響。如果沒有現在的風險，我們相信我們已經在 2024 年發現了超過 5000 萬美元的與系統銷售無關的聯邦機會。

And on the system sales side, we are currently planning to build five Forte enterprise systems in this production run. One out of five has already been sold to QuantumBasel. We are in various stages of engagement for the remaining four. After this Forte Enterprise production run, we plan to swiftly turn our attention to manufacturing templates. The first of which has also been sold to QuantumBasel.

在系統銷售方面，我們目前計劃在本次生產運作中建構五個 Forte 企業系統。其中五分之一已經出售給 QuantumBasel。我們正處於其餘四個項目的不同參與階段。在此次 Forte Enterprise 生產運作之後，我們計劃迅速將注意力轉向製造模板。其中第一家也已出售給 QuantumBasel。

Our sales pipeline is expanding significantly across multiple countries, government agencies, and industries. And is at an all-time high, giving us even more confidence in IonQ's near- and medium-term financial prospects and growth trajectory. All of this leads us to raise our bookings guidance for the year to a range of $75 million to $95 million. We are excited that this prospect of achieving that unprecedented level of sales.

我們的銷售管道正在多個國家、​​政府機構和產業中大幅擴張。並且處於歷史最高水平，讓我們對 IonQ 的近期和中期財務前景和成長軌跡更加有信心。所有這些都促使我們將今年的預訂量預期提高到 7,500 萬美元至 9,500 萬美元之間。我們很高興能夠實現這一前所未有的銷售水準。

Next for our third topic, I wanted to shed some light on why there are diverging points of view in the question of when quantum computing will take off. There is one camp within the quantum industry who believes that fault tolerant quantum computing and millions of qubits are required and by extension still years away.

接下來是我們的第三個主題，我想解釋為什麼在量子計算何時起飛的問題上會有不同的觀點。量子產業內有一個陣營認為，容錯量子運算和數百萬量子位元是必要的，而且還需要數年時間。

Our opinion, and that of others, is that within the NISQ era, applications can be found that can provide commercial advantage in larger markets. We have had our application team looking at applications that will run on our near-term next-generation systems that meet that requirement. We now have several application areas that look extremely promising. These applications, if we are able to achieve them, have the potential to be game changers in their respective markets. This has been the allure of quantum from its inception. One in particular that I am personally excited by is the pharmaceutical space, an industry with the ability to change lives for the better for everyone.

我們和其他人的觀點是，在 NISQ 時代，可以找到能夠在更大的市場中提供商業優勢的應用程式。我們的應用程式團隊正在研究能夠在我們近期的下一代系統上運行且滿足該要求的應用程式。我們現在有幾個看起來非常有前景的應用領域。如果我們能夠實現這些應用，它們有可能改變各自的市場格局。從一開始，這就是量子的魅力所在。我個人特別感興趣的是製藥業，這個產業能讓每個人的生活變得更美好。

Earlier today, I published my yearly letter to shareholders, which I hope you'll take a few minutes to review on the IonQ blog. The letter also discusses commercial advantage. The term we used to describe our goal of building and enabling production-ready applications for quantum computing. Commercial advantage is defined through the eyes of our customers and their preference to choose a quantum-based solution over any other alternative. This is about the practical results that all of our research and development unlocks and being laser focused on building systems that are purchased by customers to deliver real-world commercial value.

今天早些時候，我發布了年度致股東的信，希望您能花幾分鐘時間在 IonQ 部落格上閱讀一下。這封信也討論了商業優勢。我們用這個術語來描述我們的目標，即建立和實現可用於量子計算的生產應用程式。商業優勢是透過客戶的眼光以及他們選擇基於量子的解決方案而不是任何其他替代方案的偏好來定義的。這是關於我們所有研究和開發所釋放的實際成果，並專注於建立客戶購買的系統以提供現實世界的商業價值。

We were excited to have Dr. Martin Roettelerr, our new Head of Applications, joined IonQ in March. Martin spent the last 10 years as a leader of Microsoft quantum application efforts. With Martin's leadership and our deep bench of applications talent, we believe the future looks bright for IonQ delivering commercial advantage to our customers.

