IonQ to acquire Oxford Ionics in $1.08bn deal

IonQ on Monday announced a deal to acquire Oxford Ionics, a British quantum computing start-up, in a transaction valued at $1.08 billion.

It's mostly a stock-based deal, with Oxford Ionics owners receiving $1.07 billion worth of IonQ stock, plus $10 million in cash.

The transaction combines IonQ’s 'trapped-ion quantum stack' with Oxford Ionics’ 'ion-trap-on-a-chip technology'.

Together, the companies aim to accelerate the development of "scalable, fault-tolerant" quantum computers.

Oxford Ionics’ founders, Dr. Chris Ballance and Dr. Tom Harty, will remain with the combined company, and, IonQ plans to expand its UK presence and collaborate with the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre.

“IonQ’s vision has always been to drive real-world impact in every era and year of quantum computing’s growth," said IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi.

"Today’s announcement of our intention to acquire Oxford Ionics accelerates our mission to full fault-tolerant quantum computers with 2 million physical qubits and 80,000 logical qubits by 2030."

The deal is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in 2025.