Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) has agreed to acquire Classiq, a Tel Aviv company whose software turns a description of what a quantum program should do into circuits that run on different makers' quantum computers, Intel said on October 26. Intel did not disclose the price.
Calcalist, which reported the deal minutes before Intel announced it, put the price of the Intel Classiq acquisition at $2.3 billion in cash and Intel stock. Bloomberg reported about $2.3 billion, citing people familiar with the matter. Globes reported that about $100 million of cash left from a $137 million round Classiq completed in 2025 brings the effective price to about $2.2 billion.
The reported terms, set against Classiq's own funding record:
What Intel gets
Intel has worked on quantum computing since 2015 and builds silicon spin qubits with the equipment and processes it uses for conventional chips. Adding Classiq would let it offer a full stack, from quantum processors to the software developers use to program them, Intel said. Lip-Bu Tan, Intel's chief executive, said in the announcement:
Joining forces with Classiq transforms Intel's Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum computing business.Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel
Intel also said it intends to keep supporting Classiq's integrations with other companies' hardware. As of May 2025, Classiq's platform worked directly with machines from IBM, IonQ, Quantinuum, Rigetti and others and ran on Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and Google Cloud, according to Classiq. Its customers then included BMW, Citi, Deloitte, Rolls-Royce, Mizuho and Toshiba.
The two companies will operate separately until the deal closes, which Intel expects in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Nir Minerbi, Classiq's co-founder and chief executive, told Calcalist in an interview after the announcement that Classiq's roughly 140 employees will join an Intel quantum team of about 70, that the company will report to Intel's chief technology officer organization, and that Intel has said it wants Classiq to keep its startup culture and Israeli identity.
The price against Classiq's funding
Classiq has raised more than $200 million. Its $110 million Series C, led by Entrée Capital in May 2025, brought its total to $173 million. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 joined that round in July 2025, and AMD Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and IonQ invested in a further round of tens of millions of dollars in November 2025, the company said.
Calcalist reported that the Series C valued Classiq at an estimated $600 million to $700 million, which would put the reported price at about 3.3 to 3.8 times that valuation, by SaasBuzz's calculation. Classiq called its November round an up-round but did not give a valuation. Calcalist also reported that Classiq's annual revenue is in the tens of millions of dollars. Minerbi told the paper that Classiq had looked at going public, through a SPAC or a traditional IPO, before agreeing to sell. Calcalist and Globes both described the deal as the largest acquisition of a quantum computing company to date.
Lip-Bu Tan's earlier investment
Tan invested in Classiq personally before he ran Intel. Classiq's announcement of its $33 million Series B in February 2022 listed personal investments from Tan, then executive chairman of Cadence Design Systems, and from Harvey Jones, a former Synopsys chief executive. Calcalist and Globes both reported, citing people close to Classiq, that Tan recused himself from the acquisition talks.
What it means for Classiq's customers
Classiq has sold its platform on not tying customers to one kind of quantum hardware. Intel said it intends to keep the software independent of any one qubit type or hardware maker, which matters to customers that run work on machines from Intel's rivals. Intel's announcement did not address pricing, support terms or the Classiq brand.
