Intel buys Classiq's quantum software, which runs on rivals' machines

Classiq runs on IBM, IonQ and Quantinuum machines. Intel makes only research stage silicon spin qubits.

Intel is paying about $2.3 billion for a quantum software company that serves its rivals. The deal closes in the first half of 2027, and Intel has not yet sold a quantum computer to anyone.

The price depends on Classiq staying neutral. Intel is buying a commercial software business for a research hardware programme, and eight rival hardware makers integrate directly with Classiq. If they leave, the platform Intel bought is narrower than the one it announced.

On 26 October, after the close of trading at 4:30 pm EDT, Intel announced a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq. Calcalist reported the price as $2.3 billion in cash and Intel stock.

Intel shares stood at $90.47 at 3:59 pm EDT, 15 minutes delayed and before the release, so the first market reaction comes on 27 October.

The price and shareholders

Classiq's revenue is in the tens of millions of dollars, below a $100 million run rate, according to the same report. So Intel is paying more than 23 times sales.

The 2025 funding round valued Classiq at an estimated $600 million to $700 million, so the price is about three to four times that mark. It is also roughly eleven times the $200 million Classiq has raised in total.

The proceeds go to a small group of shareholders. Entrée Capital, the largest shareholder, is expected to receive more than $300 million. Team8 holds 9% and The Phoenix 7.5%. Classiq's employees hold 10%, worth $230 million at the deal price.

Each of its three founders is expected to receive $80 million to $100 million. Intel has also set aside more than $100 million in retention grants for staff.

Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan invested in Classiq personally before taking the job. Sources close to Classiq say he recused himself from the talks. The chief executive's own money sits on the seller's side of the table, so the recusal is the control that matters.

Why hardware neutrality matters

Intel's description of Classiq shows why neutrality matters. It says Classiq plays a role similar to electronic design automation, the software chip designers use. Its words are "providing a unifying software platform that is agnostic to the underlying qubit modality and hardware". Such vendors earn their money by selling to every fab, including rivals. A compiler that favours one maker has fewer customers.

Classiq's record shows how far that neutrality runs. Its May 2025 release lists direct integration with IBM, IonQ, QuEra, Quantinuum, OQC, AQT, Alice & Bob and Rigetti. It also lists deployment on AWS Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and Google Cloud. The clouds are the largest group of users whose access depends on neutrality.

Its shareholders also include Intel's competitors. In November 2025 Classiq added an up round of about $30 million. It came from AMD Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures and IonQ, and took cumulative funding to over $200 million. AMD and Qualcomm sell processors that compete with Intel's. IonQ builds quantum machines that compete with Intel's spin qubits.

The earlier Series C raised $110 million, led by Entrée Capital. Total funding reached $173 million, so $63 million had come before it. Its chief executive then said it was "building the Microsoft of quantum computing", a pitch to the whole industry.

Intel has promised to preserve that neutrality. After closing it "intends to continue to support Classiq's existing multi-platform integrations and ensure a modality- and hardware-agnostic software solution".

IBM is also Classiq's main competitor, per the same report. So IBM, IonQ and Quantinuum must decide whether to keep deep integration with a tool a rival will control. On 8 October Classiq announced a partnership with NTT DOCOMO BUSINESS.

Neutrality also serves Intel. Workloads written once can be pointed at an Intel processor the day one exists. The timing problem is that Intel's hardware is research silicon, so Classiq's customers have no Intel quantum processor to run on.

Customers and Intel's hardware gap

Intel gains an existing customer base and developers. Classiq is used by "dozens of global enterprises", and its May 2025 funding release names BMW, Citi, Deloitte, Rolls-Royce, Mizuho and Toshiba. The same release says it tripled its customer base and revenues year on year.

Intel also gets developers who write in Classiq's high level modelling language. Cofounder and chief executive Nir Minerbi says it lets users "create scalable quantum applications without requiring deep expertise in quantum circuit design".

Intel has little of its own on the software side. It has the Intel Quantum SDK, which its research page describes as "a full quantum computing stack in simulation". It is a simulator, not a machine a customer can rent.

Intel's hardware is at an even earlier stage. Tunnel Falls is "Intel's first silicon spin qubit device released to the research community". The same page says today's systems hold "tens or hundreds" of entangled qubits and commercial systems need "over a million". That is a gap of at least 10,000 times, stated for the whole industry. Intel itself says "we may be years away from large-scale implementation".

Intel says it is "the only company capable of producing qubit chips and complex cryogenic control electronics at-scale". It would use ordinary silicon manufacturing equipment. The release says the deal lets Intel add quantum processing units to a portfolio that already spans CPUs, GPUs and ASICs. Tan said it "transforms Intel's Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum computing business".

What to check at closing

The revenue base of that business is Classiq's software. So its customer list will say more than any qubit count about whether the business is real. Intel expects to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals, and until then the two companies stay separate.

At closing, count the direct hardware integrations on Classiq's website. Eight are listed today. If any is gone, the platform Intel bought is narrower than the one it announced. If the clouds drop it, the $2.3 billion buys a captive compiler.