NishMath

IonQ is set to acquire Oxford Ionics in a deal valued at $1.075 billion, marking a significant move in the quantum computing industry. The transaction involves $1.065 billion in IonQ common stock and approximately $10 million in cash, subject to adjustments. This acquisition aims to combine IonQ’s quantum computing stack with Oxford Ionics’ ion-trap technology built on standard semiconductor chips. The merger is expected to foster the development of more powerful and reliable quantum computers. Both companies anticipate mutual benefits from their combined expertise, technologies, and IonQ’s established global resources.

The combined company expects significant advancements in qubit technology. They aim to achieve 256 physical qubits with 99.99% accuracy by 2026, and over 10,000 physical qubits with 99.99999% logical accuracy by 2027. Their long-term goal is to reach 2 million physical qubits in their quantum computers by 2030, enabling logical qubit accuracies exceeding 99.9999999999%. IonQ plans to have a fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2029 and is acquiring Oxford Ionic to accelerate this, with IonQ aiming for 2 million physical qubits and 80,000 logical qubits by 2030.

Beyond hardware advancements, IonQ is also focused on application development. In a separate announcement, IonQ highlighted its partnership with AstraZeneca, AWS, and NVIDIA to accelerate drug discovery through quantum computing. They demonstrated a quantum-accelerated drug discovery workflow that significantly reduces simulation time for a key pharmaceutical reaction, achieving over a 20-fold improvement in time-to-solution for the Suzuki-Miyaura reaction. By integrating IonQ’s Forte quantum processor with NVIDIA CUDA-Q and AWS infrastructure, the hybrid system cut projected runtimes from months to days, showcasing the potential for quantum computing to revolutionize pharmaceutical research timelines.

ImgSrc: news.crunchbase

References :

• NextBigFuture.com: IONQ Plans 2 Million Qubits by 2030 and 80,000 Error Corrected Logical Qubits
• SiliconANGLE: IonQ to buy Oxford Ionics in $1B+ quantum hardware acquisition
• siliconcanals.com: IonQ goes quantum shopping: Buys Oxford Ionics for $1.075B
• thequantuminsider.com: IonQ Acquires UK-based Oxford Ionics For $1.075 Billion
• Crunchbase News: IonQ Acquires Oxford Ionics For $1.07B As Quantum Space Continues To Sizzle
• Silicon Canals: Maryland, US-based IonQ, a company specialising in quantum computing and networking, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Oxford Ionics for $1.075 billion.
• The Quantum Insider: IonQ will acquire Oxford Ionics in a $1.075 billion deal, bringing together two key players in trapped-ion quantum computing, the companies announced.

Classification:

• HashTags: #QuantumComputing #IonQ #OxfordIonics
• Company: IonQ
• Target: Quantum Computing Industry
• Product: Quantum Computer
• Feature: Quantum Computing
• Type: News
• Severity: Informative