IonQ agreed to acquire SkyWater for $1.8 billion in a cash-and-stock deal, making SkyWater a wholly owned subsidiary while the foundry will continue serving merchant customers with no changes to customer access or IP protections; SkyWater is a Category 1A Trusted Foundry with DMEA accreditation.
The deal is meant to vertically integrate U.S. manufacturing to accelerate IonQ’s quantum roadmap, with expected cycle-time cuts such as reducing design-to-sample for the 256-qubit chip from nine months to two months and plans to functionally test first 200,000-qubit chip samples in 2028, potentially pulling a 2-million-qubit timeline forward by up to a year.
Post-close SkyWater will keep its name and CEO (Thomas Sonderman) reporting to IonQ’s CEO, with a phased integration focused on continuity for existing customers—Infineon remains a key customer—while deepening technical integration for IonQ’s commercialization and federal business.
IonQ executives said the company has agreed to acquire SkyWater Technology (NASDAQ:SKYT) in a transaction they described as “transformational,” aiming to create a vertically integrated, U.S.-based quantum computing and semiconductor manufacturing platform. IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi and SkyWater CEO Thomas Sonderman outlined the strategic rationale during a conference call focused on the deal, while noting that additional financial details would be addressed closer to regulatory approvals and closing.
De Masi said the deal is valued at $1.8 billion and will be paid through a mix of cash and stock, “subject to a collar and cap.” Under the structure described on the call, SkyWater will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary and will continue to act as a merchant foundry supplier serving existing and new customers.
IonQ positioned the acquisition as a way to secure manufacturing capacity and accelerate the company’s roadmap toward fault-tolerant quantum computing. De Masi said IonQ’s business has expanded from quantum computing to a “full-stack platform” that includes quantum networking, sensing, and security, and that scaling the company’s approach to millions of qubits will be “primarily a matter of semiconductor engineering.”
He also emphasized security and domestic supply chain considerations, arguing that quantum technologies are increasingly viewed as “critical strategic infrastructure” for commercial enterprises and nation-states, and that the next phase of growth requires rapid innovation “at the highest levels of security.”
IonQ said it expects SkyWater’s foundry and packaging capabilities to shorten development cycles by enabling more wafer runs, faster iteration, and parallel prototyping across multiple chip generations. De Masi said the combination will allow IonQ to reduce “total cycle times from design to production,” giving a specific example: the company expects to cut the time from design completion to first samples on its 256-qubit chip from nine months to two months.
De Masi also said the acquisition changes the company’s ability to test larger-scale systems earlier. He stated that with the tighter integration, IonQ expects to be able to functionally test the first 200,000-qubit chip samples in 2028, which he said would enable “8,000 ultra-high fidelity logical qubits” and “pull forward” previously communicated timelines. He added that IonQ expects to pull forward its 2 million-qubit chip by up to a year.
During the Q&A, de Masi said the roadmap acceleration comes from executing more development work in parallel and speeding up each design/build/test exploration cycle—an approach he said would apply beyond the 256-qubit program across multiple generations including “the 10K chip, the 100K, the 200K, the 1 million, and the 2 million.”
Sonderman described SkyWater as the largest U.S.-based “pure-play” semiconductor foundry and said the company is a Category 1A Trusted Foundry with DMEA accreditation. He said SkyWater specializes in “foundational nodes and advanced packaging,” and framed the company’s “technology as a service” operating model as a differentiator that supports both volume production and high-mix advanced technologies, as well as co-innovation and packaging.
He said that embedding development into high-volume manufacturing enables technology to be “highly manufacturable,” and that the combined companies expect to increase “speed, precision, and scale for next-generation quantum chips.” Sonderman also said SkyWater’s Department of Defense trusted accreditation adds strategic relevance to IonQ’s federal business.
Both executives emphasized that SkyWater intends to continue operating as a merchant supplier after the acquisition. Sonderman said “foundry integrity will remain the same,” adding that there will be “no changes to customer access or IP protections.” In response to a question about customer concentration, Sonderman said Infineon Technologies is SkyWater’s largest customer, stemming from SkyWater’s acquisition of an Infineon fab in Austin, Texas, and said Infineon will remain a critical customer as SkyWater continues to run its foundry business.
De Masi said that after closing, SkyWater will remain under the SkyWater name, with Sonderman continuing to lead the subsidiary and reporting to him. He said integration would be “phased and pragmatic,” with a focus on continuity for customers while deepening technical integration in areas tied to IonQ’s roadmap. He added that IonQ has a “proven playbook for integration,” but said it would be premature to provide additional details on a timeline.
In discussing the origins of the deal, de Masi said conversations began last fall around a commercial partnership and evolved toward a strategic combination as the two teams saw increasing synergies, particularly in areas requiring R&D and packaging-intensive work that is “incredibly security sensitive.” Sonderman said tighter integration is increasingly important as quantum computing requires close interaction between design, process, and development to move technologies toward manufacturability.
While the call focused on strategic considerations and excluded detailed financial discussion, de Masi said IonQ expects to deliver revenue results “at the high end or above” its previously announced full-year guidance, with more details to come when the company reports earnings.
Deal value: $1.8 billion, mix of cash and stock, subject to a collar and cap
SkyWater status: wholly owned subsidiary; continues as merchant foundry with existing customer access and IP protections
Development cycle example: 256-qubit chip design-to-sample expected to drop from nine months to two months
Roadmap timing: IonQ expects first 200,000-qubit chips back from the fab in 2028 and said it may pull forward a 2 million-qubit chip by up to a year
SkyWater Technology Solutions, Inc is a U.S.-based specialty semiconductor foundry headquartered in Bloomington, Minnesota. The company focuses on the development and manufacture of high-reliability integrated circuits using advanced processes on 200-millimeter wafers.
SkyWater’s service offerings span analog/mixed-signal, radio frequency (RF), micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and advanced packaging technologies. Its turnkey model includes multi-project wafer (MPW) runs, volume production, design enablement support and assembly and test services, enabling customers to take concepts from prototype to market.
Serving aerospace, defense, automotive, industrial, medical and communications sectors, SkyWater supports applications that demand rigorous performance, quality and traceability.
