IonQ, a US-based quantum computing firm, has announced its acquisition of UK rival Oxford Ionics in a $1.08 billion primarily stock deal. The move is expected to accelerate the company’s mission to develop full fault-tolerant quantum computers by 2030.
According to CEO Niccolo de Masi, the acquisition will enable IonQ to reach its goal of having 2 million physical qubits and 80,000 logical qubits in its systems. Qubits measure the power of quantum computing.
The deal comes as IonQ reported progress on its collaboration with Nvidia, Amazon Web Services, and AstraZeneca on using quantum computing for small molecule drug development. The project demonstrated a solution that is 20 times faster than previous benchmarks.
IonQ’s shares have risen 3% following the announcement, despite being down about 4% in 2025 so far. The company’s CEO had previously stated his ambition to become the Nvidia of quantum computing, and has been quoted as saying “I believe IonQ will be the Nvidia player.”
Source: https://www.investopedia.com/ionq-stock-unveils-uk-oxford-ionics-acquisition-nvidia-quantum-collaboration-11750547