IONQ Inc (IONQ) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings. Welcome to the IONQ's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. At this time, it is now my pleasure to introduce Jordan Shapiro, Vice President, FP&A, Head of Investor Relations.

問候。歡迎參加 IONQ 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。（操作員指示）提醒一下，本次會議正在錄音。現在，我很高興介紹財務規劃與分析副總裁兼投資者關係主管喬丹夏皮羅 (Jordan Shapiro)。

Jordan, you may begin.

喬丹，你可以開始了。

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to IONQ's fourth quarter and full year 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 Executive Chair; Niccolo de Masi, our new President and Chief Executive Officer; Thomas Kramer, our Chief Financial Officer; and Dean Kassmann, our Senior Vice President of Engineering and Technology.

大家下午好，歡迎參加 IONQ 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。我叫喬丹‧夏皮羅，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 執行主席 Peter Chapman、新任總裁兼首席執行官 Niccolo de Masi、首席財務官 Thomas Kramer 和工程與技術高級副總裁 Dean Kassmann 一起參加。

By now, everyone should have access to the company's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings press release issued this afternoon, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.ionq.com.

現在，每個人都應該可以看到今天下午發布的公司第四季度和 2024 年全年收益新聞稿，該新聞稿可在我們網站 investors.ionq.com 的投資者關係部分查閱。

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 information 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. You 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信息，但該信息的呈現並非旨在單獨考慮或替代按照公認會計準則呈現的財務信息。請直接參閱我們的新聞稿，以了解調整後的 EBITDA 與最接近的可比較 GAAP 指標之間的對帳情況。

During the call, we will discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. These comments are based on our predictions and expectations as of today. Actual events or results could differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those mentioned in our 10-K that we have filed with the SEC today. 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預測和期望。由於存在許多風險和不確定因素，包括我們今天向美國證券交易委員會 (SEC) 提交的 10-K 文件中提到的風險和不確定因素，實際事件或結果可能會存在重大差異。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, Executive Chair of IONQ. Peter?

現在我將把發言權交給 IONQ 執行主席 Peter Chapman。彼得？

Thank you, Jordan, and thank you to everyone listening. If you take away one thing from this call, let it be this. 2024 was IONQ's best year ever, but we believe 2025 is slated to be the year IONQ drives an inflection in the quantum market. In 2024, we grew our full year bookings by 47% to $95.6 million and nearly doubled our revenue, achieving $43.1 million for the year and $11.7 million for the fourth quarter, both exceeding the high end of our guidance range.

謝謝你，喬丹，也謝謝所有聽眾。如果您從這通電話中得到一個啟示，那就是：2024 年是 IONQ 有史以來最好的一年，但我們相信 2025 年將是 IONQ 推動量子市場轉變的一年。2024 年，我們的全年預訂量成長了 47%，達到 9,560 萬美元，營收幾乎翻了一番，全年達到 4,310 萬美元，第四季達到 1,170 萬美元，均超過了我們預期範圍的高端。

To continue our rapid growth rate, last quarter, we announced our acquisition of substantially all the assets of quantum networking leader, Qubitekk, Inc., which we have since closed. Our interest in quantum networking is multifaceted. It enables IONQ to scale its quantum computers by enabling distributed quantum computing in much the same way classical CPUs and GPUs are networked together today. Our unique architecture allows us to interface with existing telecommunication networks in real-world environments.

為了保持快速的成長率，上個季度，我們宣布收購量子網路領導者 Qubitekk, Inc. 的幾乎所有資產，目前我們已經完成收購。我們對量子網路的興趣是多方面的。它使 IONQ 能夠透過分散式量子運算來擴展其量子計算機，其方式與當今經典 CPU 和 GPU 聯網的方式非常相似。我們獨特的架構使我們能夠與現實環境中現有的電信網路連接。

The second facet is to build the next generation of the Internet, which is secure from the potential threat of classical and quantum computers. Today, I am thrilled to announce that IONQ has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a controlling stake in ID Quantique, a large global player in quantum networking. Once the deal closes, IONQ will consolidate ID Quantique's global book of business, more than 100 team members and gain control of almost 300 quantum networking patents and patent applications. In aggregate, IONQ will shortly control nearly 900 patents and patent applications across quantum key distribution, quantum sensing, quantum networking and quantum computing.

第二個面向是建立下一代互聯網，使其免受經典電腦和量子電腦的潛在威脅。今天，我很高興地宣布，IONQ 已簽署最終協議，收購量子網路領域全球大型企業 ID Quantique 的控股權。交易完成後，IONQ 將整合 ID Quantique 的全球業務、100 多名團隊成員，並獲得近 300 項量子網路專利和專利申請的控制權。總體而言，IONQ 將很快控制量子金鑰分發、量子感測、量子網路和量子計算領域的近 900 項專利和專利申請。

With ID Quantique, IONQ furthers its leadership in quantum networking. Our goal is to build a suite of products that enable secure quantum communication in all forms, from satellites to ground stations across existing telecommunication fiber infrastructure to drones on a battlefield. Those following IONQ closely will note that we are building out the key component technologies for the telecom and defense sectors.

借助 ID Quantique，IONQ 進一步鞏固了在量子網路領域的領先地位。我們的目標是建構一套產品，實現各種形式的安全量子通信，從衛星到地面站、現有的電信光纖基礎設施，再到戰場上的無人機。密切關注 IONQ 的人會注意到，我們正在為電信和國防部門打造關鍵組件技術。

With the pending addition of ID Quantique and the completed addition of Qubitekk, we will partner with their existing blue-chip customers, which include SK Telecom and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga. These customer relationships allow us to test new hardware and applications in real-world environments.

隨著 ID Quantique 的即將加入和 Qubitekk 的完成加入，我們將與其現有的藍籌客戶合作，其中包括 SK Telecom 和查塔努加電力委員會。這些客戶關係使我們能夠在真實環境中測試新的硬體和應用程式。

Switching gears to computing. We delivered our first Forte enterprise system to Quantum Basel in Switzerland as well as our first system to the Air Force Research Lab. IONQ continues to make progress on developing our next-generation varium-based system called Tempo, with the first unit already sold and slated for delivery to Basel.

轉向計算。我們向瑞士的 Quantum Basel 交付了第一個 Forte 企業系統，並向空軍研究實驗室交付了第一個系統。IONQ 繼續在開發我們新一代基於 varium 的系統 Tempo 方面取得進展，第一台系統已經售出並計劃交付巴塞爾。

During our Q3 earnings call, we spoke about our partnership with AstraZeneca on drug discovery use cases. Tonight, I can share that our work in chemistry modeling in collaboration with other partners has advanced significantly. We plan to showcase some of the progress before the next earnings call.

在第三季財報電話會議上，我們談到了與阿斯特捷利康在藥物發現用例方面的合作。今晚，我可以分享我們與其他合作夥伴在化學建模方面的合作取得了重大進展。我們計劃在下次財報電話會議之前展示一些進展。

With Ansys, we are also continuing our collaboration with Ansys and are making great progress in computer-aided engineering, a $10 billion industry. This quarter, we also announced a new partnership with General Dynamics Information Technology, a division of General Dynamics, to create quantum solutions that enhance fraud and anomaly detection by identifying irregularities and large data sets with greater speed and accuracy.

