Intel has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq, a Tel Aviv-based provider of quantum computing software, the company announced on Monday, combining Classiq’s synthesis platform with Intel’s spin-qubit manufacturing to create a full-stack quantum computing platform. Intel said the combination would turn its Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum business, adding Quantum Processing Units to a compute portfolio that already spans Central Processing Units, Graphical Processing Units and application-specific integrated circuits. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the first half of 2027; Intel did not disclose financial terms.
What Classiq Brings To Intel
According to Intel, Classiq provides a unifying software platform that is agnostic to the underlying qubit modality and hardware. The company draws a direct parallel with the history of classical computing: more than forty years ago, Electronic Design Automation and Computer-Aided Design software transformed silicon chip design by providing a common platform that separated chip design from the complexity of the underlying hardware. Intel says Classiq plays a similar role in quantum computing, providing the high-level abstraction that lets the field scale beyond custom hand-crafted circuits and applications into a mainstream computing platform.
Classiq’s platform is used by dozens of global enterprises, according to Intel, and combines AI agents, a high-level quantum modelling language and design automation to accelerate the development of optimised, hardware-ready quantum software. It also supports hardware benchmarking and cost and performance optimisation, and execution across quantum hardware platforms. That breadth is the point of the acquisition: Intel is not buying a single application, but the software layer that lets developers, researchers and enterprises build quantum applications without deep expertise in quantum circuit design.
What Intel Brings To Classiq
Intel has been investing in quantum computing since 2015, according to the announcement, and says it is the only company capable of producing qubit chips and complex cryogenic control electronics at scale, using equipment and processes common to conventional silicon-based semiconductor manufacturing. The proposed acquisition would combine that manufacturing base with Intel’s quantum software platform and Classiq’s automated quantum algorithm synthesis platform.
Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said joining forces with Classiq transforms Intel’s Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum computing business, built on a decade of progress applying semiconductor innovation, advanced manufacturing and systems engineering to scalable silicon spin-qubit technology. Classiq co-founder and chief executive Nir Minerbi said the two companies together can help unlock the benefits of quantum computing and accelerate its adoption sooner, by making quantum computing practical and accessible.
After the transaction closes, Intel intends to continue supporting Classiq’s existing multi-platform integrations and to ensure a modality- and hardware-agnostic software solution that continues to enable an open and collaborative quantum software ecosystem. Until closing, Intel and Classiq will continue to operate as separate, independent companies.
Why It Matters
The deal matters because it pairs the two halves of quantum computing that have so far advanced separately: hardware that can be manufactured at scale, and software that lets ordinary developers use it. Quantum hardware has long been constrained by the need for hand-crafted circuits tuned to a specific machine, which limits who can build on it and how fast applications can be developed. A synthesis platform that abstracts away the hardware, sitting on top of silicon spin-qubit manufacturing, is Intel’s bet that quantum computing can follow the same path classical computing took when design automation arrived.
The acquisition also shows how the chip industry’s consolidation is reaching into quantum software. Unconventional AI bought chip startup NeuReality to speed up its own AI chips, and Intel’s move follows the same logic in a different technology: buy the software capability rather than build it slowly in-house. The open question is whether a full-stack platform owned by one manufacturer can stay genuinely hardware-agnostic, as Intel promises, or whether the centre of gravity shifts over time toward Intel’s own spin-qubit hardware.
Background
Quantum computing has moved from laboratory curiosity toward commercial platforms over the past decade, with manufacturers, software firms and AI labs all staking claims: Claude has designed quantum circuits that beat the best published ones, showing that AI systems themselves are now contributing to quantum design. Intel’s acquisition places it in that race as a full-stack provider, but the transaction still has to clear regulatory approvals, and quantum computing’s path to mainstream business use remains unproven. The first half of 2027, when Intel expects the deal to close, will show whether the combined platform can convert manufacturing scale and software abstraction into applications that enterprises actually run.
Source: Intel: Intel acquires Classiq
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