我們非常高興新任應用主管 Martin Roettelerr 博士於三月加入 IonQ。馬丁過去 10 年一直擔任微軟量子應用工作的領導者。憑藉 Martin 的領導和我們深厚的應用人才隊伍，我們相信 IonQ 的未來一片光明，能為我們的客戶帶來商業優勢。

Lastly, I wanted to spend a few minutes sharing some of our corporate announcements that continue to inspire confidence in IonQ for myself and our team. The first is that we're fully delivering on the promise of our Seattle manufacturing facility. The facility is up and running, and we're currently manufacturing our first IonQ Forte Enterprise system that will get shipped to a customer. At the same time, we are standing up additional infrastructure to manufacture more IonQ systems at scale and are leveraging the facility for cutting-edge research and development as well. We now have nearly 100 employees located in the Seattle area.

最後，我想花幾分鐘分享一些公司公告，這些公告繼續激發我和我們團隊對 IonQ 的信心。首先，我們正在全面履行西雅圖製造工廠的承諾。該工廠已投入運行，我們目前正在製造第一台 IonQ Forte Enterprise 系統，並將運送給客戶。同時，我們正在建立額外的基礎設施來大規模生產更多的 IonQ 系統，並利用該設施進行尖端研究和開發。我們現在在西雅圖地區有近 100 名員工。

Meanwhile, we have almost completed construction of our new data center in Basel, Switzerland, which you may remember is key to our delivery on our $28 million QuantumBasel contract that we signed last year. We have IonQ team members on the ground in Switzerland and are already assembling components for our first system in this new IonQ Europe data center. That facility will be key for servicing our growing EMEA customer base.

同時，我們在瑞士巴塞爾的新資料中心的建設已基本完成，您可能還記得，這是我們履行去年簽署的價值 2800 萬美元的 QuantumBasel 合約的關鍵。我們在瑞士有 IonQ 團隊成員，並且已經在這個新的 IonQ 歐洲資料中心為我們的第一個系統組裝組件。該設施對於服務我們不斷成長的 EMEA 客戶群至關重要。

While our headquarters in College Park, Maryland and the ecosystem we've helped build in the greater DC area remain our commercial and technological epicenter, we are very happy with the company's progress on national and international expansion.

雖然我們位於馬裡蘭州學院公園的總部以及我們在大華盛頓地區幫助建立的生態系統仍然是我們的商業和技術中心，但我們對公司在國內和國際擴張方面取得的進展感到非常高興。

We are also strengthening our ranks at IonQ. You may remember that we announced in the first quarter the addition of two new industry export Board members, Robert Cardillo, the former Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency under President Obama; and Bill Scannell, President of Global Sales and Customer Operations at Dell Technologies, where he oversees 24,000 sales team members. More recently, we announced the addition of our new Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Stacey Giamalis. Stacey has served as the Chief Legal Counsel of six companies in a variety of technology sectors over the last two decades. She has an extensive track record and deep understanding of the legal aspects of the technology sector, making her the ideal candidate to help scale IonQ's operations.

我們也在加強 IonQ 的隊伍。您可能還記得，我們​​在第一季宣布增加兩名新的行業出口委員會成員，分別是奧巴馬總統任期內的國家地理空間情報局局長羅伯特·卡迪羅 (Robert Cardillo) 和戴爾科技集團全球銷售和客戶運營總裁比爾·斯坎內爾 (Bill Scannell)，他負責管理 24,000 名銷售團隊成員。最近，我們宣布任命新的首席法律長兼公司秘書 Stacey Giamalis。在過去二十年裡，Stacey 曾擔任六家涉及不同技術領域的公司的首席法律顧問。她擁有豐富的經驗和對科技領域法律問題的深刻理解，這使她成為幫助擴大 IonQ 業務的理想人選。

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Thomas for a more detailed review of the financials. Thomas?