我們也將繼續與 Ansys 合作，並在電腦輔助工程這個價值 100 億美元的產業中取得巨大進展。本季度，我們也宣布與通用動力公司的子公司通用動力資訊技術公司建立新的合作夥伴關係，以創建量子解決方案，透過更快、更準確地識別違規行為和大型資料集來增強詐欺和異常檢測。

Not only do these collaborations reflect how Quantum is bringing value to businesses today, they are also emblematic of the breadth of impact that quantum computing will have as IONQ and our partners continue to develop more applications using Forte Enterprise and future systems.

這些合作不僅反映了 Quantum 如何為當今的企業帶來價值，也像徵著隨著 IONQ 和我們的合作夥伴繼續使用 Forte Enterprise 和未來系統開發更多應用程序，量子運算將產生廣泛影響。

We continue to make progress against our technical road map and performance goals. We are re-confirming our confidence in achieving AQ 64 by the end of this year, which will be demonstrated on our next-generation Varium-based system. Historically, AQ has been the best tool to measure performance across quantum systems.

我們繼續按照我們的技術路線圖和性能目標取得進展。我們再次確認了在今年年底前實現 AQ 64 的信心，這將在我們下一代基於 Varium 的系統上得到證明。從歷史上看，AQ 一直是衡量量子系統性能的最佳工具。

However, since its introduction, quantum applications and compiler technology have been progressing so rapidly that benchmarks defined only 4-years ago can no longer reflect our true pace of innovation and future system capabilities. By the end of this year, we will demonstrate our AQ 64 system capable of circa 3,000 high-quality gate operations.

然而，自推出以來，量子應用和編譯器技術發展如此之快，以至於僅僅 4 年前定義的基準已經無法反映我們真正的創新速度和未來系統能力。今年底，我們將展示能夠進行約 3,000 次高品質登機口操作的 AQ 64 系統。

As we gear up for the era of commercial advantage, we will deprecate AQ as a measure of technical progress in favor of a new set of benchmarks. These new metrics will be closely aligned with our customers application success and will be accompanied by an updated computing and networking road map to match it.

隨著我們為商業優勢時代做好準備，我們將不再使用 AQ 作為衡量技術進步的標準，而是採用一套新的基準。這些新指標將與我們客戶的應用成功緊密結合，並將伴隨更新的運算和網路路線圖。

Before we turn it over to Thomas for our financials, I want to take a moment to discuss an exciting announcement we made today regarding the future of our leadership team. Our Board has appointed Niccolo de Masi as President and Chief Executive Officer, while I continue my leadership as Executive Chair.

在我們將財務問題交給托馬斯之前，我想花點時間討論一下我們今天就領導團隊的未來所做的激動人心的聲明。我們的董事會已任命 Niccolo de Masi 為總裁兼首席執行官，而我則繼續擔任執行主席。

This evolution will allow me to spend more time focused on our strategic customer relationships and the development of Quantum AI. Niccolo is originally a physicist and has twice been a public company CEO and a key member of our team since we went public. He has made important contributions to our strategic direction and growth initiatives as a director. We are confident that Niccolo's track record of expertise, insights and leadership will further enable IONQ to accelerate our growth.

這次轉變將使我能夠花更多時間專注於我們的策略客戶關係和量子人工智慧的發展。Niccolo 原本是物理學家，曾兩度擔任上市公司 CEO，也是我們上市以來團隊的關鍵成員。作為董事，他為我們的策略方向和成長計劃做出了重要貢獻。我們相信，Niccolo 的專業知識、洞察力和領導力將進一步幫助 IONQ 加速發展。

Today, we are also welcome a new director to IONQ, Gabrielle Toladano. Gabrielle is the former Chief People Officer of Tesla. She has held senior roles at Electronic Arts, Siebold Systems, Microsoft and Oracle. She brings a wealth of experience as an executive on everything from organizational growth to executive compensation. Both of these leadership announcements optimally position IONQ for continued success in the quantum era and quantum AI and quantum commercial advantage.

今天，我們也歡迎 IONQ 的新主管 Gabrielle Toladano。加布里埃爾曾任特斯拉首席人才官。她曾在 Electronic Arts、Siebold Systems、微軟和甲骨文公司擔任高階職位。作為一名高階主管，她在從組織發展到高階主管薪酬等各個方面都擁有豐富的經驗。這兩項領導階層的聲明為 IONQ 在量子時代、量子人工智慧和量子商業優勢方面的持續成功做好了最佳準備。

With that, I'll hand this over to Niccolo for a brief discussion.

說完這些，我將把這個問題交給 Niccolo 進行簡短的討論。

Thank you, Peter, for the kind words. I'm excited to join the team full time for what I view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to continue scaling the world's first publicly traded pure-play quantum company. As many people know, I've been a quantum computing enthusiast for 25-years, ever since I was both an undergrad and grad physics student at Cambridge University.

謝謝彼得的善意言辭。我很高興能夠全職加入這個團隊，因為我認為這是一個千載難逢的機會，可以繼續擴大世界上第一家上市的純量子公司的規模。眾所周知，自從我在劍橋大學讀本科和研究生物理專業以來，我已經是量子計算愛好者 25 年了。

Early in my career, I worked on novel next-generation solar cells, and I've long believed in the importance of quantum computing to truly realize the advantage in things like renewable energy. I've been a long-time supporter of IONQ's work, both in my role as a director of the last 5-years and as an original sponsor of IONQ's pioneering IPO. We have plenty of groundbreaking work ahead, and I'm absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to lead IONQ during this pivotal moment for both quantum computing and quantum networking.

在我職業生涯的早期，我致力於研究新型下一代太陽能電池，我一直相信量子運算對於真正實現再生能源等領域的優勢的重要性。我一直是 IONQ 工作的長期支持者，既擔任過去 5 年的董事，也擔任 IONQ 開創性 IPO 的原始發起人。我們還有很多開創性的工作要做，我非常高興有機會在量子運算和量子網路的關鍵時刻領導 IONQ。

I've long believed that the mid-2020s will be when quantum computing begins to impact virtually every aspect of Applied science, from chemistry to materials, national security, logistics and financial services. Quantum Networking is expected to be an equally large and impactful market opportunity, and IONQ is well positioned here to be the global leader. I'm honored by Peter and the Board's confidence in me and look forward to working with our industry-leading team to build upon our momentum in 2025 and beyond.

我一直相信，到 2020 年代中期，量子計算將開始影響應用科學的幾乎每個方面，從化學到材料、國家安全、物流和金融服務。量子網路預計將成為一個同樣龐大且具影響力的市場機會，而 IONQ 已準備好成為該領域的全球領導者。我很榮幸 Peter 和董事會對我的信任，並期待與我們行業領先的團隊合作，在 2025 年及以後繼續保持良好勢頭。

Thomas, I'll turn it over to you now to walk through our financials in some more depth.

湯瑪斯，現在我將把話題交給你，讓你更深入地介紹我們的財務狀況。

Thank you, Niccolo, and thank you to everyone joining us today. Let's walk through this quarter's financial results in more detail. As Peter mentioned, we had an excellent fourth quarter, recognizing $11.7 million in revenue. For the full year, we ended up with $43.1 million in revenue, above the high end of our updated guidance range and up 95% year-over-year. We had $22.9 million in bookings in the fourth quarter and ended the year with $95.6 million in total bookings, which was also above the high end of our updated guidance range for 2024 and up over 46% year-over-year.

