Intel Buys Quantum Software Startup Classiq to Become a Full-Stack Quantum Computing Company

Intel said on October 26 that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq, a quantum computing software provider headquartered in Tel Aviv, in a deal intended to transform Intel's quantum hardware effort into what chief executive Lip-Bu Tan called "a full-stack quantum computing business." The price was not disclosed, and closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals. Until then the two companies will operate independently.

Classiq, founded in 2020 by Nir Minerbi, Yehuda Noy and Amir Nave, has raised more than $200 million and employs around 130 people. Its platform automates quantum algorithm synthesis: developers describe what a program should do at a high level, and the system compiles it into optimized circuits that can run on many kinds of quantum hardware, including hardware from Intel's competitors. Customers use it to test whether quantum computing is useful for their business at all, and its client list includes BMW Group and AT&T. After the deal closes, Intel says it will keep supporting those multi-platform integrations to preserve an open ecosystem.

Intel has invested in quantum computing since 2015 and positions itself as the only company able to produce qubit chips and complex cryogenic control electronics at scale using equipment and processes common to conventional silicon semiconductor manufacturing. What it has lacked is a compelling software layer — the gap Classiq fills. Intel draws an explicit analogy to the invention of electronic design automation software four decades ago, which abstracted chip design away from its underlying hardware complexity and turned circuit design into an industry.

The acquisition also extends Intel's compute portfolio, which already spans CPUs, GPUs and application-specific integrated circuits, to quantum processing units. "Joining forces with Classiq transforms Intel's Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum computing business," Tan said in the announcement, welcoming the entire Classiq team.

The timing is notable. The announcement came days before Intel's third-quarter earnings report, at a moment when Tan has stabilized the company's finances after a bruising restructuring and is trying to win back ground in AI compute. Quantum remains an early-stage field still searching for commercial use cases, but large chipmakers are treating it as an option on the next computing platform that they cannot afford to leave unexercised.

For the quantum industry, the deal is a further signal of consolidation around hardware players buying software capability rather than building it. Intel's bet is that abstraction — making quantum programming accessible without deep circuit-design expertise — is what moves the technology from physics demonstrations toward an engineering discipline. Whether that happens on Intel's silicon spin-qubit platform or on a competitor's modality, Classiq's hardware-agnostic approach lets Intel hedge either way.