BUSINESS

Palantir Technologies (PLTR) has a rapidly growing U.S. business. But a £330 million ($447 million) NHS contract in Britain is giving investors another issue to watch: what happens when the company’s expansion into foreign governments meets political resistance?

Lobbyists are urging Britain’s new government to review the contract awarded to Palantir to run the NHS Federated Data Platform. The agreement has a review point and an initial three-year commitment through February 2027.

But Palantir’s financial fortunes are unlikely to depend solely on the UK government’s decision. But for U.S. investors the spat provides a useful test of one of the company’s most important growth stories: whether Palantir can translate its government customer wins into a sustainable business overseas.

Palantir’s U.S. government business is booming

The U.K. scandal comes as Palantir’s U.S. government business is growing significantly.

In the second quarter, Palantir generated $809 million in U.S. government revenue, up 90% from a year earlier. U.S. commercial revenue was even larger at $764 million and increased 149%.

Overall revenue climbed 93% to $1.94 billion.

Palantir also booked $3.37 billion in overall contract value in the quarter, including a record $2.13 billion from U.S. commercial clients.

That is important because it puts the British debate into perspective.

The NHS contract is a big deal for Palantir’s foreign reach, but the company’s present growth engine is still strongly connected to the U.S.

For investors, it’s not just a matter of whether Britain preserves one contract. The question is whether opposition in Britain or elsewhere may make it difficult for Palantir to repeat its US government success elsewhere.

The $330 million NHS deal is approaching a key date

In 2023, the NHS awarded the Federated Data Platform contract to a consortium headed by Palantir. The deal, which may include up to 240 NHS organizations, could be worth up to £330 million over a maximum of seven years.

That first three-year commitment expires Feb. 15, 2027.

British authorities are studying the deal, and lawmakers and activists are urging the government to trigger the break provision.

Related: Palantir, Microsoft’s biggest warning gets real for AI stocks

Reuters reported in June that the administration was considering whether to prolong the arrangement or discontinue it at the end of its first term.

That’s a very clean timeframe investors can observe.

But a termination wouldn’t necessarily impact the U.S. growth trajectory for Palantir. But it may serve as a reference point for other governments thinking about whether to employ Palantir for sensitive public-sector data and processes.

Palantir’s biggest government opportunity may come with a catchMATT RAMEY / Getty Images

Britain shows the risk behind Palantir’s government strategy

Data, artificial intelligence, and what it calls sovereign capabilities are increasingly at the heart of Palantir’s offer to governments.

That technique has huge promise since governments operate big, complex systems that often need long-term software interactions.

But the same interactions might have unexpected hazards.

The NHS deal has been questioned on the basis of privacy, public trust, data sovereignty, and reliance on a U.S. IT company. A U.K. parliamentary committee has also advised the government to employ the break clause and to look at alternatives.

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Separately, five British police agencies recently opted not to renew a two-year Palantir experiment because of financial constraints and doubt about the project’s merits, the Financial Times said.

That does not mean a wider retreat for Palantir in Britain. But it does illustrate that government growth is not seamless.

The U.S. business gives investors some cushion

But there is an essential counterargument.

Palantir’s U.S. government revenue grew 90% in the latest quarter, while U.S. commercial revenue jumped 149%. The company also raised its full-year 2026 revenue outlook to roughly $8.15 billion.

So even if Palantir loses or does not extend the NHS deal, investors would have to measure that event against the considerably bigger U.S. growth prospect for the firm.

This makes the British contract a more compelling signal than a financial threat per se.

If governments overseas start to doubt Palantir’s position, investors may want to rethink expectations about how fast the business can translate its U.S. government success into worldwide expansion.

If Britain does go forward with the deal and Palantir continues to provide quantifiable advantages, the experience might instead bolster the company’s capacity to sustain substantial public-sector connections despite political scrutiny.

What U.S. investors should watch next

The immediate trigger is the U.K. government’s assessment of the NHS contract and the approach of the February 2027 break point.