謝謝你，尼科洛，也謝謝今天加入我們的所有人。讓我們更詳細地了解本季的財務表現。正如彼得所提到的，我們的第四季表現出色，實現了 1,170 萬美元的收入。就全年而言，我們的收入最終達到 4,310 萬美元，高於我們更新後的指導範圍的高端，並且同比增長 95%。我們在第四季的預訂額為 2,290 萬美元，年底的總預訂額為 9,560 萬美元，這也高於我們更新的 2024 年指導範圍的高端，同比增長超過 46%。

Moving down the income statement. For the fourth quarter 2024, our total operating costs and expenses were $89.2 million, up 47% from $60.6 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2024, that number was $275.5 million, up 53% from $179.8 million in 2023. To break this down further, our research and development costs for the fourth quarter were $40.1 million, up 27% from $31.6 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2024, that number was $136.8 million, up 48% from $92.3 million in 2023.

向下移動損益表。2024 年第四季度，我們的總營運成本和費用為 8,920 萬美元，比去年同期的 6,060 萬美元成長 47%。2024 年全年這一數字為 2.755 億美元，比 2023 年的 1.798 億美元成長 53%。進一步細分，我們第四季的研發成本為 4,010 萬美元，比去年同期的 3,160 萬美元成長了 27%。2024 年全年這一數字為 1.368 億美元，比 2023 年的 9,230 萬美元成長 48%。

Recall that we are investing heavily in R&D and are investing in the production of our various product lines to meet projected customer demand. Our sales and marketing costs in the fourth quarter were $8.9 million, up 28% from $7 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2024, that number was $28.4 million, up 55% from $18.3 million in the full year 2023.

回想一下，我們正在大力投資研發，並投資生產各種產品線以滿足預期的客戶需求。我們第四季的銷售和行銷成本為 890 萬美元，比去年同期的 700 萬美元成長了 28%。2024 年全年這一數字為 2,840 萬美元，比 2023 年全年的 1,830 萬美元成長 55%。

This increase was due to us growing our go-to-market function as we continue the investment in our commercialization efforts, and we expect that trend to continue as we further expand our sales initiatives. Our general and administrative costs in the fourth quarter were $29.7 million, up 94% from $15.3 million in the prior year period. For the full year 2024, that number was $71.1 million, up 40% from $50.7 million in the full year 2023.

這一增長是由於我們在繼續投資商業化努力的同時擴大了我們的市場進入功能，並且我們預計隨著我們進一步擴大銷售計劃，這一趨勢將繼續下去。我們第四季的一般及行政費用為 2,970 萬美元，較去年同期的 1,530 萬美元成長 94%。2024 年全年，這一數字為 7,110 萬美元，比 2023 年全年的 5,070 萬美元成長 40%。

Stock-based compensation was $106.9 million for the full year 2024, up from $69.7 million in the full year 2023. All of this resulted in a net loss of $202 million in the fourth quarter compared to $41.9 million in the prior year period and a net loss of $331.6 million for the full year 2024 versus $157.8 million in 2023.

2024 年全年股票薪酬為 1.069 億美元，高於 2023 年全年的 6,970 萬美元。所有這些因素導致第四季度淨虧損 2.02 億美元，而去年同期淨虧損 4,190 萬美元；2024 年全年淨虧損 3.316 億美元，而 2023 年全年淨虧損 1.578 億美元。

It is important to note that these results include a non-cash loss of $128.5 million for the fourth quarter related to the change in fair value of our warrant liabilities and $117.1 million in non-cash loss for the full year 2024. We saw an adjusted EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter of $32.8 million compared to a $20 million loss in the prior year period and a loss of $107.2 million for the full year 2024 versus $77.7 million for 2023. Note that we projected an adjusted EBITDA loss for the full year 2024 of $110.5 million, once again beating our expected plan.

值得注意的是，這些結果包括與我們的認股權證負債公允價值變動相關的第四季 1.285 億美元的非現金損失，以及 2024 年全年 1.171 億美元的非現金損失。我們發現第四季的調整後 EBITDA 虧損為 3,280 萬美元，而去年同期的虧損為 2,000 萬美元，2024 年全年虧損為 1.072 億美元，而 2023 年全年虧損為 7,770 萬美元。請注意，我們預計 2024 年全年調整後的 EBITDA 虧損為 1.105 億美元，再次超出我們的預期計畫。

Turning now to our balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and investments as of December 31, 2024, were $363.8 million. I'm excited to share that IONQ is launching a $500 million at-the-market facility to equip IONQ with an even larger war chest. We plan to use the proceeds to accelerate our networking business and create new lines of growth in promising application areas.

現在來看我們的資產負債表。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日的現金、現金等價物及投資為 3.638 億美元。我很高興告訴大家，IONQ 正在推出一項價值 5 億美元的市場融資工具，為 IONQ 提供更大的資金。我們計劃利用所得款項加速我們的網路業務並在有前景的應用領域創造新的成長線。

As the initial amount we raised when we went public was largely sufficient for the computing business, we believe that this new amount of capital will provide us with a critical mass of capital for advancing in the quantum networking and communications business.

由於我們上市時籌集的初始資金對於計算業務來說基本上足夠了，我們相信這筆新資金將為我們在量子網路和通訊業務的發展提供足夠的資本。

Our capital needs are finite, and this is a unique moment for long-term investors to build a position at scale as we gear up for the era of quantum advantage. We are generating a strong foundation for what we expect will be another incredible year for IONQ. We aim to continue our growth once again in 2025.

我們的資本需求是有限的，對於長期投資者來說，這是一個獨特的時刻，可以大規模建立頭寸，為量子優勢時代做好準備。我們正在為 IONQ 即將迎來的另一個輝煌的一年奠定堅實的基礎。我們的目標是在 2025 年再次繼續成長。

We are projecting revenue of between $75 million to $95 million for the full year and $7 million to $8 million in Q1. Our guidance includes all organic momentum and inorganic activity. Because of the early stage of the company's sales organization and the time it takes to turn a sale into revenue, we created the bookings metric back in 2021 to allow investors to gauge our progress.

我們預計全年營收將在 7,500 萬至 9,500 萬美元之間，第一季營收將在 700 萬至 800 萬美元之間。我們的指導包括所有有機動量和無機活動。由於公司銷售組織處於早期階段，將銷售轉化為收入需要時間，我們在 2021 年創建了預訂量指標，以便投資者可以衡量我們的進展。

With revenue expected to be in the nine figures next year 2026, we are sunsetting bookings guidance. We will, of course, continue to update the market on significant commercial milestones. Additionally, we anticipate an adjusted EBITDA loss of $120 million for the full year 2025 at the midpoint of our revenue guidance.

由於預計明年（2026 年）的收入將達到九位數，我們將取消預訂指引。當然，我們將繼續向市場通報重要的商業里程碑。此外，我們預計，以營收預期的中位數計算，2025 年全年調整後的 EBITDA 虧損將達到 1.2 億美元。

And with that, I would like to turn the call back over to Peter for some closing remarks.

最後，我想將電話轉回給彼得，請他做最後發言。

Thank you, Thomas. Historically, Q1 is a bit of a slow time for IONQ. But this year, we've had a strong start. We closed our Qubitekk acquisition and announced the pending acquisition of a majority stake in ID Quantique today. Looking forward, there are some important events for investors to watch out for.

