IONQ vs MSFT
Side-by-side quantum stock comparison: market cap, share price, classification, and thesis.
Market cap, head to head
Stat-by-stat
| Metric | IONQ | MSFT |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Pure-play | Diversified |
| Segment | Hardware | Hardware + Software |
| Exchange | NYSE | NASDAQ |
| Country | US | US |
| Market cap | $23.75B | $3.09T |
| Share price | $63.62 | $416.03 |
| Employees | 407 | 228,000 |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Computer Hardware | Software - Infrastructure |
Quantum thesis
IonQ is the largest pure-play public bet on trapped-ion quantum computing. The company builds quantum processors that manipulate individual ytterbium ions with lasers, an approach prized for high gate fidelity and long coherence times. Revenue is still small and tied to government and cloud-marketplace contracts, but IonQ has become the most-traded ticker whenever quantum-computing headlines move retail flows.
Full IONQ page →Quantum thesis
Microsoft is pursuing topological qubits with its Majorana hardware program while offering Azure Quantum as a cloud aggregator of partner hardware. The topological bet is high-risk and high-reward: if the underlying physics holds up, the resulting qubits would be intrinsically more stable than any competing approach. Software side: the Q# language and Azure Quantum job orchestration.
Full MSFT page →