But the greater concern is Palantir’s worldwide government pipeline.

The company’s rapid growth in the U.S. raises the question of whether it can replicate that model abroad, where procurement rules, political pressures, and data sovereignty concerns vary.

For PLTR investors the NHS fight is not only a tale about a £330 million contract.

It’s a test of just how lasting Palantir’s government growth can be beyond its home market.

Related: Palantir’s CEO just sent a message Silicon Valley won’t ignore

Morrissey, Tool, SUGAR, Angine de Poitrine, Less Than Jake, John Lydon and Public Image Ltd and more made the best of shortened sets on a rainy day two at Riot Fest.

New technology rarely kills an incumbent overnight. It usually takes years of slow share losses before the damage shows up in the numbers.

Stock prices don’t wait that long. Investors tend to price in the worst case the moment a credible threat appears, long before customers actually switch.

That gap between fear and reality is where some of the market’s biggest mispricings live. It is also where Wall Street analysts earn their keep, by putting hard numbers on a threat everyone can see but nobody has sized.

Driverless cars are that threat for one of the world’s best-known apps, the one millions of people open to get home at night. Three of the biggest tech companies on the planet are now running robotaxi services in U.S. cities, and investors have been selling the stock of the company that built modern ride-hailing.

Now Bank of America has built a vehicle-by-vehicle forecast of the robotaxi fleets coming for Uber Technologies (UBER), and its conclusion cuts against the market’s mood.

Bank of America keeps its Uber’s Buy rating and $101 target.Matthew Chattle / Getty Images

Robotaxi fears have hammered Uber stock

Uber stock closed at $69.89 on Sept. 22, down about 29% over the past year and nearly 12% in the past four weeks alone, according to Trading Economics.

The business itself hasn’t cracked. Uber’s gross bookings rose 24% to $58 billion in the second quarter, and trips climbed 18% to 3.9 billion, according to a statement from Uber.

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“We’re investing from a position of strength, as we accelerate our cross-platform strategy at a global scale and build the world’s largest platform for autonomous vehicles,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in that statement.

Investors have focused on what’s happening outside Uber’s app. Waymo, owned by Alphabet (GOOGL), plans to launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta starting in January 2028, ending its exclusive arrangement with Uber in both cities, Automotive World reported.

Tesla (TSLA) added to the pressure when it debuted its Cybercab in Austin on Sept. 8. Uber shares fell 4% that day, even though Tesla launched with only 45 registered vehicles, TheStreet reported.

Bank of America keeps Uber Buy rating, sizes up robotaxi rivals

Bank of America analyst Justin Post and his team kept a Buy rating and $101 price objective on Uber in a Sept. 21 research note, Proactive Investors reported. That target implies about 43% upside from the $70.50 share price in the note.

“AVs (autonomous vehicles) remain a long-term competitive risk to Uber, but we believe current valuation already reflects significant disruption to incumbent US ride-hailing economics,” the analysts wrote.

To test that view, the bank built a fleet forecast for the three companies already running robotaxi services: Waymo, Tesla and Amazon’s (AMZN) Zoox.

Here’s what Bank of America expects, according to the note:

The combined robotaxi fleet grows from about 4,500 vehicles today to roughly 118,000 in 2029

Tesla becomes the biggest player, with about 92,000 robotaxis in 2029 in its base case

Waymo reaches roughly 20,000 vehicles and Zoox about 6,000 by 2029

Robotaxi bookings hit about $6 billion by 2028, or 5% of the U.S. ride-hailing market

Uber still holds about 73% of U.S. ride-hailing bookings in 2028, down from 76% today

In my analysis, the Tesla line is the most important one in the table. Today Waymo runs about 4,000 U.S. vehicles to Tesla’s 420, the bank estimates, yet its model has Tesla’s fleet passing Waymo’s in 2028.