謝謝你，托馬斯。從歷史上看，第一季對於 IONQ 來說是一個比較緩慢的時期。但今年，我們有一個好的開始。我們今天完成了對 Qubitekk 的收購，並宣布即將收購 ID Quantique 的多數股權。展望未來，有一些重要事件值得投資人關注。

First, look out for Quantum Day at NVIDIA's GCC conference. DARPA will announce Phase 1, awards for its quantum benchmarking initiatives potentially worth $300 million. Investors should be following the legislative updates from the State of Maryland on a potential $1 billion initiative to make Maryland the capital of Quantum. Congressional budget approval for fiscal year 2025. And lastly, the DOE Quantum Leadership Act, a $2.5 billion bill advancing through the Senate that seems to have bipartisan support.

首先，請關注 NVIDIA GCC 會議上的量子日。DARPA 將宣布其量子基準測試計劃第一階段的獎項，獎金總額可能為 3 億美元。投資者應關注馬裡蘭州關於一項可能耗資 10 億美元將馬裡蘭州打造為 Quantum 首府的計劃的立法更新。國會批准2025財政年度預算。最後，能源部量子領導力法案，一項價值 25 億美元的法案正在參議院審議，似乎得到了兩黨的支持。

Along with UNESCO, we believe that 2025 will, in fact, be the year of quantum, one in which you see both public and private institutions realize that computing and networking game will be forever changed by IONQ systems. With commercial advantage right around the corner, the inflection point that everyone has been waiting for is not far behind it.

我們和聯合國教科文組織一樣，相信 2025 年將成為量子之年，在這一年中，公共和私人機構都將意識到 IONQ 系統將永遠改變計算和網路遊戲。商業優勢就在眼前，大家翹首以盼的轉折點也即將到來。

And with that, operator, I would like to open the line for questions.

接線員，現在我開始回答問題。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員指示）

David Williams, Benchmark Company.

大衛威廉斯 (David Williams)，Benchmark 公司。

Hey, good afternoon, and thanks for taking my questions and first, congratulations, Niccolo, for the CEO role. And Peter, we certainly enjoyed our time with you. So with that, I guess, are there any strategic changes we should be thinking about as we move forward in terms of just how you anticipate the business maybe running or changing here, Niccolo?

嘿，下午好，感謝您回答我的問題，首先，恭喜 Niccolo 擔任執行長一職。彼得，我們和你在一起的時光非常愉快。那麼，我想，尼科洛，就您預測業務的運作或變化方式而言，我們是否應該考慮進行任何策略變革？

I'm going to jump in here first, just to let you know, I'm not actually going anywhere. So you'll probably even see me on future earnings calls and all the rest. So this change from my perspective, is one where this is a big job, and there's just too much to do, especially for this company. If you look at all the things we have on an application, we're building a new business in networking, quantum computing itself is really hard enough.

我要先從這裡開始，只是想讓你知道，我實際上不會去任何地方。因此，您甚至可能會在未來的收益電話會議和其他會議上看到我。因此，從我的角度來看，這個改變是一項艱鉅的任務，而且有很多事情要做，特別是對於這家公司而言。如果你看看我們在應用程式上擁有的所有內容，我們正在網路領域建立一項新業務，量子運算本身就已經夠難了。

So I think what we're doing here is Niccolo is coming on board to be able to offload some of the work in part because the primary reason I came to IONQ was to work on quantum AI. And so I'm also hoping this will free up some time for me to work on that as well, more than I've been able to do so far. So it is a change, but it's not -- I'm not going anywhere. So just as an FYI. But I'll leave it to Nic --

所以我認為我們在這裡所做的是讓 Niccolo 加入並分擔部分工作，部分原因是我來到 IONQ 的主要原因是為了研究量子人工智慧。因此，我也希望這能為我騰出一些時間來處理這個問題，比我目前所能做的更多。所以這是一個改變，但不是——我不會去任何地方。僅供參考。但我會把它留給 Nic--

So let me just add to that. Nice to meet you. And thank you for the support over the years. Look, this is a bandwidth expansion for Peter. Peter and I have worked closely together since actually before the IPO.

因此，請允許我補充一點。很高興見到你。並感謝您多年來的支持。看，這對彼得來說是一種頻寬擴展。事實上，自 IPO 之前，我和 Peter 就開始密切合作。

And I proudly have been, I think, one of his most contributory and active Board members the last few years. And so the opportunity to work with Peter full time is obviously one that the Board thought made a lot of sense. There's a lot of continuity, and there's obviously an opportunity for the two of us to tackle two businesses, which are growing at inflection points that are truly historic.

我認為，我很自豪地成為過去幾年來貢獻最大、最活躍的董事會成員之一。因此，董事會顯然認為與彼得全職合作的機會非常有意義。這其中有很多連續性，顯然我們兩人有機會處理兩家正在歷史性轉折點上成長的業務。

So to answer your question in a nutshell, no, there's no changes in strategic direction because Peter and I have been working together closely to set the strategic direction in the last 5-years, and we'll continue to do that.

所以，簡而言之，回答你的問題，沒有，戰略方向沒有改變，因為彼得和我一直在密切合作，在過去的五年裡制定戰略方向，我們將繼續這樣做。

And I hope to give up some parts of my job, but I don't like Niccolo is going to go do the TV interviews tomorrow.

我希望放棄部分工作，但我不喜歡尼可洛明天去接受電視採訪。

There we go.

好了。

That's well understood. And then maybe just secondly, you've made a nice acquisition last quarter. You closed Qubitekk and you've announced the ID Quantique this quarter. Just kind of curious how we should be thinking about going forward, this kind of the consolidation that we should anticipate? And then maybe what are these patents?

這很好理解。其次，你們上個季度進行了一次不錯的收購。您關閉了 Qubitekk，並在本季度宣布了 ID Quantique。只是有點好奇我們該如何考慮未來，我們應該預料到這種整合？那麼這些專利是什麼呢？

I mean, 900 patents is significant. How do you think this helps you longer term? And just anything around the strategy from a consolidation or M&A perspective?

我的意思是，900項專利意義重大。您認為這對您長期有何幫助？從合併或併購的角度來看，該策略有什麼特色嗎？

Thank you.

謝謝。

Yeah. So this is Niccolo. We obviously care about the patent portfolio. We've been focused on this since the IPO. I think when I first met Peter, we had a low double-digit number of patents. And so it's an investment that we make continually. We make it organically and we make it inorganically as well. We obviously view the quantum space as we head into the era of commercial advantage to be one that is becoming a bigger company's game, if you will. And so that is both a defensive mode and potentially an offensive one to a greater or lesser extent here in both computing and networking.

是的。這就是尼科洛。我們顯然關心專利組合。自首次公開募股以來，我們一直關注這一點。我想當我第一次見到彼得時，我們的專利數量只有兩位數。所以這是我們持續進行的投資。我們以有機方式製造它，也以無機方式製造它。顯然，隨著我們進入商業優勢時代，我們認為量子空間將成為更大公司的遊戲。因此，在運算和網路領域，這既是一種防禦模式，也或多或少可能是一種進攻模式。

As you've heard in prior calls, there are obviously significant synergies between the networking and the computing business, particularly around our advances and our patents around photonic interconnects. So whilst we have done networking to some extent, organically and internally, we're, of course, accelerating this with Qubitekk and ID Quantique.

