Even as much of the technology investing hype of 2021 and early 2022 has burned off, quantum computing remains a frontier that excites many investors. Look no further than start-up IonQ (NYSE: IONQ). Shares of the small company are up more than 350% so far in 2023, valuing the business at a market cap of $3 billion. This run-up includes a sell-off from the recent peak. That's remarkable, given that IonQ still generates little in the way of revenue, let alone profit. 

Nevertheless, the promise of future computing acceleration (beyond the boundaries of even what Nvidia's powerful AI systems are performing today) has many thinking IonQ is a buy-the-dip candidate. But is it really?

IonQ went public in 2021 via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). At the time, many investors latched on to the fact that notable investors included Bill Gates, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Michael Dell of Dell fame. However, as of today, none of these tech heavy hitters ranks among IonQ's top shareholders. Interestingly, though, Amazon does own about 1.4% of the company's shares, no doubt because of its AWS cloud infrastructure partnership with IonQ. IonQ's computers can also be accessed via cloud services Microsoft's Azure and 's Google Cloud.

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Source Fool.com