Today’s Brief Commentary:
The quantum world is on fire this week with acquisitions, roadmaps, and the adoption of post-quantum cryptography (PQC). I’ve included several curated links, as usual, but I’ve limited myself to a reasonable number of them. My goal with these newsletters is to allow you to read the commentary and follow the stories that interest you, all within the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee, tea, or your beverage of choice.
This morning, IBM announced its plans to build a quantum supercomputer in a data center in Poughkeepsie, New York, approximately 75 miles (121 km) north of New York City on the Hudson River. I will discuss this in a special Extended Commentary edition of this newsletter later this week.
Two UK quantum corporate assets are being sold to US companies, as Maryland-based IonQ announced its plans to acquire Oxford Ionics, and Oxford Instruments is selling its quantum NanoScience division to Quantum Design, a San Diego, California-based company.
My congratulations to co-founders Chris Ballance and Tom Harty and the rest of the Oxford Ionics team on this $1 billion, mostly stock, move by IonQ. Their trapped ion technology is impressive for its reliance on electronics and semiconductors and should allow much faster scaling beyond traditional traps.
I know these moves are bittersweet to some in the UK. Are these additional examples of UK commercial efforts that American industry acquires and absorbs before they can establish themselves domestically as standalone public companies?
In the case of NanoScience of Oxford Instruments, the answer is no. The company simply sold one part of itself to another company, which presumably can focus on and be successful with it.
For Oxford Ionics, the answer is arguably yes; an American company is absorbing a UK one, part and parcel. The counterarguments include: welcome to international business, these things happen; the Oxford Ionics tech will be better funded and can reach its full potential; and this extends IonQ’s global footprint as it expands and diversifies.
This move raises several vital questions for the quantum computing industry, for which I give my answers:
- Is this the beginning of a serious wave of consolidation among the 83 quantum processing unit companies? Yes.
- Will some of those companies rush to become public to capitalize on the positive investment sentiment and acquire other necessary tech? Yes.
- Is IonQ a significantly different company now under the leadership of Niccolo de Masi as its CEO? Yes, so reset what you thought of them and what you think they will do.
- Did IonQ give up on its trapped-ion technology and roadmap and place its bets with another one? Probably yes, but I doubt it will say it.
- Does this put other trapped-ion companies in an awkward position, and will it force them to explain why they are sticking with their current approaches? Yes.
If we fast-forward 15 years into the future and examine the quantum computing modalities that have scaled well to provide Practical Quantum Advantage, I think there will be three. This move has increased the odds that trapped ions will be one of them.
There are 11 other trapped ion companies that I track: Alpine Quantum Technologies, eleQtron, Huayi Boao Quantum Technology, neQxt GmbH, Quantinuum, Quantum Art, QuDoor, QUDORA Technologies, Rosatom State Corporation, Universal Quantum, and ZuriQ.
Rosatom won’t be acquired, but who do you bet is next or will acquire one of the others?
Don’t forget to check out and bookmark our new sortable list of upcoming quantum technology conferences.
The latest Sutor Group report is freely available online: Quantum Processing Unit (QPU) Market Landscape (Abridged) – April 3, 2025. Updates and the full report are available for purchase or by subscription. Contact us for details.
Contents
Earnings Announcements and Financial Dealings
Pasqal Acquires Photonics Innovator AEPONYX to Accelerate the Race to Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing | Pasqal
https://www.pasqal.com/newsroom/pasqal-acquires-photonics-innovator-aeponyx/
Date: Tuesday, June 3, 2025
Excerpt: Pasqal, a global leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, today announced the acquisition of AEPONYX, a Canadian pioneer in photonic integrated circuits (PICs) – specialized chips in precise light control and manipulation. This strategic move strengthens Pasqal’s hardware platform and accelerates the company’s roadmap to fault-tolerant quantum computing (FTQC), a critical milestone toward unlocking quantum’s full potential.
IonQ Announces Agreement to Acquire Oxford Ionics, Accelerating Path to Pioneering Breakthroughs in Quantum Computing
Date: Monday, June 9, 2025
Excerpt: IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) and Oxford Ionics today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement for IonQ to acquire Oxford Ionics in a transaction valued at $1.075 Billion, which will consist of $1.065 Billion in shares of IonQ common stock and approximately $10 Million in cash (subject to customary closing adjustments and expenses).
