Insider Brief
- IonQ has agreed to acquire cybersecurity company Elisity in an all-stock deal worth up to $1.3 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
- Elisity provides software designed to prevent attackers and ransomware from spreading through organizational networks, with customers including health care companies and hospitals.
- IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi said the acquisition aims to help customers address growing cybersecurity risks associated with AI and quantum computing.
IonQ has agreed to buy cybersecurity company Elisity in an all-stock deal worth up to $1.3 billion, expanding its security business as advances in quantum computing and artificial intelligence raise concerns about cyberattacks.
The transaction includes up to $150 million in additional payments tied to Elisity’s future performance, executives told The Wall Street Journal. IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi told the newspaper that the acquisition reflects his expectation that companies will need stronger defenses as both technologies become more powerful.
“With Elisity and its team as part of IonQ, we will be well positioned to help customers protect critical infrastructure and enterprise networks throughout the transition to the quantum era. As I said first, Q-Day is coming much faster than predicted. IonQ is offering its customers a vertically integrated full-stack quantum platform across quantum computing, networking, sensing and cybersecurity. Just as adding SkyWater Technology expanded IonQ’s capabilities in chip design, fabrication and packaging, Elisity will bring proven enterprise policy enforcement scale and deployment experience to our quantum security strategy and will give IonQ a strong growth platform to serve customers and create value for our shareholders,” Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ, said in a statement.
Elisity, founded in 2019, provides software designed to stop attackers and ransomware from spreading through an organization’s network. Its major customers include health care companies and hospitals, according to the WSJ.
“Our customers need to prioritize post-quantum cryptography initiatives while securing existing assets to keep essential operations running,” James Winebrenner, CEO of Elisity, said in the release. “With IonQ, we will be optimally positioned to partner with them to modernize their crypto-agility programs, accelerate post-quantum cryptography capabilities while advancing their holistic Zero Trust posture and deploy hybrid-cybersecurity solutions today that are prepared for the quantum future.”
The purchase would bring that business into IonQ, which develops quantum computers and has been buying companies to offer customers a broader range of technology.
Winebrenner is expected to remain after the transaction closes, the WSJ reported.
A Broader Cybersecurity Business
De Masi told the Journal that the combined companies would seek to help customers address growing security risks, including threats involving AI agents. These are software systems that can carry out tasks with some degree of independence, rather than simply respond to individual questions.
The acquisition brings together businesses addressing different parts of the computing and security market. IonQ is developing machines intended to tackle certain problems beyond the practical reach of conventional computers. Elisity focuses on limiting the damage attackers can cause after entering an organization’s network.
Preventing an intrusion from spreading is a central part of that defense. An attacker who gains access to one system may try to reach other computers and sensitive information. Ransomware can compound the damage by locking organizations out of their files or systems.
Elisity’s platform aims to contain that movement, according to the WSJ. The proposed acquisition would give IonQ an established cybersecurity offering and customers with immediate security needs.
The WSJ also reported growing concern among businesses and government officials about unauthorized activity involving AI systems. De Masi presented those risks as part of the rationale for combining the companies.
Preparing for Quantum Threats
De Masi told the WSJ that American companies and the federal government must prepare for “Q-Day,” the point at which quantum computers become powerful enough to defeat widely used public-key cryptography.
“The bad guys are going to keep taking advantage of new technology,” De Masi told the WSJ. “Unfortunately, we are entering the most dangerous years, vis-à-vis cybersecurity risks.”
Public-key cryptography helps protect information and verify identities online. The concern is that sufficiently capable quantum computers could undermine some of the mathematical methods supporting those protections.
That potential threat differs from the spread of an attacker through a network, which Elisity’s software is designed to address. De Masi’s comments place the acquisition within a broader effort to help customers manage security risks associated with increasingly capable computing systems.
IonQ specializes in trapped-ion quantum computers, which use electrically charged atoms to store and process quantum information. The company is pursuing applications ranging from drug discovery to national defense.
The newspaper reported that the Trump administration’s support for quantum technology has helped the business. Over the summer, President Donald Trump signed executive orders promoting the development of a powerful quantum computer and protection of government systems against related cyber threats.
The Elisity agreement follows IonQ’s $1.8 billion deal earlier this year to acquire chipmaker SkyWater Technology, likely its largest acquisition to date.
IonQ, which works closely with the Defense Department, has pursued acquisitions to become a broader technology supplier for its customers, the newspaper reported.
Under the Elisity agreement, the number of IonQ shares issued will be calculated using a share price between $33.07 and $49.61, executives told the WSJ. IonQ shares closed Friday at $39.89, giving the company a market value of nearly $16 billion. Currently, the company is trading down 2% in pre-market trading.