Intel to buy quantum software maker Classiq for $2.3 billion

Intel has agreed to buy Classiq, an Israeli startup that makes software for quantum computing, in a transaction worth roughly $2.3 billion, Asia Business Outlook reported on October 27, 2026.

Classiq, started in 2020, sells a platform that lets engineers and researchers write quantum algorithms without hand-building the underlying circuits, work that normally demands training in both physics and programming. Its software is designed to run against more than one kind of quantum machine, a point of difference while rival hardware designs remain unsettled. Customers come from banking, carmaking and consulting, where firms are testing uses such as risk calculations, portfolio work, financial modelling, engineering simulation and materials research.

For Intel, the purchase adds a software layer to a quantum hardware effort it has run since 2015, including research on storing information in the spin of electrons held in silicon. The company, which supplies central processing units and other chips for computers and data centres, has been looking for growth outside its established semiconductor lines and could eventually sell quantum processing units alongside them.

Asia Business Outlook noted that commercial payoff remains uncertain, with unresolved questions about processor reliability, scaling and whether applications deliver measurable benefits. Classiq would gain Intel's engineering and research resources and a wider route to corporate buyers.

This story was first reported by Asia Business Outlook.