Intel buys Classiq to add quantum software to its silicon qubits

Intel said on October 26 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq, a quantum computing software company, in a deal meant to give Intel a full-stack quantum platform. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, and no price was given.

According to the official announcement, the plan is to combine Classiq’s algorithm synthesis platform with Intel’s silicon spin-qubit manufacturing and its existing quantum software. Intel also says the deal would let it add Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) to a portfolio that already spans CPUs, GPUs and ASICs.

What Intel says it is getting

Intel compares Classiq’s role to that of electronic design automation (EDA) software in chip design. Those tools, it says, let engineers design chips without handling the complexity of the underlying hardware. Classiq, in Intel’s telling, plays a similar part for quantum machines: a software layer that works regardless of the qubit type or the hardware beneath it.

Intel presents itself as the sole company that can mass-produce both qubit chips and the sophisticated cryogenic control electronics that run them, relying on the same kind of tools and process steps used in ordinary silicon chipmaking. It has invested in quantum computing since 2015. Classiq, according to its own description in the release, is used by dozens of global enterprises, and its platform combines AI agents, a high-level quantum modeling language and design automation. It also supports hardware benchmarking and execution across different quantum hardware platforms.

Lip-Bu Tan, Intel’s chief executive, said that joining forces with Classiq “transforms Intel’s Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum computing business.” Nir Minerbi, Classiq’s co-founder and chief executive, said the two companies can “help unlock the benefits of quantum computing and accelerate its adoption sooner.”

Classiq is promised to stay open to other hardware

The most practical commitment for existing users is about neutrality. After closing, Intel says it intends to keep supporting Classiq’s current multi-platform integrations and to keep the software agnostic to modality and hardware. That matters because Classiq’s customers run on other vendors’ machines today. Until the deal closes, which depends on regulatory approvals and other customary conditions, the two companies stay separate and independent.

The release does not say what Intel will pay, how many people will move over, or whether Classiq’s customers will see any change in pricing or terms. It also gives no date for a commercial Intel QPU. The statements about benefits are Intel’s own and have not been independently verified.

Small chips, a well-funded software partner

The announcement offers no hardware figures, but earlier reporting gives some scale. Intel’s Tunnel Falls research chip, released in June 2023, has 12 spin qubits, each roughly 50 nm by 50 nm, made on 300 mm wafers in Intel’s Oregon fab. Coverage at the time noted that rivals such as IBM and Google have processors with many more qubits, while Intel argues that silicon spin qubits scale better because they borrow transistor manufacturing.

The target is far from a small startup. Classiq raised $110 million in a Series C in May 2025, described as the largest round yet for a quantum software company, which brought its total funding to $173 million. Public sources do not give a valuation, so the Intel price cannot be compared with that figure.

Read together, the numbers suggest why software is the missing piece. A 12-qubit chip is a research tool, and the hard part for any customer is turning a business problem into circuits that fit a given machine. Classiq’s pitch is to automate that step, and Intel’s pitch is that such automation, tied to chips it can make in volume, is what turns quantum into a product. Whether the hardware reaches a useful size is a separate question that this announcement does not answer.

A risk list that is mostly about quantum itself

Intel’s forward-looking statements are unusually frank about the technology. They cite uncertainty over the timing and extent of commercial adoption of quantum computing, the chance that the deal fails to close, and the risk of losing key Classiq staff and customers. Intel also names competition and fast technological change in the semiconductor industry.

For now, nothing changes for Classiq users or for Intel’s research partners. The next markers are regulatory clearance and the planned close in the first half of 2027.