正如您在之前的電話會議中聽到的那樣，網路和計算業務之間顯然存在著顯著的協同效應，特別是圍繞我們在光子互連方面的進步和專利。因此，雖然我們已經在一定程度上有機地和內部地建立了網絡，但我們當然會透過 Qubitekk 和 ID Quantique 來加速這一進程。

We're going to aim to, of course, get the best out of both worlds here as we integrate these acquisitions. IDQ is bringing us not just patent capabilities, but it's bringing us, of course, new geographies. And so we will be using these as basis to expand both businesses, both in Europe and Asia and the Middle East, where we've already got our organic presence.

當然，在整合這些收購時，我們的目標是實現兩全其美的效果。IDQ 帶給我們的不僅是專利能力，當然也為我們帶來了新的地理範圍。因此，我們將以此為基礎擴大我們在歐洲、亞洲和中東地區的業務，我們已經在這些地區建立了有機業務。

So lots of work to do, but we're excited about both the patent position, the team and quality. And we'll continue, of course, doing our best to attract world-class talent on both sides of the computing and networking half of the house.

所以有很多工作要做，但我們對專利地位、團隊和品質都感到興奮。當然，我們將繼續盡最大努力吸引運算和網路領域的世界級人才。

Richard Shannon, Craig-Hallum.

理查德·香農，克雷格·哈勒姆。

Hi everyone, this is Tyler on for Richard. Congrats, Niccolo. And Peter, I'm happy you're sticking around at least. How should we think about the timing and market size of the networking market? And when could we start seeing top line impacts from these acquisitions?

大家好，我是泰勒，代替理查。恭喜，尼可洛。彼得，我很高興你至少還留下來。我們該如何看待物聯網市場的時機與市場規模？我們什麼時候才能開始看到這些收購對營收的影響？

So I think that we are -- sorry about that. I misplaced my microphone. Thanks for that question. We are already seeing the impact of our acquisitions.

所以我認為我們——對此感到抱歉。我把麥克風放錯地方了。謝謝你的提問。我們已經看到了收購的影響。

In fact, the first acquisition we made in 2023 is already deeply ingrained in our technology and is a core part of how we design our systems today. We are also seeing the effect of our partnership and acquisition of Qubitekk, where we're already going together to service our clients. And we expect to see the same from IDQ soon, although I should say that we're not acquiring the entire company. We have a majority part of their equity now.

事實上，我們在 2023 年進行的首次收購已經深深植根於我們的技術中，並且是我們今天設計系統的核心部分。我們也看到了與 Qubitekk 合作和收購的效果，我們已經開始合作為客戶提供服務。我們期望很快能看到 IDQ 做出同樣的舉動，儘管我應該說我們不會收購整個公司。我們目前擁有他們的大部分股權。

And I was just going to add that the outside date for ID Quantique is in September. And so in terms of its impact this year, it won't be as great as it will be next year.

我只是想補充一點，ID Quantique 的對外開放日期是在九月。因此，就今年的影響而言，它不會像明年那麼大。

Yeah. No, it's exactly I could throw in here as a new guy on the team here is that I've watched IONQ organically grown into networking because customers, both strategic partners and governments are, of course, demanding it, right?

是的。不，作為團隊的新人，我可以在這裡補充的是，我親眼目睹了 IONQ 自然而然地發展成為網絡，因為客戶（包括戰略合作夥伴和政府）當然都要求這樣做，對嗎？

So we've been at it organically. We've been increasing our investment inorganically. And I think I'm delighted to be joining a firm that has already the leading position from almost every metric, including, of course, the patent perspective, I could hope for.

所以我們一直在有組織地做這件事。我們一直在無機地增加投資。我很高興能夠加入一家在幾乎所有指標上都處於領先地位的公司，當然也包括我所希望的專利角度。

And I'll just add a little bit more, too, in the sense that for quantum computing, no matter what the qubit methodology that is used to be able to get to scale, you have to network them together. And so where most companies are today is they're still focused on chip.

我還要補充一點，對於量子運算來說，無論使用什麼量子位元方法來實現擴展，都必須將它們連在一起。因此，當今大多數公司仍然專注於晶片。

But the next horizon beyond that is to be able to network together systems, QPU to QPU. And here, we are building a strong patent portfolio moat, if you will, in controlling that market. And so -- as well as opening up the TAM for a new market, which is now the Quantum Internet. So it's quite synergistic with quantum computing.

但更進一步的目標是能夠將系統從 QPU 到 QPU 聯網。在這裡，我們正在建立強大的專利組合護城河，以控制該市場。因此——同時也為新市場開闢了 TAM，也就是現在的量子網路。所以它與量子計算具有很好的協同作用。

Okay. And then specifics on the technologies that were acquired, you said you only took some of the company. Did you -- were you interested in the QRNG, -- there's some timing instrumentation in there. Is there anything on frequency conversion? What drew you to ID Quantique?

好的。然後關於所收購技術的具體內容，您說您只收購了公司的一部分。您對 QRNG 有興趣嗎？裡面有一些計時儀器。有關於變頻方面的資料嗎？是什麼吸引您選擇 ID Quantique？

Yeah. So it's all of the above. Some of it is obviously opening up a new market for us. And the other -- the underlying technology, there's bits and pieces that we have interesting and interested in our own systems as well, things like single photon detectors and all sorts of those kinds of things. There's quite a bit of overlap between the two technologies in terms of their market.

是的。以上就是全部內容。其中一些顯然為我們開闢了新的市場。另一項——底層技術，有一些我們感興趣並且對我們自己的系統感興趣的點點滴滴，例如單光子探測器和各種這樣的東西。就市場而言，這兩種技術有相當多的重疊。

So it was those as well. But it's -- honestly, it was also -- we're excited, both Qubitekk and ID Quantique have been going after a different market, which is quantum networking and building a secure quantum Internet. And we're just as excited about that market as well.

所以那些也是。但老實說，我們也感到很興奮，Qubitekk 和 ID Quantique 都在進軍不同的市場，即量子網路和建立安全的量子網路。我們對這個市場也同樣感到興奮。

And we pick up for the first time here some new areas. It's the third area of quantum, which is quantum sensing. So we'll pick up some technology in that area as well. And if quantum sensing is going to take off, it's going to need quantum networking. So we're kind of covering the bases, if you will.

我們在這裡首次探討了一些新領域。這是量子的第三個領域，即量子感測。因此我們也會在該領域學習一些技術。如果量子感測要起飛，就需要量子網路。因此，如果你願意的話，我們就可以覆蓋基礎。

Just to be clear that we've purchased the super majority, so we will be consolidating them when it closes.

需要明確的是，我們已經購買了絕大多數，因此在關閉時我們將對它們進行整合。

Exactly.

確切地。

Alex Platt, D.A. Davidson.

亞歷克斯·普拉特、D.A.戴維森。

Yeah, thanks for taking my question and congratulations, Niccolo, on the new role and Peter on the transition. I actually wanted to ask about something you sort of announced last week, which is the sort of completion of this next step with XHB technology.

是的，感謝您回答我的問題，並祝賀 Niccolo 擔任新職務以及 Peter 順利完成過渡。我實際上想問一下您上周宣布的一件事，即 XHB 技術的下一步進展。

In a blog post, you mentioned you're able to materially reduce energy consumption and the computational energy costs with this innovation. So I guess, could you maybe give us a better idea for where energy consumption was at prior to this sort of just like a baseline and then where we could think of it now? Also maybe how this compares to other systems on the market?

