Intel’s Classiq Deal May Signal a Pivot From Quiet Quantum Effort To Active Commercialization

Insider Brief

• Intel’s proposed acquisition of Classiq would move its decade-long quantum research effort toward commercialization by combining its hardware and manufacturing capabilities with Classiq’s software and enterprise customers.
• Intel plans to maintain Classiq’s support for competing quantum hardware while exploring manufacturing and component partnerships with other quantum companies.
• The companies expect the acquisition to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals, but provided no firm timetable for profitability or commercially useful quantum systems at scale.

Intel, a pioneer in quantum computing, has been relatively quiet about its technology and nearly silent about how it is pursing commercialization.

That silence has been shattered.

Intel executives said during a media briefing Tuesday that it is moving to turn more than a decade of quantum computing research into a business with its proposed acquisition of Classiq, adding software and enterprise customers to a hardware effort that has largely stayed out of the commercial spotlight.

“Until now, our quantum computing group for the last 10 years was a purely purely a research and development project,” Pushkar Ranade, Intel’s chief technology officer, said. “It wasn’t really viewed as a commercial activity, but we feel that given all of the traction, all of the developments in the marketplace, the timing is right to start.”

The chipmaker’s agreement to buy the Israeli quantum software company would bring together its silicon-based quantum processors, control electronics and existing software with tools designed to make quantum computers easier to program. Intel executives described the combination as a shift from developing technology toward selling a broader computing platform.

That move comes with an open invitation to potential competitors. Intel plans to keep Classiq’s software available across different quantum hardware platforms while offering its manufacturing and related technologies to other quantum companies, executives said during a briefing on the transaction.

The strategy would give Intel several ways to participate in a market whose eventual winners remain uncertain through building its own quantum computers, supplying components or manufacturing services to other developers and selling software that helps customers use competing machines.

The companies announced the agreement Oct. 26 and expect it to close in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. Intel’s announcement did not disclose financial terms. Calcalist put the transaction at $2.3 billion in cash and shares.

For customers, however, the acquisition would not immediately deliver the large-scale quantum computing benefits that underpin the companies’ ambitions. Classiq’s customers are building applications, expertise and intellectual property in preparation for more capable hardware, according to Nir Minerbi, its co-founder and CEO.

Minerbi said: “They build their quantum IP today, they build their team. They build their application. They build their IP, and all of them are preparing for the day when you know commercial value could be extracted from this hardware, and it’s approaching.”

While acquisition would establish a more explicit commercial direction, Intel did not provide a timetable for profitability or for delivering commercially useful quantum systems at scale.

From Research Program to Business

Intel has worked on quantum computing for more than a decade, but its efforts have centered on technology development rather than customer engagement, Ranade said.

This may help explain why a company with extensive semiconductor manufacturing experience has been relatively quiet about its quantum commercial plans. Ranade described the quantum group’s work over the past 10 years as more of a research project that wasn’t directly focused on bringing the tech to market.

The piece of the puzzle that Classiq fits in is its ability to supply a missing connection to users. Intel already has quantum processor technology, electronics to control and read those processors, and software that helps translate and run quantum programs. Classiq adds a higher-level development platform of tools that let programmers describe a calculation without manually specifying every elementary operation a quantum computer must perform.

Together, those capabilities would make Intel what the industry calls a full-stack provider, spanning the processor through the software used to build applications.

Israel-based Classiq also brings customer relationships. Ranade said the company had attracted enterprises around the world and was generating revenue from its software.

For Intel, those relationships could help turn a technology program into a business before its own quantum processors reach their eventual commercial scale. Maintaining Classiq’s support for other hardware would allow that software business to serve customers independently of Intel’s hardware progress.

Ranade presented the investment as preparation for a future computing market alongside Intel’s established PC and server businesses. He cautioned against expecting immediate high margins.

“But but this is not going to be a high margin business from day one,” he said. “This is a this is really a bet on the future, and this is something we also have to do in addition to our mainstream businesses today.”

Competing With Potential Partners

Intel’s own quantum hardware work will remain focused on silicon spin qubits, Ranade said. These devices store quantum information using a property of electrons called spin.

The attraction of spin qubits for Intel is manufacturing compatibility. Its approach draws on equipment and infrastructure already used to make conventional semiconductor chips, potentially allowing the company to expand production through facilities it already operates.

