Classiq writes the software that turns a pricing model or a materials problem into a quantum circuit, and on Monday Intel signed a definitive agreement to buy it. Classiq, founded in Tel Aviv in 2020, sells an algorithm synthesis platform: a developer describes what a quantum program should do in a high-level modeling language, and the platform generates and optimizes the circuit for a target machine.

Intel left the price out of its announcement. Calcalist, the Israeli business daily, reported $2.3 billion in cash and Intel stock, which would make it the largest acquisition in quantum computing to date (Calcalist, 2026). Intel expects to close in the first half of 2027, and the two companies operate as separate businesses until then.

Intel Is Buying the Translator Between Your Problem and the Qubit

Intel has worked on quantum hardware since 2015, betting on silicon spin qubits, which it builds with the same equipment and processes it uses for conventional chips. Intel says it is the only company that can produce both qubit chips and the cryogenic control electronics that run them at scale. That manufacturing base gives Intel an advantage most quantum startups lack, and the next step is a large community of developers writing code for its machines.

Classiq brings that community with it. Calcalist lists its customers as BMW, Rolls-Royce, HSBC, Deloitte, Toshiba and Citi. The platform connects to Microsoft Azure Quantum, Amazon Web Services Braket, NVIDIA CUDA-Q and IonQ hardware, so a bank's risk team can write one model and test it on several machines.

Calcalist puts Classiq's annual revenue in the tens of millions of dollars. Investors valued the company at $600 million to $700 million in its 2025 funding round, so Intel is paying more than three times that figure for a business with about 150 employees (Calcalist, 2026). Buyers pay that kind of multiple for position, and Classiq holds the spot where a developer first meets quantum hardware.

Lip-Bu Tan Ran the Classical Version of This Business for Twelve Years

Intel's press release compares Classiq to electronic design automation, the chip design software that, starting four decades ago, let engineers design processors without hand-drawing every transistor. The comparison carries extra weight because Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan led Cadence Design Systems, one of the two dominant electronic design automation vendors, as chief executive from 2009 to 2021.

Cadence earned its place by working with every major foundry, including foundries that compete with each other for the same customers. A chip team could design in Cadence tools and manufacture at whichever fab offered the best process or price, and Cadence grew because it protected that freedom to switch.

Tan built a career on that model, and Intel now owns one of the hardware options Classiq supports.

Classiq's Value to You Rests on Other Vendors' Hardware

Enterprise quantum teams run pilots across trapped-ion and superconducting machines because the vendors are still competing to show which approach reaches useful scale first. Intel's spin qubits join that list. For a team inside a bank or an automaker, Classiq offers the option to move a model from one machine to another as vendors pull ahead or fall behind.

Intel addressed this in the announcement. The company said it intends to keep supporting Classiq's existing multi-platform integrations and keep the software independent of any single qubit type or hardware vendor. That commitment sets the expectation, and the integration roadmaps Classiq publishes under Intel ownership will show how it works in practice.

Classiq customers bought the option to change quantum hardware vendors as the field matures.

Classiq's own investors include several Intel competitors. In November 2025, AMD, Qualcomm and IonQ joined a strategic funding round, according to Quantum Computing Report, and IonQ builds quantum hardware that Classiq customers run on today. Intel's work with those partners after close will show buyers how the neutrality commitment operates day to day.

Calcalist names IBM as Classiq's main competitor, and IBM pairs its developer tools with its own hardware and cloud access. The deal matters most to teams that picked Classiq to delay a hardware commitment, because Intel now decides how Classiq supports that strategy.

Buyers Need Three Answers Before the Deal Closes

• Intel will need to sequence new hardware integrations across vendors. Will Classiq publish that schedule for non-Intel machines alongside its plans for Intel's own quantum processing units?
• Will AMD, Qualcomm and IonQ keep their partnership terms with Classiq once Intel stock replaces their equity?
• Will the Tel Aviv team keep ownership of enterprise pricing and support, or will those move into Intel's enterprise sales organization?