在一篇部落格文章中，您提到透過這項創新可以大幅降低能源消耗和計算能源成本。所以我想，您能否給我們一個更好的想法，讓我們知道在此之前的能源消耗情況，就像一個基線，然後我們現在可以考慮它嗎？另外，這與市場上的其他系統相比如何？

Thanks, Alex. This is Dean Kassmann, running kind of engineering and technology here. So the XHB post kind of highlighted the fact is as we drive our technology road map, as we are investing in basically non-cryogenically enhanced vacuum systems, we have an ability to, one, reduce the overall footprint, the size, weight and power.

謝謝，亞歷克斯。這位是 Dean Kassmann，負責這裡的工程和技術工作。因此，XHB 貼文強調了一個事實，即隨著我們推動技術路線圖，隨著我們投資於基本上非低溫增強真空系統，我們有能力減少整體佔地面積、尺寸、重量和功率。

Right now, the ability to drive that overall piece down drives down energy consumption of the systems. Right now, trapped ions in their current state, even in our current systems, have one of the overall lowest cost per use from a scaling perspective in terms of the amount of computational output you get versus the number of -- amount of energy that you put in.

目前，降低整體能耗的能力可以降低系統的能耗。目前，即使在我們現有的系統中，處於當前狀態的捕獲離子，從擴展角度來看，就獲得的計算輸出量與投入的能量數量而言，具有最低的每次使用總成本之一。

So as we think about scaling qubit count, trapped ions and our systems scale linearly, other systems and other modalities and GPUs, for example, scale exponentially. And so the overall quantum computing offers a huge advantage from an energy scaling perspective. XHB just adds to that. And so the overall effort we have in the road map and the technology is simplification of the engineering design and better scaling.

因此，當我們考慮擴展量子位元數時，捕獲離子和我們的系統會線性擴展，而其他系統、其他模式和 GPU 則會呈指數擴展。因此，從能量擴展的角度來看，整體量子計算具有巨大的優勢。XHB 只是對此進行了補充。因此，我們在路線圖和技術方面所做的整體努力是簡化工程設計和更好地擴展。

And I'll just add a little bit on top of this, which is today, everyone, there's a great deal of focus on different qubit modalities and there are pros and cons. But it will get to a point where it's about cost per qubit. And ultimately, if one vendor such as IONQ can produce a room temperature qubit, -- that will have significant cost advantages compared to others that have to get down to near zero degrees.

我再補充一點，今天，各位，大家非常關注不同的量子位元模式，它們各有優缺點。但最終成本將達到與每個量子位元相當的程度。最終，如果像 IONQ 這樣的供應商能夠生產室溫量子比特，那麼與其他必須降至接近零度的供應商相比，這將具有顯著的成本優勢。

And not just in quantum computing, but also in quantum networking as well because the last thing you want to do is to put cryogenic systems all over the globe that would be prohibitively expensive to do. So it's all about our long-term plans to win here. So it's about reducing our cost per qubit into the future.

這不僅在量子運算領域，而且在量子網路領域也是如此，因為你最不想做的事情就是將低溫系統部署到全球各地，而這樣做的成本太高了。所以這一切都關乎我們在這裡取得勝利的長期計劃。所以這是為了降低未來每個量子位元的成本。

(Operator Instructions) Shadi Mitwalli, Craig-Hallum.

（操作員說明）Shadi Mitwalli，Craig-Hallum。

Hey guys, this is Shadi on for Quinn Bolton at Needham. Congrats on the solid year. Niccolo, congrats on being appointed to CEO. My first question is on the acquisition of IDQ. How does the acquisition fit into IONQ's portfolio, especially with regard to this previous acquisition of Qubitekk? And then can you talk about the similarities and differences in technology between IDQ and Qubitekk?

大家好，我是尼德姆隊 Quinn Bolton 隊的 Shadi。恭喜您度過了充實的一年。尼科洛，恭喜您被任命為執行長。我的第一個問題是關於收購IDQ的。此次收購與 IONQ 的投資組合有何關係，尤其是考慮到先前對 Qubitekk 的收購？那您能談談IDQ和Qubitekk在技術上的異同嗎？

It's a great question. So there's a couple of things here. There is some overlap between them, and then there's pieces that each company has that the other doesn't. So we think there's areas for collaboration between the two groups and areas where we can reduce our expenses by reducing the engineering investments going forward. But as we did mention, we are, at the moment, have a majority stake in IDQ.

這是一個很好的問題。這裡有幾件事。它們之間存在一些重疊，每家公司都有一些其他公司所沒有的部分。因此，我們認為這兩個集團之間存在著合作的領域，並且我們可以透過減少未來的工程投資來降低開支。但正如我們所提到的，我們目前擁有 IDQ 的多數股權。

So we do have to be careful of minority shareholder interests going forward. But it is obviously brings the two companies much closer together. And really, honestly, I think, creates a powerhouse in quantum networking of kind of taking the two companies that had the largest revenue that we knew of and bringing them together with IONQ.

因此，我們確實必須小心少數股東的利益。但這顯然使兩家公司之間的聯繫更加緊密。說實話，我認為，將我們所知的收入最高的兩家公司與 IONQ 合併，將在量子網路領域打造一個強大的力量。

I can speak a little bit from a hardware perspective. This is Dean again. And so both Qubitekk as well as ID Quantique have deployed quantum networks. Qubitekk has a network that's deployed in Chattanooga as part of EPV there in the city. That's a user network where you can plug different quantum computing devices into the network for development and testing.

我可以從硬體的角度講一點。我又是 Dean。因此，Qubitekk 和 ID Quantique 都部署了量子網路。Qubitekk 在查塔努加部署了一個網絡，作為該市 EPV 的一部分。這是一個用戶網絡，您可以將不同的量子計算設備插入網絡進行開發和測試。

IDQ has deployed quantum-safe networks around the world. They have implementations in Singapore. There's other networks in South Korea, and they also have kind of projects in Europe. And so they both are in the kind of the overall quantum network deployment game.

IDQ 已在世界各地部署了量子安全網路。他們在新加坡有實施。韓國還有其他網絡，他們在歐洲也有類似的計畫。因此，他們都處於整體量子網路部署遊戲中。

From a core technology, they both offer QKD solutions. Those solutions rely on slightly different hardware technologies. They have slightly different protocols and software stacks. Qubitekk does not have quantum random number generation IDQ does.

從核心技術來看，它們都提供QKD解決方案。這些解決方案依賴略有不同的硬體技術。它們的協定和軟體堆疊略有不同。Qubitekk 沒有量子隨機數產生 IDQ 有。

IDQ also has been able to manufacture and engineer component technology in their single nano wire photon detectors and are actually have made that as part of their business. In fact, those photon detection systems are used in many different products. We use them here internally for other work that we're doing on the quantum computing. And so from an overall technology stack, there are some things that are very similar, but there's also things that are quite different and that we'll be looking at as we move forward.

IDQ 還能夠製造和設計其單奈米線光子探測器的組件技術，並且實際上已經將其作為其業務的一部分。事實上，這些光子檢測系統被應用於許多不同的產品。我們在內部使用它們來進行量子計算方面的其他工作。因此，從整體技術堆疊來看，有些東西非常相似，但也有一些東西非常不同，我們將在前進的過程中專注於這些不同之處。

And all I'd add to that is, obviously, Qubitekk had a great US customer base. IDQ is bringing us Europe, bringing us, obviously, significant partnership with SK Telecom that we also announced today. And we think that the forward-looking nature of markets like Korea, the next-generation secure Internet is going to be obviously fortuitous and lead to much prosperity for our networking business in that market. Qubitekk brought us about 118 patents granted and pending, and IDQs brought us nearly 300. So it's quite a powerhouse of networking moat, as Peter mentioned, globally.

