Maryland-based IonQ announced this week a new $15 million, five-year commitment to establish a quantum communications research center in Chattanooga.
The center will expand IonQ’s partnership with EPB and bring researchers to the city.
Their research will focus on developing “quantum memory,” a technology designed to temporarily store quantum information so it can be transmitted over longer distances.
Quantum technology is being developed for potential uses in areas such as computing, communications, sensing and scientific research, and seeks to use the unique properties of tiny particles to process and transmit information in new ways.
The project builds on several years of investment by local institutions, universities and research partners, along with state economic development efforts, to establish Chattanooga — once known as Gig City — as Quantum City.
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Contributed photo / Mihir Bhaskar, Senior Vice President, Global R&D, IonQ
Today’s quantum networks are limited because quantum information is easily lost as it travels over fiber-optic cables, Mihir Bhaskar, senior vice president of research and development at IonQ, said in an email.
“The development of commercial quantum memory is considered by many to be one of the most important technologies needed to realize quantum’s full potential to benefit people,” he said.
He said IonQ wants to move from demonstrating quantum technologies in specialized lab conditions to testing how quantum computers and networks can work together on actual communications infrastructure for real commercial and public-sector uses.
“Initially, IonQ intends to utilize this research center to advance new commercial quantum technologies rather than having customers use the facilities directly,” he said.
The early-stage tech company said it plans to staff the lab with its own researchers, while EPB will provide access to its fiber network as a testing environment.
IonQ, which is publicly traded, has rapidly increased revenue and raised billions of dollars to fund expansion but has not yet made a profit.
Staff photo by Larry Sullivan II / EPB President and CEO-elect Janet Rehberg listens during the EPB board meeting. The board voted to give UTC $3.4 million to bulk up its quantum workforce.
On Wednesday, IonQ reported second-quarter revenue of $80.1 million, up 287% from a year earlier, while continuing to operate at a loss as it invests in growth. Its reported $1.87 billion net loss was driven largely by a one-time, noncash accounting adjustment related to warrants, according to the company’s financial report.
IonQ’s partnership with Chattanooga’s public utility company began with the EPB Quantum Center, where an IonQ quantum computer is being prepared for commercial deployment and where EPB operates a quantum networking test bed.
A $22 million deal established the center in April 2025.
“We want them to continue to house people here working in Chattanooga, because that helps our economy, that helps our ecosystem,” EPB President and CEO-elect Janet Rehberg said by phone.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Schools to introduce quantum education in fall)
IonQ has around a dozen people working in the city, she said.
“Their big, big goal is hoping that one day, we can have a quantum internet,” Rehberg said.
She said IonQ has been acquiring companies to build up to that, including one working to build quantum memory.
“There is not any client, per se, to use it yet,” Rehberg said. “But once quantum memories are commercialized, then, as other industry, or utilities, or academia want to expand their network, or connect quantum computers, that’s gonna be their (IonQ) clientele in the future.”
The company’s five-year financial commitment is expected to bring a couple dozen researchers in total from across the world to Chattanooga, she said.
Staff Photo by Seth Carpenter / Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly speaks during a press conference prior to the public signing of an agreement between The Company Lab and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on July 8, 2026.
“They’ll start with probably a half a dozen very high-paying positions,” she said, “because they’re going to have to really poach a specific skill base to be able to do the research on this.”
The salary range for an open quantum applications scientist based in Chattanooga begins at $123,000, compared to the average salary of around $56,000 for the area.
Gov. Bill Lee’s administration, Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp supported the announcement.
“One of the things that scared me into running for mayor to begin with was the danger of us just falling into economic irrelevance,” Kelly said by phone. “We really have got to figure out our pathway into the future economy, and quantum has always been our best hope in that regard.
“So this is the first tangible manifestation of that, actually,” he added.
Contact projects editor Joan McClane at jmcclane@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.
Joan McClane is two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist who has led enterprise reporting efforts at the Times Free Press for a decade. McClane earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama and has covered business, education, the court system, government and nonprofits since joining the newspaper’s staff in 2007.
She has received the national Casey Medal for writing about children and families and the national Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her feature writing. She has also been a finalist for the Livingston Award for young journalists, the Dart Award for coverage of trauma and the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Award for Distinguished Writing on Diversity.
Contact Joan at 423-757-6601 or jmcclane@timesfreepress.com.