Why Bank of America thinks 2029 matters more than 2026

The bank’s forecast has most of the damage arriving late. Uber’s share of U.S. bookings slips to about 70% in 2029, when Tesla’s Cybercab production could hit its stride.

Uber is betting on the same year. The company has a stated goal of becoming the global leader in autonomous trips by 2029, and its partners have committed about 120,000 robotaxis to its network over multiple years, the analysts wrote.

Those partners include Nvidia (NVDA), Volkswagen, Rivian (RIVN), Zoox and Lucid (LCID), which increased its commitment to 35,000 vehicles over six years in April, according to TechCrunch.

Bank of America also ran a harsh test. If every extra dollar of robotaxi bookings in 2029 came straight out of Uber and Lyft (LYFT), Uber’s 2029 U.S. bookings would land at $96 billion, only six percent below the bank’s base forecast.

The analysts believe most robotaxi rides will be new demand. They pointed to Uber’s comments that trip growth in California, where robotaxi competition is fiercest, has been “meaningfully” outpacing the rest of the U.S.

What robotaxis could mean for your ride-hailing bill

For riders, the price war has already started. Tesla appears to be pricing its rides about 30% below Uber, Lyft and Waymo as it builds an audience, according to the note.

Cheaper rides still don’t beat owning a car for most people. U.S. ride-hailing costs roughly $3 a mile, while owning a car runs $0.66 to $1.00 a mile, according to AAA estimates cited by Bank of America.

The bank thinks the tipping point comes when robotaxi fares fall below $2 a mile. At $1.80 a mile, a rider covering 10,000 miles a year would still spend $18,000, compared with about $10,000 to own a car in a city, the analysts calculated.

That gap explains why ride-hailing covers only about 1% of U.S. miles driven today. It also explains why Bank of America sees the market as a potential $1 trillion prize if prices come down and robotaxis capture about 20% of miles driven.

Bank of America says Uber stock already prices in a robotaxi hit

The most striking math in the note is about valuation. Bank of America applied DoorDash’s (DASH) revenue multiple to Uber’s delivery, international rides and freight businesses and got an implied value of $88 a share, or $95 after adding cash and other assets.

Adding a Lyft-style multiple for U.S. ride-hailing lifted the total to about $100 a share. With the stock near $70, shares trade below the $95 the bank’s math assigns to everything except U.S. ride-hailing.

“In our view, the Street is already discounting a more disruptive AV scenario than our forecasts imply,” the analysts wrote.

In my view, that is the real message for shareholders. Uber doesn’t need to win the robotaxi race outright for the stock to work, but it does need its partner fleets to show up on schedule.

The bank flagged 2027 robotaxi deployments and faster self-driving development by major automakers as the next catalysts. It also named risks, including a weaker economy, slower user growth and share losses to Waymo and Tesla that could shrink the stock’s valuation multiple.

Related: Uber tries to leave a key market

The after-dinner routine used to follow a script. You turned on the TV, someone opened Netflix, and the household argued over what to watch.

Now Americans spend more TV time on YouTube than with any other media company, according to Nielsen.

As noted by Seeking Alpha, HSBC downgraded Netflix Inc. (NFLX) to Hold from Buy on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2026, and cut its price target by 21% to $76 from $96.

The message is blunt: YouTube is taking Netflix’s viewers, and HSBC does not expect them to return soon.

Analyst Mohammed Khallouf wrote that YouTube “has been rapidly expanding its living-room footprint,” in what Bloomberg called Netflix’s second downgrade in less than a week.

YouTube is winning the living room on Netflix’s time

YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), captured a record 14.2% of U.S. TV viewing in July, according to Nielsen. Netflix moved the other way, sliding to 7.8%, according to TheWrap.

A year earlier, Netflix hit a record 8.8%, Nielsen reported. That is more than a tenth of its share gone in twelve months.

Engagement “drives retention, supports pricing power, and is closely followed by advertisers,” Khallouf wrote, according to Seeking Alpha. Advertising is where the gap gets expensive.