Sale of Oxford Instruments’ quantum business, NanoScience | Oxford Instruments
https://www.oxinst.com/news/sale-of-oxford-instruments%E2%80%99-quantum-business,-nanoscience/
Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Excerpt: Oxford Instruments plc, a leading provider of high technology products and services to industry and scientific research communities, today announces that it has entered into a binding agreement to sell its quantum-focused business Oxford Instruments NanoScience (“NanoScience”) to Quantum Design, International Inc. for a £60m total cash consideration (“Sale”), including up to £3m of deferred consideration linked to future revenues from quantum scaling systems.
Post-Quantum Cryptography and Security
Commvault Unveils New Post-Quantum Cryptography Capabilities to Help Customers Protect Data from a New Generation of Security Threats
Date: Monday, June 9, 2025
Commentary: Strong infrastructure vendors like Commvault continue to roll out Post-Quantum Cryptography support in their products. You have no excuse as an enterprise to get moving now on your transition to PQC standards and crypto-agility. Query: if these big and trusted companies have you covered, what will be the market space for startups?
Excerpt: Expanded support for new encryption standards empowers customers to proactively safeguard long-term sensitive data against ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ quantum threats.
Quantum Computing
IBM Sets the Course to Build World’s First Large-Scale, Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computer at New IBM Quantum Data Center
Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Commentary: I will have more on this in a separate extended commentary edition of this newsletter. Is it a coincidence that the leader of Big Blue’s quantum program is Jay Gambetta?
Excerpt: Starling will be able to access the computational power required for these problems by running 100 million quantum operations using 200 logical qubits. It will be the foundation for IBM Quantum Blue Jay, which will be capable of executing 1 billion quantum operations over 2,000 logical qubits.
IQM’s State of Quantum 2025: Quantum Industry Must Solve Talent Shortage and Software Platforms, Not Just Qubits
Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Commentary: As a rule, I don’t believe any market size predictions. What a bigger number? I can find someone to give that to you. Smaller? Same thing. Let’s add together many numbers someone made up by other numbers someone else made up, and put great faith in the answer. Does anyone ever check these things for historical accuracy? The report has several important features, so it is still worth a read, especially about HPC integration.
Excerpt: IQM Quantum Computers in collaboration with analyst firm Omdia (LON:INF), today unveiled the third edition of its State of Quantum Report, revealing that the quantum industry must address talent shortages and software development kits (SDK) gaps in order to scale beyond just qubit count. As quantum computing shifts from theoretical promise to practical integration, the report projects that the global quantum computing market will reach over $22 billion by 2032 as commercial deployments accelerate.
Quantum Computing | Technical
Best quantum ‘transistor’ yet could lead to more accurate computers | New Scientist
Author: Karmela Padavic-Callaghan
Date: Monday, June 2, 2025
Excerpt: Leu and his colleagues made their qubit from a positively-charged calcium ion. They used electromagnetic forces to keep it trapped above a chip, which was equipped with tiny components that could emit well-controlled microwaves. These microwaves were key: by shooting them at the qubit, the researchers could create a gate that changed the qubit’s quantum state extremely reliably.
Experimental quantum-enhanced kernel-based machine learning on a photonic processor | Nature Photonics
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-025-01682-5
Authors: Yin, Zhenghao; Agresti, Iris; de Felice, Giovanni; Brown, Douglas; Toumi, Alexis; Pentangelo, Ciro; Piacentini, Simone; Crespi, Andrea; Ceccarelli, Francesco; ; …; and Walther, Philip
Date: Monday, June 2, 2025
Excerpt: A quantum kernel estimation by which feature data points are evaluated through the unitary evolution of two-boson Fock states is experimentally demonstrated on a photonic integrated processor. This model provides enhanced accuracy with respect to commonly used classical methods for several classification tasks.
Sutor Group Intelligence and Advisory
Dr. Bob Sutor is the CEO and Founder of Sutor Group Intelligence and Advisory. Sutor Group provides broad market insights and deep technical expertise based on over four decades of experience with startups and large corporations. It advises Deep Tech startups, companies, and investors on quantum technologies, AI, and other emerging tech fields.
Sutor Group shares its knowledge and analysis through direct client engagements and seminars, reports, newsletters, books, written and on-air media appearances, and speaking and panel moderation at the top conferences and client events.
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