說完這些，我想把電話轉給湯瑪斯，讓他更詳細地檢視一下財務狀況。托馬斯？

Thank you, Peter. Let's walk through this quarter's financial results in more detail. As a reminder, we prioritize our go-to-market efforts on some large, meaningful contracts with customers that understand the potential for quantum and a win to make sizable commitments today to secure the access to our systems. As a side effect and as we have mentioned in every prior earnings call, given the large size of the contracts we are selling, we expect sales to be lumpy. In other words, it is difficult to predict quarter to quarter, or even in some cases, year to year, exactly when a particular sale will materialize. The first quarter was such a case, with IonQ having booked $250,000. Our confidence is nevertheless very strong that we will meet our bookings goals for the year.

謝謝你，彼得。讓我們更詳細地了解本季的財務結果。提醒一下，我們優先考慮與客戶簽訂一些大型、有意義的合同，這些客戶了解量子的潛力，並願意在今天做出相當大的承諾，以確保能夠訪問我們的系統。作為一個副作用，正如我們在之前的每次財報電話會議上提到的那樣，鑑於我們銷售的合約規模很大，我們預計銷售額將會不穩定。換句話說，很難準確預測某個季度、甚至在某些情況下、每年的某筆銷售何時會實現。第一季就是這種情況，IonQ 已預訂了 25 萬美元。儘管如此，我們仍然非常有信心能夠實現今年的預訂目標。

As Peter mentioned, we had a strong revenue quarter, recognizing $7.6 million, which is above the high end of the range we previously provided. This overperformance was primarily due to our ability to make more progress than previously anticipated on some of our contracts that use percentage of completion revenue recognition.

正如彼得所提到的，我們本季的營收表現強勁，達到 760 萬美元，高於我們之前提供的最高範圍。這種超額表現主要是因為我們在一些採用完工百分比收入確認的合約上取得了比之前預期更多的進展。

Moving down the income statement for Q1 2024, our total operating costs and expenses for the first quarter was $60.5 million, up 87% from $32.3 million in the prior-year period, but within our plan for the year. To break this down further, our research and development costs for the first quarter were $32.4 million, up 99% from $16.2 million in the prior-year period. We call that we are investing heavily in R&D and the given anticipated demand of building more systems than previously projected this year.

在 2024 年第一季的損益表中，我們第一季的總營運成本和費用為 6,050 萬美元，比去年同期的 3,230 萬美元增長了 87%，但在我們年度計畫之內。進一步細分，我們第一季的研發成本為 3,240 萬美元，比去年同期的 1,620 萬美元成長了 99%。我們稱，我們正在大力投資研發，並且預計今年將建造比之前預測更多的系統。

Our sales and marketing costs in the first quarter were $6.7 million, up 151% from $2.7 million in the prior-year period. This increase was due to us growing both our marketing and our sales teams as we continue investing into our commercial efforts.

我們第一季的銷售和行銷成本為 670 萬美元，比去年同期的 270 萬美元成長了 151%。這一成長是由於我們繼續投資於商業活動，同時擴大了行銷和銷售團隊。

Our general and administrative costs in the first quarter were $14 million, up 33% from $10.6 million in the prior-year period. These increases were primarily driven by an increase of $3.7 million in payroll-related expenses. All of these resulted in a net loss of $39.6 million in the first quarter compared to $27.4 million in the prior-year period. These results include a noncash gain of $8.6 million for the first quarter related to the fair value of our warrant liabilities. They also include growth in stock-based compensation expense related to our headcount growth, which was $22.1 million for the first quarter, compared to $10.3 million in the prior-year period. We saw an adjusted EBITDA loss for the first quarter of $27 million compared to a $15.9 million loss in the prior-year period. We project an adjusted EBITDA loss for the year of $110.5 million.

