IonQ Partners With Qollab’s Creative Challenge, Advancing Creative Quantum Innovation

COLLEGE PARK, MD - March 18, 2026 - IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), the world's leading quantum platform company, today announced its collaboration with the second annual Creative Challenge by Qollab.xyz. Qollab is a community-driven effort designed to inspire developers, designers, and creative technologists to explore quantum applications.

The initiative seeks proposals for original, open-source quantum experiments that demonstrate the unique capabilities of quantum computing through creativity, storytelling, interactivity, and technical rigor. Selected teams will receive $50,000 in IonQ quantum compute credits funded by Qollab, as well as direct funding of up to $5,000, plus $20,000 in additional quantum computing credits from IonQ for the first three selected teams.

All selected teams will also be featured and promoted as part of Qollab's public showcase gallery online. Projects are expected to remain publicly accessible for at least a year and contribute to a growing ecosystem of approachable, real-world quantum use cases.

In addition to providing access to quantum compute resources and technical support, IonQ will actively amplify selected projects, as well as participate in the evaluation and judging of all submitted projects. Additionally, IonQ plans to provide mentorships to selected teams, while also giving them the opportunity to present their work to our executive team. This hands-on involvement reflects IonQ's ongoing commitment to expanding quantum literacy, encouraging open innovation, and accelerating the development of practical quantum use cases across education, art, software, and emerging application domains.

The Creative Challenge organizers from Qollab note that the winning projects from last year's inaugural Challenge - "Quantum Garden" and "QAVE" - are live on Qollab's projects page. A unique aspect of the Creative Challenge is that the code from the winning projects can be remixed by anyone for their own novel ventures or projects.

The Qollab initiative builds on IonQ's broader efforts to make enterprise-grade quantum systems more accessible to developers worldwide, while fostering a vibrant, open ecosystem that encourages experimentation, learning and collaboration. Project submissions are due by April 7 at https://qollab.xyz/creativechallenge. Final projects are expected to launch publicly toward the end of May, accompanied by coordinated promotion across Qollab and IonQ channels.

About IonQ

IonQ, Inc. [NYSE: IONQ] is the world's leading quantum platform and merchant supplier - delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ's newest generation of quantum computers, the forthcoming IonQ Tempo, will be the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve 20x performance results and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.

Headquartered in College Park, Maryland, IonQ has operations in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Washington, Italy, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Toronto, and the United Kingdom. Our quantum computing services are available through all major cloud providers, while we also meet the needs of networking and sensing customers across land, sea, air, and space. IonQ is making quantum platforms more accessible and impactful than ever before. Learn more at IonQ.com.

About Qollab.xyz

Qollab (qollab.xyz) is a new community-led initiative designed to make quantum computing more accessible for builders of all backgrounds and experiences. Qollab provides developers, designers, and creative technologists a platform to learn from each other. Members can:

• Run real quantum code in their browser through our playground - no setup required
• Share, fork, and remix quantum code
• Get inspired by seeing signature quantum experiments
• Exchange tips and tricks on writing production-ready quantum applications
• Participate in coding challenges
• Continue learning through dedicated tutorials

Currently in its foundational stage, Qollab offers its early members a unique opportunity to shape the community, technical roadmap, and long-term mission. We aren't just building tools; we're building the collective intelligence required to navigate the next era of computing.