IonQ (IONQ +20.16%) published a press release today announcing that it had won a contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The contract news had a huge bullish impact on the company's share price. IonQ stock closed out the day's trading up 20.2%. DARPA has been at the center of pushing U.S. defense technologies forward since its founding, and the vote of confidence from the agency is a significant development for IonQ. The quantum computing specialist has won a contract with DARPA's Heterogeneous Architectures for Quantum (HARQ) program, and the bigger picture may be even more exciting. IonQ's latest tech update could have big implications IonQ's announcement of its HARQ deal with DARPA wasn't the only catalyst that sent its share price higher on Tuesday. In conjunction with the DARPA news, IonQ also published a very promising update on its partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory and broader tech capabilities. The quantum company revealed today that it had successfully photonically interconnected two independent trapped-ion quantum systems. The announcement is significant because the company is reporting that it has completed the first successful demonstration of commercial quantum computers working together on shared processing loads. The ability to combine the computational powers of multiple graphics processing units (GPUs) has been central to driving the artificial intelligence revolution, and data suggesting that multiple quantum computers can work in tandem has major implications for the scalability of the tech. If IonQ has a forefront position when it comes to interconnecting trapped-ion quantum systems, it's possible that the company could deliver big technological leaps forward as its quantum capabilities continue to develop. NYSE: IONQ Key Data Points Has IonQ turned a crucial corner? The pairing of the DARPA contract announcement with news that IonQ has potentially achieved a major technological milestone by