Quantum computing company IonQ’s short position more than halved YTD, from 23% of float to 11%, pulling its crowded and squeeze scores down with it.

Shorts covered heavily from late May onward, after the stock ran from $26 in April to $72 in late May with the squeeze score printing 100, and the covering has continued since.

The unwind shifted IONQ from a heavily shorted stock to a battleground name, with the crowded score dropping below 50 and the long/short ratio rising to 1.3.

IonQ is the largest pure-play quantum computing company by market capitalization, at roughly $17 billion as of 8 September 2026.

It builds trapped-ion quantum computers and sells access to them through AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and its own cloud platform.

Revenue growth is strong but earnings remain negative, and annualized volatility of roughly 100% underlines how speculative the stock is.

Short sellers covered aggressively, taking short interest from 23% of float in January 2026 to 11% today.

Long interest was flat over the same period before rising in recent weeks.

The timing of that covering points to a prolonged squeeze.

Short positions fell through May as the stock more than doubled off its April low, with momentum buying on the way up keeping squeeze conditions elevated.

The rally was supported by strong revenue growth, raised guidance, the SkyWater acquisition (completed 31 July 2026), and a series of government and defense contract awards.

Declines in both the stock price and short interest from their Q2 peaks mark the end of the classic squeeze environment and the start of the unwind.

IONQ has moved from a heavily shorted name dominated by the bears into a moderately shorted battleground contested by both sides. S3 defines Battlegrounds as stocks with roughly equal active manager long positions and short positions.

The shift came from falling short interest rather than an influx of new shorts, the opposite of how battleground names usually form.

Heavy short covering reduced crowding and lowered squeeze risk.

Long interest then picked up.

Elevated squeeze conditions through the first quarter of 2026 accurately foreshadowed the subsequent rally and short-covering period.

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