Ed Ludlow

IonQ, well, it's agreed to buy US-based chip foundry Skywater Technology for around $1.8 billion.

Shares on the downside for IonQ now, they have been up earlier.

We're seeing Skywater up more than 5.8%.

It's a cash and stock deal, and it's the largest in quite the string of recent acquisitions by the quantum computing firm IonQ.

Let's talk to its CEO now, Niccolo De Masi.

What does having a US-based chip foundry add to the speed of your own technology?

It actually does three exciting things for INQ.

The first is that it accelerates our entire roadmap.

So we talked this morning on a public webinar, sort of earnings call style, about the fact that it's going to bring in the cycles of R&D, design, and packaging iteration we do to build our quantum computing chips and hence our full fault-tolerant machines quite considerably.

We're moving things in by about a year on our 2 million cubic chip.

And we're moving full fault tolerant chips forward into 2028, where we'll have them ready for scale up by the end of the year.

What's exciting also is this is a big bet for us on what's called the merchant supplier play in the quantum industry.

So INQ already sells our atomic clocks to a number of quantum computing companies in the U.S.,

This is going to expand our ability to supply the quantum industry.

Our photonic interconnect quantum networking business is also built to cater for multiple quantum computing paths and modalities.

And last but not least, of course, it's a big spread bet on the U.S.

semiconductor manufacturing industry.

tailwind that I think is already being experienced for critical industries as we rethink through supply chains, security, and the importance of keeping everything domestic to ensure security.

Does that help build and leverage the relationships you already have with the U.S.

government, for example?