Why Did IonQ Stock Rocket 16% Today?

IonQ Inc. (IONQ) stock was in the spotlight on Friday after the company announced it secured regulatory clearance from the U.K.’s Investment Security Unit for its planned acquisition of Oxford Ionics. 

The agreement, first announced in June, outlines a $1.075 billion acquisition package comprising approximately $1.065 billion in IonQ stock and an additional $10 million in cash. 

IonQ stock traded 16% higher by mid-morning on Friday. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around the stock jumped to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘neutral’  territory the previous day. Message volume improved to ‘extremely high’ from ‘normal’ levels in 24 hours. The stock saw a 90% increase in user message count in the past week. 

The deal is expected to combine IonQ’s trapped-ion computing systems and Oxford Ionics’ high-fidelity ion-trap chips, creating a powerful new player in the sector. With this approval in place, all conditions for closing the deal have now been met, clearing the way for the transaction to be finalized in the near future.

The merged company’s ambitions include systems featuring 256 physical qubits with 99.99% accuracy by 2026, scaling to over 10,000 physical qubits by 2027, and eventually reaching two million qubits with near-perfect logical accuracy by the end of the decade.

On September 4, the company appointed Inder M. Singh as CFO and COO. Investors are looking forward to IonQ’s 2025 Analyst Day on Friday, which is expected to provide an overview of its business strategy, recent milestones, and product roadmap.

IonQ stock has gained over 29% in 2025 and over 631% in the last 12 months. 

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