我們第一季的一般和行政費用為 1,400 萬美元，比去年同期的 1,060 萬美元成長了 33%。這些增長主要是由於工資相關費用增加了 370 萬美元。所有這些因素導致第一季淨虧損 3,960 萬美元，而去年同期淨虧損 2,740 萬美元。這些結果包括第一季與我們的認股權證負債的公允價值相關的 860 萬美元的非現金收益。其中還包括與員工人數成長相關的股票薪酬費用的成長，第一季為 2,210 萬美元，而去年同期為 1,030 萬美元。第一季調整後的 EBITDA 虧損為 2,700 萬美元，而去年同期的虧損為 1,590 萬美元。我們預計今年調整後的 EBITDA 虧損為 1.105 億美元。

Turning now to our balance sheet, cash, cash equivalents, and investments as of March 31, 2024, were $434.4 million. We continue to believe this cash position is the strongest of any publicly traded company focused exclusively on full-stack quantum.

現在來看我們的資產負債表，截至 2024 年 3 月 31 日的現金、現金等價物和投資為 4.344 億美元。我們仍然相信，這現金狀況是所有專注於全端量子的上市公司中最強的。

Now, turning to our financial outlook. We are pleased to announce that we will be raising our 2024 bookings guidance to between $75 million and $95 million, reflecting a larger pipeline and increased confidence in the close and timing of certain deals. We are maintaining our revenue guidance for the full year 2024, and we currently expect revenue for the second quarter of between $7.6 million and $9.2 million.

現在，談談我們的財務前景。我們很高興地宣布，我們將把 2024 年的預訂量預期提高到 7500 萬美元至 9500 萬美元之間，這反映了我們擁有更大的訂單量，並且對某些交易的完成和時間安排更有信心。我們維持 2024 年全年營收預期，目前預計第二季營收在 760 萬美元至 920 萬美元之間。

I want to echo Peter's earlier comment about the cadence of our new contract bookings, with the majority of each falling into the back half of the year, considering the end of the United States government's fiscal year in September.

我想重複彼得之前關於我們新合約預訂節奏的評論，考慮到美國政府的財政年度在九月結束，大多數新合約預訂都發生在下半年。

Back to you, Peter.

回到你身邊，彼得。

Thank you, Thomas. In summary, we are very pleased with our progress in the first quarter. Our performance on revenue and increased confidence on our 2024 bookings pipeline are both promising for IonQ's financial performance this year. Meanwhile, we are delighted to have clear line of sight through commercial-advantage applications. We have launched the production facilities and hired a deep bench of team members that will allow IonQ to continue our path of leadership as we commercialize quantum.

謝謝你，托馬斯。總而言之，我們對第一季的進展感到非常滿意。我們的收入表現以及對 2024 年預訂管道的信心增強都對 IonQ 今年的財務表現充滿希望。同時，我們很高興能夠透過商業優勢應用獲得清晰的視線。我們已經啟動了生產設施並聘請了一群優秀的團隊成員，這將使 IonQ 在量子商業化的過程中繼續保持領導地位。

And with that, I'd like to have the operator open the line for questions.

現在，我想請接線員開通熱線來回答問題。

(Operator instructions) Quinn Bolton, Needham & Company.

（操作員指示）Quinn Bolton，Needham & Company。

Hey, guys. Congratulations on the continued technical and financial milestones. I guess I wanted to follow up on the confidence around increasing your bookings guidance of $75 million to $95 million from $70 million to $90 million last quarter. Obviously, it sounds like you guys have better line of sight to when some of these contracts may close. But if there's any further insight you can give us on your level of confidence in some of these bigger deals, that would be great. And then I've got a follow-up question for you.

嘿，大家好。恭喜您持續取得技術和財務里程碑。我想跟進一下關於上個季度將預訂量預期從 7,500 萬美元提高到 9,500 萬美元的信心。顯然，聽起來你們對於這些合約何時結束有更好的了解。但是，如果您能進一步告訴我們您對這些較大交易的信心程度，那就太好了。然後我還有一個後續問題想問您。

Yes, I can take that one. Yes, it's -- if you look compared this time versus last year, if we looked at top of the funnel, that has increased significantly. And in addition, we're in various stages of contracts. And so that gives us engagements and may gives us confidence in kind of being able to get into these numbers.