Related: Netflix stock has a strange stock price target problem

YouTube booked about $11.1 billion in ad revenue in the second quarter, reported CNBC. Netflix expects roughly $3 billion from ads for all of 2026, according to its shareholder letter. YouTube earns nearly four times that in a single quarter.

A recent Fortune report details how YouTube is paying to protect its lead, offering creators millions to keep videos exclusive for set periods. HSBC says that likely raises the cost of Netflix’s own creator push, according to Seeking Alpha.

Netflix is reporting less of what analysts now watch

The timing is awkward. In July, Netflix said its “What We Watched” engagement report would move to once a year starting in 2027, according to its shareholder letter. It wants investors focused on revenue and operating profit instead.

The same letter argued that “not all hours are equal.” That may be true, but Netflix no longer reports quarterly subscriber counts, according to TheWrap. Analysts are filling the gap with outside data, and that data is pointing downward.

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HSBC found viewing hours for English-language shows in Netflix’s weekly Top 10 fell about 17% year over year in July and August, according to TipRanks.

Wells Fargo reached a similar verdict on Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, cutting Netflix to Underweight with a $57 target, according to StockAnalysis.

“Engagement trends look worrying to us,” analyst Steven Cahall wrote, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Netflix stock is priced for doubt, not collapse

At about $300 billion in market value, according to StockAnalysis, Netflix sits inside the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 funds that fill many retirement accounts. Its slide reaches well beyond its own shareholders.

The stock opened at $73.69 on Tuesday, Sept. 22, and closed at $72.16, down 1.64%, according to StockAnalysis. Shares traded near $72.35 in Wednesday’s premarket session, per the same data.

The 52-week range of $65.08 to $124.86 leaves Netflix about 42% below its high and 11% above its low.

The 51 analysts polled by S&P Global still rate Netflix a Buy, with an average target of $92.93 that implies about 29% upside, according to StockAnalysis. Targets run from $57 at Wells Fargo to $135 at BMO Capital.

The mix is shifting, though. Hold ratings rose to 16 in September from 12 in April, while Strong Buys slipped to 27 from 29, according to StockAnalysis. Sentiment rarely breaks at once; it erodes, then surfaces in clusters like this week’s.

The bull case still rests on real numbers:

Household reach is climbing. Evercore ISI lifted its target to $110 after surveys showed U.S. penetration at a multiyear high.

The second half faces a brutal comparison. It laps the final season of “Stranger Things”, so some engagement decline was always expected.

Buybacks hit a record. Netflix repurchased $4.7 billion of stock in the second quarter, according to its shareholder letter.

YouTube took a record 14.2% of U.S. TV viewing in July while Netflix slid to 7.8%.Olga Rolenko / Getty Images

Attention, not subscribers, is streaming’s new scorecard

Netflix has climbed out of a hole like this before. The stock fell 51% in 2022, and 2026 is on pace to be its worst year since.

That recovery leaned on pricing levers, including a cheaper ad tier and a crackdown on password sharing.

This slump is different. YouTube competes for attention at a price of zero, and no price increase can win back an evening spent somewhere else.

The first streaming war was fought over subscribers. The next one is being fought over minutes, and YouTube is setting the price.

Netflix reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, according to StockAnalysis, offering the first test of whether it can buy those minutes back.

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Gold hit a record $5,589.38 an ounce on Jan. 28. By Sept. 22, it was trading near $4,286, per Trading Economics.

Wall Street is now updating what it expects from the metal by end of the decade.

Bernstein Research analyst Bob Brackett cut the firm’s 2030 gold price forecast to $5,600 an ounce from $6,100, according to Investing.com.

His reason: interest rates, not demand. He still expects gold to go higher. Central banks keep buying. The path just got longer.

Why Bernstein cut its 2030 gold price forecast

When 2026 started, markets expected the Fed to cut rates once or twice. Now they expect two or three rate hikes by 2027. That is a big swing in less than a year.