我想補充的是，Qubitekk 顯然擁有龐大的美國客戶群。IDQ 將帶領我們進入歐洲，顯然，也將帶領我們與 SK Telecom 建立重要的合作夥伴關係，這一點我們今天也宣布了。我們認為，韓國等市場的前瞻性、下一代安全互聯網顯然會帶來機遇，並為我們在該市場的網路業務帶來巨大的繁榮。Qubitekk 為我們帶來了約 118 項已授權和正在申請的專利，而 IDQ 為我們帶來了近 300 項專利。正如彼得所提到的那樣，它在全球範圍內都是一個強大的網路護城河。

Got it. That makes sense. And then my follow-up is on the revenue guidance for 2025. It's implying very strong year-over-year growth. Can you guys give some of the puts and takes for the revenue guidance, especially with Q1 guidance in mind?

知道了。這很有道理。接下來我要討論的是 2025 年的收入指引。這意味著同比增長非常強勁。你們能否給予一些收入預測的利弊分析，特別是考慮到第一季的預測？

It seems like this will be more back half weighted. And maybe how much of this will be hardware sales versus QCA or development revenue?

看起來這將會是後半部的加權。其中有多少是硬體銷售額，有多少是 QCA 或開發收入？

So it is correct that it will be more in the back half. Traditionally, Q1 has been a little weaker than other quarters for us, but we have a very strong pipeline, and we now have several product areas that we expect to be able to benefit from. And we really look forward to being able to go to market now with a much fuller set of solutions than when we're only selling compute.

因此，後半部會更多是正確的。傳統上，第一季對我們來說比其他季度稍微弱一些，但我們擁有非常強大的產品線，現在我們預計有幾個產品領域能夠從中受益。我們非常期待現在能夠向市場推出比僅銷售運算產品時更全面的解決方案。

Richard Shannon, Craig-Hallum.

理查德·香農，克雷格·哈勒姆。

Hi guys, thanks for letting me ask another question. So you mentioned South Korea or just Korea in general. Do you plan on expanding that product into the EU and the US QRNG product?

大家好，感謝你們讓我提出另一個問題。所以您提到了韓國或只是韓國這個概念。您是否計劃將該產品擴展到歐盟和美國的 QRNG 產品？

I think it's a little early to do kind of where do we want to take which products. We're still -- we need to complete the acquisition as well. But what I would say is -- and Niccolo kind of signposted to this, which is in the current marketplace, having multiple geographic locations allows us to go into markets, especially if the world is becoming more nationalistic.

我認為現在討論我們想要把哪些產品帶到哪裡還為時過早。我們仍然－我們也需要完成收購。但我想說的是——尼科洛指出，在當前的市場中，擁有多個地理位置使我們能夠進入市場，特別是在世界變得更加民族主義的今天。

And we think that the ID Quantique will enable that because it is a European Swiss and South Korean company. They have a number of employees in both locations, and they have strong relationship with companies in South Korea as well.

我們認為 ID Quantique 將能夠實現這一點，因為它是一家來自歐洲、瑞士和韓國的公司。他們在兩個地方都擁有大量員工，並且與韓國的公司也保持著密切的關係。

So I think in that sense, it's kind of derisking a little bit of the current potential things which are going on kind of globally and make sure that we're not just a US company now, but now a European and South Korean company as well.

所以我認為從這個意義上來說，這在某種程度上降低了當前全球範圍內正在發生的潛在風險，並確保我們現在不僅僅是一家美國公司，也是一家歐洲和韓國的公司。

And so we think those things -- and now we need to do -- it also depending on what happens with tariffs, well, now you could decide to do manufacturing in different locations and deal with those things in that way as well. So it just kind of helps in a global footprint. We'll also be picking up salespeople, obviously, who have been quite successful. And then the next thing is what kind of co-selling can we do? How can we take advantage of each other's unique advantages.

所以我們認為這些事情——現在我們需要做的——也取決於關稅的情況，好吧，現在你可以決定在不同的地方進行製造，並以這種方式處理這些事情。所以這只是有助於擴大全球影響力。顯然，我們還將招募那些相當成功的銷售人員。接下來的事情是我們可以進行什麼樣的聯合銷售？如何才能發揮彼此獨特的優勢。

But that's still work ahead of us.

但這仍然是我們面前的工作。

All right. That sounds great. And could you guys give us any guidance on what you expect gross margins and OpEx to look like throughout the year?

好的。聽起來不錯。你們能否提供我們一些關於全年毛利率和營運支出的預期指引？

So we are not ready to give guidance on that. What we have seen in the past is that we've been lucky enough to benefit from some large government contracts. These tend to have slightly lower gross margin because you're not mass producing a product.

所以我們還沒準備好對此提供指導。過去我們看到的是，我們很幸運地從一些大型政府合約中受益。由於您不是大規模生產產品，因此這些產品的毛利率往往會略低。

But what it does is it pays for R&D that goes into actually generating our next generation of products. So we expect that as the market moves further and further into enterprise commercialization that the gross margins will start trending up in the positive direction quite a lot.

但它的作用是支付實際生產下一代產品的研發費用。因此，我們預計，隨著市場進一步走向企業商業化，毛利率將開始大幅上升。

So we saw in the past, when we were selling just compute. And we -- whenever we've had a majority of enterprise customers, the gross margin has been around 75%, 77%, and we expect it to go back there. But in the meantime, we also know that we are saving a lot on R&D by taking up projects with customers who are looking into the same areas that we are looking into and that we think are crucial for the development of quantum computing and quantum networking over the longer term.

所以我們在過去看到，我們只是在銷售計算產品。而且，每當我們擁有大多數企業客戶時，毛利率就會保持在 75% 到 77% 左右，我們預計它會回到這個水平。但同時，我們也知道，透過與那些研究與我們相同領域的客戶合作開展項目，我們可以節省大量的研發費用，我們認為這些項目對於量子計算和量子網路的長期發展至關重要。

Now, as an example of that, we have a contract with AFRL to build an optical switch. And so the margin on that one might not be as good, but we're working with them to build that and they're helping pay for the development cost, which we would have otherwise paid for directly out of our pocket. So we don't use the same lens, if you will, that we would in terms of a product that we're kind of shipping in volume. Hopefully, that helps.

現在，舉個例子，我們與 AFRL 簽訂了一份製造光開關的合約。因此，這個的利潤率可能不那麼好，但我們正在與他們合作來建立它，他們正在幫助支付開發成本，否則我們將直接從口袋裡支付。因此，如果您願意的話，我們不會在批量運輸產品時使用相同的鏡頭。希望這能有所幫助。

That does. Do you guys have any insight as to any expected milestones or just cadence of revenue recognition for those contracts?

確實如此。你們對於這些合約的預期里程碑或收入確認節奏有什麼見解嗎？

Which contract are we talking about, the AFRL contract?

我們談論的是哪個合同，AFRL 合同嗎？

I mean we could go on an overall basis, if you don't want to break anything out.