是的，我可以接受這個。是的，如果將這次與去年進行比較，如果我們看一下漏斗頂部，就會發現它已經顯著增加了。此外，我們的合約正處於不同階段。因此，這給了我們參與的機會，並可能讓我們有信心達到這些數字。

So having the federal budget approved, we're certainly one portion of that, they gave us more confidence. But as you know, it ain't over till it's over until you actually get a final signature on a contract. So we've gone through and waited as we do normally take kind of the funnel and wait the opportunities and what we think is likely to happen and given waiting. And that's how we come to the number. So we're feeling more confident about the year than even just 90 days ago.

因此，在聯邦預算獲得批准後，我們當然是其中的一部分，他們給了我們更多的信心。但正如你所知，直到你真正獲得合約的最終簽名，一切都還沒有結束。因此，我們像平常一樣，經歷並等待機會，等待我們認為可能發生的事情。這就是我們得出這個數字的方式。因此，我們對今年的信心比 90 天前更加足了。

Perfect. Second question I have is, Peter, in your script, you mentioned after the budget was approved having identified $50 million of new opportunities not related to hardware sales, wondering if you could just, again, expand on some of those opportunities. Are they contracts? Are they programs? What types of opportunities do you see? And then I guess, do any of that $50 million play into your bookings, your higher bookings guidance for 2024? Thank you.

完美的。我的第二個問題是，彼得，在您的腳本中，您提到在預算獲得批准後，發現了 5000 萬美元與硬體銷售無關的新機會，想知道您是否可以再次擴展其中的一些機會。它們是合約嗎？它們是程序嗎？您看到了哪些類型的機會？然後我想，這 5000 萬美元是否會影響您的預訂量，以及您對 2024 年預訂量的更高預期？謝謝。

So these are -- we've talked in the past about selling, for instance, one system over the next 18 months, if you remember. So these $50 million is not related to system sales, but they are related in quantum. And so -- but it's not, we've kind of wanted to separate out the opportunity of system versus non-system sales. So that's really what it is. And so any of those contracts usually are backloaded towards the end of the year because that's just the way the government works. So we would expect to see them later this year. And I think there's not much else to it.

所以這些是——我們過去曾討論過在未來 18 個月內銷售一個系統，如果你還記得的話。因此，這 5000 萬美元與系統銷售無關，但在數量上有關。所以——但事實並非如此，我們有點想區分系統銷售和非系統銷售的機會。事實確實如此。因此，任何這些合約通常都會在年底前到期，因為這就是政府的工作方式。因此我們期望在今年晚些時候看到它們。我認為除此之外就沒什麼好說的了。

Yeah. Maybe, further clarify is that this $50 million on a probability-weighted view is included into the guidance number?

是的。也許，進一步澄清的是，根據機率加權觀點，這 5000 萬美元是否包含在指導數字中？

Correct.

正確的。

Yeah. And -- but just -- are these sort of like DARPA or government-funded programs to investigate or advance certain applications within quantum? Is that the sort of, it's non-system? So just trying to get some sense. Are they more sort of programs to develop applications or software things that are not hardware related? Is that the best way to think about them?

是的。但是——這些是否有點像 DARPA 或政府資助的項目，用於研究或推進量子領域的某些應用？那是那種非系統性的嗎？所以只是想了解一下。它們是否更像是開發與硬體無關的應用程式或軟體的程式？這是思考這些問題的最好方式嗎？

It's -- we're not -- we don't want to break out kind of guidance by different segments, but these are other kinds of pieces of hardware, which are needed in the quantum ecosystem. And of course, there will be a software component to it as well. All the hardware has some sort of software that goes with it.

我們不想打破不同部分的指導，但這些是量子生態系統所需的其他類型的硬體。當然，它也會有一個軟體元件。所有硬體都配有某種與之配套的軟體。

Yeah. So maybe hardware components, but not full system sales. It may be software. So you're just trying to make the distinction. It's not a complete quantum system like the AFRL or the QuantumBasel deals?