That commitment does not mean Intel expects every quantum customer to choose its processors.

Ranade said it remained unclear which hardware approach, or combination of approaches, would become prominent. Intel’s plan is to work across those approaches through Classiq while continuing to develop spin qubits internally.

It is also open to supplying other parts of the hardware chain. Ranade cited Intel’s capabilities in photonics, which uses light to carry information, and advanced packaging, which connects chips and other components within a system. Intel has already received interest in partnerships along those lines without identifying prospective customers or agreements, he said.

A foundry manufactures chips for other companies. Intel’s willingness to provide quantum foundry services would extend its role beyond selling machines based on its own designs.

The opportunity also creates a question for Classiq’s existing hardware partners. Namely, how would a software supplier owned by a competing processor developer treat their platforms?

Minerbi said reactions from customers and hardware companies had been positive. He said that Intel could be both a quantum hardware supplier and a partner offering manufacturing capabilities, software and access to end users.

Asked how Classiq would maintain support for competing hardware, Minerbi said Intel could offer those companies manufacturing services and access to customers.

Intel’s acquisition announcement separately states that it intends to maintain Classiq’s existing integrations and hardware-independent software after closing.

What Customers Can Do Now

Classiq’s premise has always been that quantum computing needs a simpler way to develop software as hardware becomes more capable.

Minerbi compared early quantum programming to designing a conventional chip one transistor at a time. Developers working at that level must specify individual quantum gates, the basic operations that make up a quantum calculation.

Classiq automates the construction of those operations from a higher-level description of the task. The aim is to let people with expertise in an industry or scientific problem contribute without first becoming specialists in quantum circuit design.

That software would sit above Intel’s existing development tools. The resulting quantum program would flow into Intel’s software for translating and running calculations that combine quantum and conventional computing.

For enterprises, the immediate value described in the briefing was preparation. Minerbi said companies in automotive, aviation, telecommunications, banking and pharmaceuticals were users building quantum capabilities right now. BMW, Lufthansa, Comcast, Wells Fargo, Merck and Rolls-Royce were among the companies Minerbi mentioned during the briefing that were using Classiq’s platform.

Minerbi said the integration with Intel’s software supports large-scale simulation, allowing users to develop and examine quantum programs using conventional computers.

“The Intel Quantum SDK integration is highly complementary because it allows very large scale simulation, which is the thing that really prepares you for large scale quantum introduction.” he added.

Both companies also described quantum computing as part of a hybrid system. Quantum processors would work alongside conventional central processors and, for some tasks, graphics processors, rather than perform every part of an application themselves.

Matsuura said Intel’s software was designed to handle both quantum and conventional portions of a program, separating and optimizing them for their respective processors. That integration is central to Intel’s broader ambition to supply complete computing systems.

Manufacturing Advantage, Timelines

Intel’s manufacturing proposition rests on using much of its existing semiconductor infrastructure to make quantum devices.

Ranade said its quantum chips and control electronics are manufactured at Intel’s facility in Hillsboro, Oregon. Its quantum process, which was identified as 18AQ, uses the interconnect geometry and design rules associated with Intel’s 18A technology, he said.

The underlying process used to create the qubit device is distinct. Ranade said more than 90% of the manufacturing equipment is the same, with some specialized tools needed to produce the thin layers of material used in the quantum devices.

He also described an 18A-based process for control and readout electronics characterized for operation at very low temperatures.

Intel says this offers a practical advantage because it can make quantum processors within a fabrication environment that also produces conventional chips, giving it a route to higher production volumes when demand develops.

Ranade said Intel had built multiple complete quantum computing systems and aspired to become a supplier of entire machines

The acquisition remains unfinished, the teams reported. Ranade attributed the regulatory requirements to the cross-border transaction and Classiq’s customer base across Europe, Asia and the Americas. Intel and Classiq will continue operating independently until closing, according to the announcement.

The next stage will likely test whether Intel can turn its manufacturing capabilities into competitive quantum systems, whether Classiq can keep serving a broad hardware market under Intel ownership, and whether customers’ development work becomes demand for useful quantum computing.

If successful, Intel executives say the partnership may turn up the volume from and increase the focus of a technological pioneer’s quantum ambitions.

“Over the last 10 years, we’ve quietly been working on quantum computing,” said Ranade. “You haven’t heard much from Intel over the last many years, but going forward, we hope to be able to share much more in combination with Classiq.”