我的意思是，如果你不想打破常規，我們可以從整體上進行討論。

So overall, our contracts tend to come in different flavors. We will do projects that are application mined that they tend to be on a 6- to 18-month platform. And if -- there are contracts that we have with entities such as AFRL. These have been on 18-months, but sometimes up to 48-months, which was the large $54.5 million contract we announced last year. So it all depends on which project that we're looking at.

所以整體而言，我們的合約往往有不同的類型。我們將開展應用挖掘項目，這些項目通常在 6 到 18 個月的平台上進行。如果我們與 AFRL 等實體簽訂了合約。這些合約的期限為 18 個月，但有時長達 48 個月，也就是我們去年宣布的 5,450 萬美元的大合約。所以這完全取決於我們正在考慮哪個項目。

If we sell a system, the lead time on delivering a system is around 12- to 18-months, and we expect that to go closer to 12 and even shorter as we get more volume up.

如果我們銷售一套系統，交付週期大約為 12 到 18 個月，我們預期隨著銷售量的增加，交付週期會更接近 12 個月甚至更短。

David Williams, Benchmark Company.

大衛威廉斯 (David Williams)，Benchmark 公司。

Hey, thanks for taking the follow up here. I just -- I wanted to ask a little bit -- I mean in the first quarter, we haven't heard -- you mentioned kind of the pipeline strength of hardware sales, but I imagine that's still fairly healthy. Just any color on what you're seeing in terms of the hardware sales and any activity around that, I think, would be helpful.

嘿，感謝您的跟進。我只是——我想問一下——我的意思是在第一季度，我們還沒有聽到——你提到硬體銷售的通路實力，但我想這仍然相當健康。我認為，只要了解硬體銷售情況以及相關活動的情況，都會有所幫助。

Thank you.

謝謝。

Yeah. This is Peter. I can help with that. So it's a particularly busy time right now. And when we say hardware sales here, I'm going to assume you mean compute in quantum computers. And I will just mention, too, it seems to me that from what I can see on the networking side versus the compute side, the networking side is not -- doesn't seem to be quite as lumpy.

是的。這是彼得。我可以幫忙。所以現在是一個特別忙碌的時刻。當我們在這裡說硬體銷售時，我假設你指的是量子電腦的計算。我還要提一下，在我看來，從網路方面和運算的對比來看，網路方面似乎沒那麼不平衡。

It seems to be a lot more sales in smaller dollar amounts, which is nice because it kind of offsets the lumpiness of the quantum compute side, which is -- that will be nice just going forward. I'll be looking forward to not having to say and our sales are lumpy. So on the compute side, things are right now at a really interesting time.

看起來小額銷售額似乎要多得多，這很好，因為它在某種程度上抵消了量子計算方面的不穩定性，這對未來發展來說是一件好事。我希望不必說我們的銷售不穩定。因此，從計算方面來看，現在正處於一個非常有趣的時刻。

There's a bunch of RFPs we're competing in and for systems. And we'll know in the next couple of months, I guess, probably within 6- to 9-months, whether or not those systems will be awarded to us. And so I don't think the world has kind of quite picked up, but there's -- internationally, there's quite a bit right now, which is going on in the quantum compute side and up for grabs.

我們正在參與大量 RFP 的競爭，並且涉及系統方面。我想，我們將在接下來的幾個月內，大概在 6 到 9 個月內知道這些系統是否會授予我們。因此，我認為世界還沒有完全復甦，但是從國際上看，目前在量子計算方面有很多事情正在進行，而且有待爭奪。

And then I mentioned also at the close of the kind of the remarks, some of the things that are going on in terms of the quantum compute marketplace that I think is fairly large events. The DARPA benchmarking initiative is a huge reward per company. And so those things have the potential to have an outsized impact.

然後，我在評論結束時還提到了量子計算市場方面正在發生的一些事情，我認為這些事情是相當大的事件。DARPA 基準測試計畫為每家公司帶來了豐厚的回報。因此，這些事情有可能產生巨大的影響。

Okay. Great color there. And then maybe just one last one, if I may, on the $500 million that you announced today, is that target for in particular? Or is it more just about having the dry powder as you move forward here and not have constraints around your OpEx trends?

好的。那裡的色彩很棒。然後，如果可以的話，我再問最後一個問題，關於您今天宣布的 5 億美元，這個目標具體是什麼？或者這更多的是關於在您前進時擁有乾火藥，並且不受營運支出趨勢的限制？

It's really -- it's twofold. One is to -- we see an entirely new TAM, which is in quantum networking. And so it's supporting that. We have said that, that will be the first business that becomes cash flow positive for us. And I could see that happening not too far off in the future.

這確實有雙重意義。一是──我們看到一個全新的TAM，也就是量子網路。所以它支持這一點。我們說過，這將是我們第一個產生正現金流的業務。而我可以預見，在不久的將來，這種情況就會發生。

The other aspect, which is just as exciting is our applications business. The work we're doing with Ansys and AstraZeneca and some other things we haven't announced yet are compelling businesses to themselves and that have the potential to generate billions of dollars. but we just didn't have the resources to do quantum computing, quantum networking, chemistry applications, optimization.

另一個同樣令人興奮的方面是我們的應用程式業務。我們與 Ansys 和阿斯特捷利康合作的合作以及其他一些我們尚未宣布的項目本身就是引人注目的業務，並且有可能創造數十億美元的收入。但我們沒有資源進行量子運算、量子網路、化學應用和最佳化。

There's just -- if you go on quantum AI, each one of these things, unfortunately needs its own investment to be successful. And so while we had sufficient funds to do the quantum computing side, we didn't have the funds to be a leading player in some of these application areas or again, in the networking space. So that's where this money is going to get used.

只是——如果你繼續研究量子人工智慧，不幸的是，這些事物中的每一個都需要自己的投資才能成功。因此，雖然我們有足夠的資金來進行量子運算方面，但我們沒有足夠的資金成為某些應用領域或網路領域的領導者。這就是這筆錢的用途。

As always great colors. I appreciate it. Thank you.

一如既往的漂亮色彩。我很感激。謝謝。

I will say we thought about doing -- going out and doing venture for some of these and doing some as one way, but that means you're giving up the piece of the action in exchange for that. And we're pretty excited about what the future holds for some of these other markets that we're going into.

我想說的是，我們考慮過——出去為其中一些項目進行冒險，並以此作為一種方式，但這意味著你要放棄部分行動來換取這一點。我們對即將進入的其他一些市場的未來發展感到非常興奮。

Thank you. At this time, I'll turn the floor back to Peter Chapman for closing remarks.

謝謝。現在，我將把發言權交還給彼得·查普曼，請他作最後發言。

Great. Well, thanks, everyone. Thank you for joining the call. I just want to say thank you, as I always do at this time to the company and to our investors and everyone that supports us. This work wouldn't happen without the hard work of all of our employees and also the management team.

偉大的。好的，謝謝大家。感謝您參加此通話。我只想像往常一樣，向公司、我們的投資者和所有支持我們的人表示感謝。如果沒有我們全體員工和管理團隊的辛勤工作，這項工作就不可能實現。

And so just thank you. Thanks for a great 2024, and we look forward to a fantastic 2025. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today.

所以非常感謝你。感謝偉大的 2024 年，我們期待精彩的 2025 年。感謝大家今天的參與。

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.

謝謝。今天的會議到此結束。現在您可以斷開線路。我們感謝您的參與。