IonQ CEO Peter Chapman

THIS MONTH'S 2024 Co-Mobility Summit could burnish Chattanooga's reputation as a city that aims to leverage quantum technology and mobility solutions in ways that improve its regional economy, expand its talent pool and power waves of knowledge, innovation and enterprise.

The event seems to have been engineered with an eye toward deep networking of the sort that can lead to collaboration within multiple tech-industry domains.

The Summit program has been designed to draw influential entrepreneurs, investors, advisors and others who have come to believe it is time to act upon quantum-venture theses that could lead to disruptions rivaling those that came along with CRISPR gene editing, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.

Summit organizers say they have marshalled more than 60 speakers who'll appear over two days as plenary speakers and as presenters in interactive workshops on quantum's evolution, cybersecurity and business development.

There's also a 5-startup gener8tor-CoLab accelerator showcase, free to Summit registrants. Register here.

Cumulative attendance is projected at north of 600, according to a spokesperson for the Company Lab, which is the event's overall sponsor and host, led by CEO Tasia Malakasis.

There's a robust agenda, with all sessions organized under four general topic areas, spanning "movement" and co-mobility in People, Goods, Energy and Data categories.

On Tuesday morning, May 21, the Summit begins with keynote speaker Peter Chapman, who is the CEO, president and soon-to-be next chairman of NYSE-listed IonQ Inc., which is viewed as the first such business to become a publicly held company.

That discussion with Chapman is to be moderated by Chattanooga Quantum Collaborative Chairman Bob Corker, the businessman who previously represented Tennesseans as a member of the U.S. Senate and as Chattanooga's mayor.

IonQ began life in 2015 as a startup, backed by investors including New Enterprise Associates, GV (fka Google Ventures), Amazon Web Services, Samsung, Mubadala, and others.

Today, listed IonQ (NYSE:IONQ) is headquartered in the Discovery District of the University at College Park, Md., and its first dedicated quantum computing manufacturing facility is in the Seattle area.

Yesterday, Charlie Brock, CEO of the aforementioned CQC (a trade association), told VNC that CQC's sponsoring of a data-oriented track within the Summit is the latest step in a campaign to establish Chattanooga as a vital nexus of quantum tech-driven services, applied research, products, markets, communities and other stakeholders.

Brock said CQC and its allies seek to expand the Chattanooga region's talent pool, champion business-industrial innovation, and advance economic/workforce development through local and national partnerships that leverage Chattanooga infrastructural assets.

In particular, CQC aims to leverage, e.g., the quantum network of Chattanooga's EPB power utility and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Quantum Center, as well as UTC's EPB Quantum Network node powered by Ubitekk, and UTC's highly collaborative Center for Urban Informatics and Progress (CUIP).

VNC research found Brock's comments on the importance of CQC's alliance-building to be in harmony with one of the strategic goals IonQ described in its 2023 10K report on advancing its business:

• Further Developing Our Quantum Computing Partner Ecosystem. We believe our relationships with leading technology enterprises and university research institutes will accelerate innovation, distribution and monetization of our quantum capabilities.

IonQ is both a relationships and ecosystem builder: The company is already a member of U.Maryland's Quantum Startup Foundry, which leverages multiple Quantum Centers on the campus and is program of the U.Maryland-quartered Mid-Atlantic Quantum Alliance (MQA), which also focuses on workforce, education and intellectual property licensing and commercialization. The Foundry's quasi-governmental affiliation is with the National Institutes for Standards and Technology (NIST).

VNC also notes IonQ and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) recently announced their planned collaboration in exploring uses of quantum technologies for modernizing the U.S. power grid. IonQ is also listed among ORNL's quantum computing user program (QCUP) and other quantum system resources.

IonQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) was founded in 2015, and began developing quantum computing devices based in part on exclusive licenses obtained on its core technology from the University of Maryland and at Duke University.

In 2019, Chapman joined IonQ as CEO, two years ahead of the company's transformation into a public company via a SPAC merger with dMY Technology Group Inc. III.

The original startup company was co-founded by two Duke University faculty members, with assistance of two men who were partners in New Enterprise Associates, according to Wikipedia.

Recently, IonQ announced that it plans to release its financial results for Q1/2024, after markets close on May 8, 2024. IonQ market cap today: about $1.84BN.

The commercially available IonQ Forte product has been in-market since 2022 and is described as "the latest evolution towards a software-configurable quantum computer." Forte Enterprise may advance into the market, later yet this year.

IonQ's robust website provides a rundown on the status of its current and planned product offerings, as well as an invitation to register for a May 9 webinar on IonQ technology and performance milestones on the path to full-line commercialization.

More here on IonQ's "trapped ion" strategy for quantum processing units, which the company believes gives it unique advantages in the marketplace.

Our previous coverage of The Company Lab is here. VNC

.last edited 3 May 2024 1002 cdst