In a dramatic sign of the rapid growth of quantum computing, U.S.-based quantum computing company IonQ has acquired UK-based Oxford Ionics in a deal valued at $1.08 billion. The agreement, comprised of $1.05 billion in IonQ stock and approximately $10 million in cash, marks the first billion-dollar acquisition in the emerging quantum computing sector.
Oxford Ionic, a startup founded in 2019, produced a full-stack quantum computer and sold units to UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and Germany’s Cyberagentur. It has a deep specialization in in quantum semiconductors, and in July 2024 the company broke quantum performance records to become the designer of the highest performing quantum chip that can be fabricated in a standard semiconductor production plant.
To achieve this, Oxford developed a process that did not require lasers to control qubits. The method uses trapped ions, which is the most powerful quantum technology to date, and integrates it onto a silicon chip. Ionic holds the world records in three crucial metrics for quantum performance: quantum state preparation and measurement, and single and two-qubit gate fidelity.
IonQ, founded in 2015, launched with a goal of turning trapped ion quantum computing into a commercially viable product. By 2018, it attracted $20 million in funding from AWS, Google Ventures and New Enterprise Associates, and the following year it garnered an additional $55 million from Mubadala and Samsung. When it went public in October 2021, it was the public market’s first quantum-only computing company.
With the two company’s mutual focus on trapped ions, their now joint effort appears well suited to move quantum into the next generation. Today’s most powerful quantum system, the Condor quantum processor developed by IBM, holds just over 1,100 qubits. Now IonQ, with help from Oxford Ionics technology, has ambitions to leave this figure in the dust. The newly combined company plans to build systems with more than 10,000 qubits by 2027 and 2 million qubits by 2030.
“Together, we intend to move faster than any other player in the industry to deliver the leading fault-tolerant quantum computers with transformative value for customers,” said Chris Ballance, chief executive officer of Oxford Ionics.
IonQ appears to have adopted a heavy growth-through-acquisition strategy. Already this year it has snapped up Capella Space, an aerospace technology company; and Lightsynq Technologies, which develops the optical quantum interconnects that play a key role in scaling quantum computers.
In April of this year, IonQ CEO Niccolo De Masi told CNBC that the company wants to be “the 800-pound gorilla” of quantum computing. IonQ’s stock, while down slightly year to date, is up over 400% over the last twelve months.
IonQ was also in the news this week for developing a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm, created in partnership with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, that solves an important daily power grid challenge. The solution found cost-efficient options for power generation across a wide array of grid environments.
2025 has been a year a surging interest in quantum computing, as both Alphabet and Microsoft unveiled advances in quantum. Forecasting long term, the Boston Consulting Group predicts that the quantum computing sector will generate as much as $850 billion in value by 2040.
