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The US Quantum Computing Company IONQ has agreed to buy a UK technology startup that spun from Oxford University in a $1.1 billion all-stock trade, as sector breakthroughs will cause early signs of trading activity.
Maryland-based IONQ has a market value of around $10 billion at the end of Friday, and is one of the frontline companies in the field where technology groups such as IBM and Google’s parent-Alphabet compete to develop more powerful and easily run quantum computers.
Unlike traditional computers that solve problems using bits, quantum computers can harness qubits or qubits, processing information at exponentially faster speeds, potentially making great advances in areas such as drug discovery. However, higher error rates have proven to be faulty blocks for the early sector.
IONQ said Monday it had signed a $1.077 billion all-stock contract to buy the Oxford Ionics. This means that investors in UK startups will receive between 7.3% and 11.9% of IONQ’s common stock, depending on the share price performance at trading deadlines. The transaction is expected to end this year. Oxford Ionics investors will also receive $10 million in cash.
IONQ’s newly appointed CEO Niccolo de Masi said the acquisition will help the company achieve its goal of becoming “Nvidia of Quantum.”
“This is a progress in world change that comes faster and faster than people think,” De Mai told the Financial Times.
With the acquisition of Oxford Ionics, IONQ will be able to produce so-called fault-resistant quantum computers with 80,000 logical qubits and 2mn physical qubits by the end of the decade, the company said Monday. IBM, which has developed one of the most powerful quantum machines with over 1,000 qubits to date, is looking to develop a 100,000 qubit supercomputer by 2033.
Founded in 2019 by Oxford University physicists Chris Balance and Tom Harty, Oxford Ionics is one of the leaders in developing one of the most accurate quantum machines using ions trapped in ions manufactured on standard semiconductor chips, with a much lower number of random errors. 80 powerful workforce, including the founders of Oxford Ionics, will join IonQ after the transaction is completed.
IONQ has signed up for customers such as US government-backed Oak Ridge National Laboratory, British drug manufacturer Astrazeneca and Manufacturing Group Airbus. The company is projected to generate revenues of between $755 million and $95 million this year by setting quantum computer processing power to solve client problems.
The acquisition of Oxford Ionics is IONQ’s sixth acquisition since the end of December 2022. This is because the group tried to solidify its position as the largest pure play quantum computing company globally.
New York-listed IONQ stock almost quadrupled over the past year as excitement over quantum computing grew following the boom in artificial intelligence inventory, giving the stock price a $39 share price.
