Intel has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Classiq, a quantum computing software company based in Tel Aviv, and plans to pair Classiq’s algorithm synthesis platform with its silicon spin-qubit hardware to sell a full quantum stack. Intel did not disclose the price. The deal needs regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first half of 2027, and the two companies operate independently until then.
Automated Algorithm Synthesis and Modality Abstraction
Classiq’s platform combines AI agents, a high-level quantum modeling language, and design automation to turn a problem description into optimized, hardware-ready quantum circuits, and it runs those circuits across quantum hardware from multiple vendors. Intel compares the role to what electronic design automation (EDA) and computer-aided design (CAD) tools did for chip design: a common software layer that hides the hardware underneath so developers do not hand-build gate-level circuits. Classiq says dozens of global enterprises use the platform, which also handles hardware benchmarking and cost and performance optimization.
Intel says it will keep supporting Classiq’s existing integrations with other vendors’ quantum hardware after the deal closes, and that the software will stay agnostic to qubit modality and hardware. That matters because Classiq’s customers run on other vendors’ quantum hardware today, none of it built on Intel’s silicon.
Silicon Spin-Qubit Manufacturing and Full-Stack Integration
Intel has worked on quantum computing since 2015 and builds spin qubits in silicon on the same kind of equipment and processes it uses for conventional chips. The company says it is the only one able to produce qubit chips and the cryogenic control electronics that go with them at scale that way. Adding Classiq’s software would make Intel a full-stack quantum provider and put quantum processing units (QPUs) next to the CPUs, GPUs, and ASICs it already sells.
“For more than a decade, Intel has made remarkable progress in quantum computing by applying its semiconductor innovation, advanced manufacturing prowess and systems engineering expertise to the development of scalable silicon spin-qubit technology,” said Lip-Bu Tan, chief executive officer, Intel. “Joining forces with Classiq transforms Intel’s Quantum Computing Group into a full-stack quantum computing business.”
Nir Minerbi, Classiq’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said the company has focused since its founding on letting developers, researchers, and enterprises build scalable quantum applications without deep expertise in circuit design. The move puts Intel on a different path from IBM, which builds its stack around superconducting qubits, and from the trapped-ion and neutral-atom vendors.
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