是的。因此可能是硬體組件的銷售，但不是完整系統的銷售。它可能是軟體。所以你只是想做出區分。它不是一個像 AFRL 或 QuantumBasel 交易那樣完整的量子系統？

That's exactly it. Yeah.

正是如此。是的。

Understood. Okay. Thank you for that clarification.

明白了。好的。感謝您的澄清。

Shadi Mitwalli, Craig-Hallum.

沙迪·米特瓦利 (Shadi Mitwalli)、克雷格·哈勒姆 (Craig-Hallum

Hey, this is Shadi Mitwalli on for Richard Shannon. I have a two-part question here, starting off with quantum networking. What is IonQ seeing in the market for quantum networking versus computing in the near term? And then do you expect anything material from quantum networking in bookings this year?

嘿，我是 Shadi Mitwalli，代表 Richard Shannon。我的問題分為兩部分，首先是量子網路。IonQ 近期對量子網路和運算市場有何看法？那麼，您對今年量子網路的預訂量有什麼實質的期待嗎？

The answer is that networking seems to be quite strong, going alongside with the system sales. And these things are complementary because next-generation quantum computers are going to be networked together to be able to build larger and larger quantum computers.

答案是，網路似乎相當強大，與系統銷售同步。這些都是互補的，因為下一代量子電腦將會聯網，從而能夠建構越來越大的量子電腦。

The other piece is, which is kind of new to us, is the quantum communication side, and that is also using kind of our base technology set. So we see quite a bit of interest in the networking side. So you'll be hearing more and more about that. And it is included in our bookings guidance, the networking portion.

另一部分對我們來說比較新，那就是量子通訊方面，這也是使用我們的基礎技術集。因此，我們看到人們對網路方面有相當大的興趣。因此，你會聽到越來越多這方面的消息。它包含在我們的預訂指南和網路部分中。

Awesome. Thanks for the quick color on that. And then I just got a follow-up on something that was mentioned last quarter in regards to reducing the time and cost of building a quantum computer. Are you able to give some more color on how that will be achieved, and is this something external more supply chain or something done more internally?

驚人的。感謝您對此所做的快速解釋。然後我剛剛得到了關於上個季度提到的關於減少建造量子電腦的時間和成本的後續資訊。您能否詳細說明如何實現這一目標，這是更多的外部供應鏈還是更多的內部實現？

It's a little of both. One is making the systems themselves more manufacturable, wherever we can, can we sub it out to a contract manufacturer to build a subassembly for us? So that is kind of the ongoing process, which is going to happen over the next couple of generations. And in addition, it's just purely process inside. We have a group of people who are 100% focused on assembling quantum computers, and so they're not being -- their time is not being interrupted by kind of having to think about building next-generation systems.

兩者都有一點。一是使系統本身更易於製造，只要有可能，我們是否可以將其分包給合約製造商來為我們製造子組件？這是一個持續的過程，將在接下來的幾代人中發生。此外，這只是純粹的內部過程。我們有一群人 100% 專注於組裝量子計算機，因此他們的時間不會被考慮建立下一代系統所打擾。

So we've kind of separated out on the workforce basis. One group, which is, does nothing but assemble quantum computers. And another group, which is working on engineering and R&D. And simple things like getting the process repeatable. And of course, as you -- in the past, we might have built one or two systems in a generation. Now, as you just heard, we're building five in Forte Enterprise. And as you would expect, by the time you get to the fifth one, you've gotten better at it and it's just getting faster. So we're not quite yet to the Henry Ford assembly line for quantum computers just yet, but that's where we're trying to hit.

因此，我們在勞動力基礎上進行了分離。其中一個小組只負責組裝量子計算機。另一個團隊負責工程和研發。還有一些簡單的事情，例如讓流程可重複。當然，正如你們所料——在過去，我們可能在一代人的時間裡建立了一兩個系統。現在，正如您剛才聽到的，我們正在 Forte Enterprise 建造五座。正如您所期望的，當您進行到第五個時，您已經做得更好了，而且速度也越來越快。因此，我們還沒有達到像亨利福特那樣的量子電腦組裝線，但這正是我們努力的方向。

Awesome. That's all for me. Congrats on the solid quarter.