Real interest rates have climbed to roughly 2.7% from about 1.7% in early March. The 10-year Treasury yield was near 4.9% at the time of the note. The 10-year inflation-protected yield was around 2.6%. Gold pays no interest. Higher real yields mean investors give up more income to hold it.

Brackett said the rate shift is the entire reason for the target cut.

“The revision reflects a rise in real interest rates, not a deterioration in physical demand for gold,” he wrote, Investing.com reported. The Fed’s Sept. 16 rate hike pushed that picture further in the same direction.

Why Bernstein is still bullish on gold despite the cut

Brackett said gold can still rise even as real rates climb slowly. He pointed to gold’s run between 2023 and 2025. Real rates were also rising then. Gold kept going up.

After the Sept. 16 Fed rate hike, gold ETF holdings stayed flat. The metal did not fall hard.

Brackett also noted that gold can “rise with slowly rising real rates, the path we appear to be on.”

His core argument is about who is buying. Central banks bought more than 1,000 metric tons of gold in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Each year that absorbed nearly a quarter of annual global mine supply.

China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia each hold less than 10% of their reserves in gold. Western central banks hold roughly 60% to 70%. Brackett sees room for large reserve managers in Asia and the Middle East to keep adding.

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A World Gold Council survey found 95% of central banks expect global gold reserves to rise over the next year.

Central banks do not flip in and out of gold the way fund managers do. They buy steadily and in volume. That buying has been the biggest stabilizing force in the gold market for three straight years.

Brackett also pointed to the pace of reserve-manager buying specifically. Central banks do not adjust allocations overnight. They buy across years and decades. Even a modest shift by Asian reserve managers toward higher gold allocations adds sustained demand that ETF outflows or rate moves cannot easily offset.

That long buying horizon is the part of the thesis Brackett says the market underweights.

Brackett said gold can still rise even as real rates climb slowly.NurPhoto / Getty Images

What Goldman Sachs says about gold right now

Goldman Sachs lowered its end-of-2026 gold fair-value estimate from $4,900 to $4,650 on Sept. 20. Goldman analyst Lina Thomas held the firm’s end-of-2027 target at $5,400. She said tighter policy may slow gold’s climb but cannot break it.

Goldman and Bernstein are not outliers. Several other banks have also been adjusting gold targets as the Fed rate path became clearer after the Sept. 16 hike.

The direction of revisions has been mixed. Some firms are trimming near-term targets while holding long-term ones. Others are pulling back across the board. Bernstein is one of the few still pointing to $5,600 or higher by 2030.

Goldman and Bernstein agree higher real rates are a headwind for gold. They part ways on how much central-bank buying offsets it. Goldman is more cautious on the near term. Bernstein still thinks official buying is strong enough to keep gold moving higher even as yields rise.

The dollar is also in play. A stronger dollar makes gold more expensive for overseas buyers. A weaker dollar does the opposite. Both firms are watching the dollar alongside interest rates and central-bank data.

What could stop gold from reaching $5,600 by 2030

Brackett named one main threat: a slowdown in central-bank purchases. If official buying drops well below 1,000 metric tons a year, gold loses a critical prop and gets more sensitive to yields and the dollar.

More aggressive Fed rate increases, a sustained rise in real yields or weaker demand from China are all risks Brackett flagged.

ETF flows matter too. Sustained outflows from gold funds would add selling pressure at the same time rising rates make the metal less attractive to hold.

Energy prices are also a factor. High fuel and refined-product costs keep inflation elevated. Sticky inflation means more Fed hikes. More Fed hikes push real yields higher. That is the chain Brackett is tracking most closely heading into 2027.

On the other side, drone strikes on Riyadh and Hormuz disruptions are keeping safe-haven demand alive. Geopolitical risk has partly offset the rate headwind so far. If the Middle East situation improves significantly, that support fades.

Brackett is counting on central banks, not geopolitics, to carry the gold bull case to 2030.

