IonQ Stock Is Moving Lower: What's Going On?

Shares of quantum computing company IonQ Inc IONQ are trading lower Tuesday after the company announced a leadership transition.

What Happened: IonQ said its co-founder and chief science officer Chris Monroe will step down from his role at the company to return to academic, research and policy pursuits as a presidential professor at Duke University. 

"Chris has been a pioneer working on all aspects of ion trap quantum computers, from the demonstration of the first quantum logic gate in 1995 to the invention of the first scalable quantum computer architecture," said Peter Chapman, president and CEO of IonQ.

"Under his support and leadership, IonQ was granted exclusive ion trap intellectual property licenses from the University of Maryland and Duke University – two distinguished research universities pushing the frontiers of quantum computing. Chris has also helped guide the company to build scalable quantum computers that will drive commercial advantage."

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IONQ Price Action: IonQ shares are up approximately 266% since the start of the year. The stock was down 14.2% at $10.85 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of IonQ.