驚人的。對我來說就這些了。恭喜本季業績穩健。

Thank you.

謝謝。

David Williams, Benchmark.

大衛威廉斯，基準。

Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. I guess first, Peter, just thinking about the five Forte systems that you're building in Seattle, clearly, you've got a lot of confidence if you're going to go and build these systems maybe ahead of the contract. So I guess if you were going to candy cap or qualify, how you're thinking about your contracts and your bookings here, given the investment in those five Forte machines, how would you rank that in terms of maybe where you were 90 days ago? I know it's clearly more confident, but it feels maybe more solidified given you're moving forward with building those?

嘿，下午好。感謝您回答我的問題。首先，彼得，我想，只要想想你在西雅圖建造的五個 Forte 系統，顯然，如果你要在合約簽訂之前去建造這些系統，你就有很大的信心。所以我想，如果您要達到糖果上限或資格，您如何考慮您的合約和預訂，考慮到對這五台 Forte 機器的投資，您會如何根據 90 天前的情況對其進行排名？我知道這顯然更加自信，但考慮到您正在推進這些建設，感覺可能更加堅定？

Yeah. No, you're 100% right. The things are not -- the parts themselves are not cheap. So you wouldn't go out and make the expense unless you thought you could sell them. And at the same time, these are big ticket sales. So predicting exactly which quarter or something it will appear in is always risky. So obviously, over some reasonable period of time, we do think that we have a pretty good shot of selling the remaining four, and we've already sold one. So it's the remaining four.

是的。不，你完全正確。這些東西並不便宜——零件本身也不便宜。因此，除非您認為可以賣掉它們，否則您不會出去花錢。同時，這些都是大額門票銷售。因此，準確預測它會在哪個季度或某個時刻出現總是有風險的。因此，顯然，在一段合理的時間內，我們確實認為我們很有可能賣出剩下的四輛，而且我們已經賣出了一輛。所以剩下四個。

All right. Thanks for the color there. And then maybe just secondly, you talked about some new application areas that you're particularly excited about, and you gave an example of pharmaceuticals. Can you maybe talk through some of the other areas of where you think there's some really great opportunity and maybe where you're most excited? Thanks.

好的。感謝那裡的色彩。其次，您談到了一些讓您特別興奮的新應用領域，並舉了製藥業的例子。您能否談談您認為存在真正巨大機會的其他領域以及您最興奮的領域？謝謝。

So some of the things which we've already kind of signposted, which is obviously quantum machine learning, is something that we continue to believe will be one of the first applications. Pharmaceuticals in particular, we're very excited about. There's been a lot of recent work at IonQ and others in terms of making progress on being able to simulate chemistry. So we're excited about that work. Optimization is always a sweet spot for quantum, so that would be as well. And then, the last one, which is probably at the moment, maybe the highest speculative one, which would be strong AI or AI in the more like ChatGPT or better sense. So I'm trying to separate out ML from AI.

因此，我們已經有所預示的一些事物，顯然是量子機器學習，也是我們繼續相信的首批應用之一。我們尤其對製藥業感到非常興奮。IonQ 和其他公司最近在模擬化學方面取得了許多進展。所以我們對這項工作感到很興奮。優化對於量子來說始終是一個最佳點，所以這也是如此。然後，最後一個，可能是目前推測性最高的一個，那就是強人工智慧，或者更像 ChatGPT 或更好意義上的人工智慧。所以我試著將 ML 與 AI 分開。

Okay, great. Thanks again.

好的，太好了。再次感謝。

(Operator instructions) Kevin Galligan, WestPark Capital.

（操作員說明）Kevin Galligan，WestPark Capital。

Yeah. Hey, guys. Let me echo my congrats on all the progress. I'm just wondering if you can give us some color on commercial and enterprise customer adoption for quantum computing. Are any of those types of customers seeing sales expansion in your pipeline as well?