Related: Goldman Sachs gold price target takes a turn after Fed rate hike

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Why we love this deal

A pop of color goes a long way, and while apparel is the first place you can add that, jewelry with a little bit of a hue can transform your accessory game in an instant. Silver and gold are always stunning, but some colorful gemstones can add a wow factor to your jewelry that shines like no other, and the Effy Collection Sapphire and Diamond Accent Hoop Earrings are the perfect thing to add to your outfit to get this effect.

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Effy Collection Sapphire and Diamond Accent Hoop Earrings, $166 (was $475) at Macy’s

Courtesy of Macy’s

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Why do shoppers love it?

Quality craftsmanship is the name of the game with these earrings. Not only do they contain genuine sapphire and diamond stones, but the setting and backing are made from 14K gold-plated sterling silver. Together, these materials create a stunning arrangement of stones in a setting that won’t deteriorate in quality over time. 

The 14K gold-plated sterling silver combination ensures that the hoop has a super durable base that’s very sturdy and doesn’t tarnish with air or moisture exposure. The 14K gold plating gives the jewelry an identical solid 14K gold look for a fraction of the cost, and although 14K gold plating isn’t 100% hypoallergenic, it’s the far preferable option, when paired with sterling silver, for folks who might deal with skin sensitivities. It’s less likely to cause any sort of reaction.

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Related: Macy’s crystal and sterling silver hoop earrings are on sale for $179

A hinge hoop closure finishes off this design. Instead of having a separate backing piece, this closure features a built-in pin and clicker mechanism that locks into place, offering exceptional convenience and security. And if blue isn’t your color, these earrings also are available in an emerald and diamond accent option made with sterling silver, also on sale for 65% off.

Details to know

Dimensions: Approximately 0.81-inches in diameter. 

Material: Sapphires, diamonds, and 14K gold-plated sterling silver. 

Backing: Hinge hoop closure.  

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Effy Collection Cultured Freshwater Pearl and Lab-Grown Diamond Stud Earrings, $385 (was $1,100) at Macy’s

Macy’s Lab-Grown Blue Sapphire & Lab-grown White Sapphire Stack Ring, $114 (was $325) at Macy’s

The perfect pop of color to add to your wardrobe this autumn, the Effy Collection Sapphire and Diamond Accent Hoop Earrings are the jewelry pick you won’t want to miss during this Macy’s sales event. 

Rebecca Hall talks about playing Abby Borden, Lizzie Borden’s wicked stepmother, in Netflix’s ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ and embracing her dark side.

IonQ (IONQ), one of the most closely watched publicly traded quantum-computing companies, took a hit in January 2025 after Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang questioned how quickly useful quantum machines would arrive.

Huang said a reasonable estimate for very useful quantum computers was 15 to 30 years. IonQ shares fell 9.4% that day.

Less than two years later, Nvidia is preparing to put an IonQ quantum processor inside its own research center.

IonQ said Sept. 23 that Superion 256 will become the first on-premise quantum processor at Nvidia’s Accelerated Quantum Research Center, or NVAQC. The system is scheduled to be installed in 2027 and connected directly to an Nvidia GB200 NVL72 system.

IonQ shares were up about 4.98% to $42.77 around midday Sept. 23, after trading as high as $46.02 earlier in the session.

A day earlier, IonQ also announced a real-time quantum error-correction decoder that runs on a conventional CPU.

The two announcements show how IonQ is building around a system in which quantum processors work with CPUs and GPUs inside the same computing environment.

Nvidia will connect IonQ’s QPU directly to Blackwell

IonQ’s Superion 256 is scheduled to be installed at NVAQC in 2027 and directly linked to an Nvidia GB200 NVL72 through Nvidia’s NVQLink technology.

The workloads will run through CUDA-Q, Nvidia’s software platform for coordinating quantum and conventional computing. A quantum processing unit, or QPU, performs calculations using quantum bits, or qubits.

