IONQ Inc. shares experienced a 24-hour plunge of 5.3% on Monday's pre-market trading session.

The sell-off in IONQ and other quantum computing stocks was fueled by concerns over progress made by China's DeepSeek AI lab. DeepSeek released a powerful new AI model that it claims was built at a relatively low cost using less advanced chips. If true, this development could undermine the demand for the expensive AI chips and hardware that quantum computing companies like IONQ rely on.

As a key player in the emerging quantum computing industry, IONQ's stock was impacted by fears that advances in low-cost AI models could disrupt the competitive landscape and growth prospects for the sector.