是的。嘿，大家好。讓我對所有的進步表示祝賀。我只是想知道您是否可以向我們介紹一下商業和企業客戶採用量子計算的情況。這些類型的客戶是否也看到了您的銷售管道的擴大？

I think all across the Board in quantum, if you look kind of what's going on, regionally within the United States and across the world, there's quite a bit of an investment available and interest in systems, and if nothing that seems to be heating up. So it's certainly a good time to be in quantum at the moment.

我認為，如果你觀察一下量子領域正在發生的事情，在美國國內和世界範圍內，有相當多的投資和對系統的興趣，而且似乎沒有升溫的跡象。所以現在無疑是進入量子領域的好時機。

Yeah. No, I definitely agree with that. Okay. Perfect. And just as a quick follow-up kind of going off of Quinn's question on the $50 million regarding the government opportunities. Are these kind of new opportunities or projects that the government, are they starting to figure out how to use quantum computers or are they kind of geared more towards the current computers that the government has just kind of aren't good enough to perform the application that they're -- that they want. So they're looking to switch to something better such as quantum computing?

是的。不，我絕對同意這一點。好的。完美的。作為一個快速的後續問題，我來回答奎因關於 5000 萬美元政府機會的問題。這些是政府的新機會或項目嗎？他們是否開始研究如何使用量子計算機，或者他們是否更傾向於政府現有的計算機，因為這些計算機還不足以執行他們想要的應用程式。所以他們正在尋求轉向更好的技術，例如量子計算？

I think increasingly -- it's increasingly lots of people, not just -- IonQ has thought this for quite a long time. But it's just -- we're starting to see people start to say, hey, actually this quantum thing actually might be real. And so there's -- even the naysayers are actually coming out now and saying, hey, we actually might have useful quantum computing in the near future. And that obviously spreads into the government as well. And so -- and I'm just talking about it broadly across the entire industry. So there's been lots of work on -- recently on fault tolerance is an example that gives people confidence about quantum in general. So if you were to go back, it's just funny you go back five years, I've been at the company five years, five years ago, people said, oh, you don't even know you could build a quantum computer. And then it was, oh, you'll never be able to build a quantum computer with fault tolerance. And now, we're getting to the point where it's like, oh, that actually looks like that might be reasonable. So we're making progress. It's a slow -- it's a bit of a slow process, but we're getting there.

我認為越來越多的人——不僅僅是越來越多的人——IonQ 已經思考這個問題很久了。但只是——我們開始看到人們開始說，嘿，實際上這種量子現象可能是真的。所以，現在甚至連反對者都站出來說，嘿，我們實際上可能在不久的將來擁有有用的量子計算。顯然，這種現像也蔓延到了政府內部。所以——我只是從整個行業的角度廣泛地談論這個問題。因此，最近在容錯方面開展了大量工作，這是一個例子，它讓人們對量子整體上充滿信心。所以如果你回去，回到五年前，這很有趣，我已經在公司工作了五年，五年前，人們說，哦，你甚至不知道你可以建造一台量子電腦。然後你就明白了，哦，你永遠無法建造一台具有容錯功能的量子電腦。現在，我們開始覺得，哦，這實際上看起來似乎是合理的。所以我們正在取得進展。這是一個緩慢的——有點緩慢的過程，但我們正在接近目標。

Yeah. No, absolutely. Okay, perfect. Thanks, guys.

是的。不，絕對不是。好的，完美。謝謝大家。

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And I would like to turn the call back to Peter Chapman for closing remarks.

女士們、先生們，問答環節已經結束。我想請彼得·查普曼 (Peter Chapman) 致閉幕詞。

I wanted to thank everyone for joining us today and all the questions. Finally, I want to thank the entire IonQ team for the continued diligent work that allowed us to achieve everything we have so far and everything we look forward to in the future. Thanks again, everyone.

我想感謝今天參加我們節目的所有人以及提出的所有問題。最後，我要感謝整個 IonQ 團隊的持續努力工作，使我們能夠實現目前所取得的一切以及我們對未來的所有期望。再次感謝大家。

This concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.

今天的會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。現在您可以斷開線路。