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In the planned Nvidia setup, the processors have different jobs.

IonQ’s QPU will perform quantum calculations. Nvidia’s GPUs will handle accelerated conventional computing, with CUDA-Q coordinating work across the systems.

Nvidia designed NVAQC around this type of architecture.

When the company announced the Boston research center in March 2025, Nvidia said the facility would integrate quantum hardware with AI supercomputers to work on problems such as qubit noise, error correction, and hybrid algorithms.

Superion 256 will be the first QPU installed on-site.

Nvidia moved from quantum skepticism to building infrastructure

Nvidia’s research-center deployment arrives less than two years after Huang’s long commercialization timeline helped trigger a selloff across quantum stocks.

By March 2025, Nvidia had already moved from discussing the timeline to building hardware and software around the technology.

NVAQC was announced with partners including Quantinuum, Quantum Machines, and QuEra, as well as researchers from Harvard and MIT. Nvidia equipped the center with AI supercomputing infrastructure designed to work with multiple types of quantum hardware.

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But no evidence has shown that Nvidia expects large-scale quantum computers to replace conventional supercomputers soon. IonQ is also not Nvidia’s only quantum collaborator.

The new step is narrower and more concrete: IonQ will be the first company to install an on-premise QPU at NVAQC.

Nvidia is now building the infrastructure required to test quantum processors beside its GPUs rather than simply debating when useful quantum computing will arrive.

Nvidia is building its quantum research center around systems that connect quantum processors with AI supercomputers.Yuichiro Chino / Getty Images

IonQ’s CPU decoder tackles the error-correction bottleneck

Qubits are highly sensitive to noise, which can introduce errors during a quantum calculation.

A fault-tolerant quantum computer must detect and correct those errors continuously.

The correction process relies on conventional computing hardware. If the classical decoder cannot process error information fast enough, the quantum processor may have to pause.

IonQ said Sept. 22 that it developed and tested an error-correction decoder that can run continuously on one standard off-the-shelf CPU.

What IonQ tested

Up to 408 logical qubits in simulated benchmark circuits.

More than 31.5 million quantum operations across those circuits.

As little as 0.02% added execution time, which IonQ calls “stretch” time.

Those figures need one important qualification. IonQ did not demonstrate a physical quantum computer running 408 logical qubits. The company tested its decoder on benchmark circuits simulating that scale.

The experiment tested whether a conventional processor could keep pace with the error-correction workload.

That fits the architecture IonQ plans to test with Nvidia: conventional processors handle the supporting computation around a QPU.

Nvidia gives IonQ a showcase: 2027 deliveries are the commercial test

IonQ began accepting orders for Superion 256 on Sept. 8.

The company expects first customer deliveries in 2027 and said it had pre-sold its first Superion 256 system during the first quarter.

IonQ has not disclosed the financial value of the NVAQC deployment.

Its latest financial figures also show a company growing rapidly and spending heavily as it expands both quantum technology and manufacturing.

IonQ’s business by the numbers

$80.1 million: Second-quarter revenue, up 287% year over year.

$120.3 million: Adjusted EBITDA loss for the quarter.

About $2.0 billion: Cash, cash equivalents and investments on a pro forma basis after the SkyWater acquisition.

$450 million to $460 million: IonQ’s latest 2026 revenue guidance.

IonQ’s earlier $280 million to $290 million outlook excluded SkyWater. The company raised its forecast to $450 million to $460 million after closing the acquisition, and the new range includes SkyWater revenue from July 31 through year-end.

So the higher forecast does not represent organic quantum-computing growth alone.

Superion provides a separate test of IonQ’s core quantum hardware business.

The Nvidia installation is scheduled for next year. Customer deliveries are also expected to begin in 2027, followed by IonQ’s target for commercially manufacturable fault-tolerant systems in 2028.

The next concrete proof will come when Superion starts shipping to paying customers in 2027, and those deployments begin generating repeat orders and revenue.

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