Ken Kaplan

$INTC is buying @classiqtech, Intel's first acquisition under Lip-Bu Tan. Not an AI deal. Quantum software. Terms weren't disclosed, and Intel expects to close in the first half of 2027. Thanks to Intel CTO @magicsilicon Pushkar Ranade and Classiq CEO Nir Minerbi for the brief. I'll be honest. When @LipBuTan1 came on board, I had no idea how long Intel quantum would be around. This answers it. Intel is doubling down and turning a research program into a business. Some thoughts: -This is a business buy, not a technology buy. Intel has spin qubits, Horse Ridge cryo-control chips and its own quantum SDK, but never built a business around them. Classiq brings 50-plus enterprise customers like AT&T, BMW and Comcast, 10-plus national programs and about 130 people. Pushkar told me that's twice the size of Intel's internal quantum team. -Intel bought the layer that wins regardless of which qubit wins. Classiq targets 50-plus systems and simulators across superconducting, trapped-ion, neutral-atom and spin. Smart, and a hedge on Intel's own spin bet. -Neutrality is everything. Classiq's investors include the venture arms of $AMD and $QCOM, plus $IONQ. Lip-Bu has called Classiq the Cadence of quantum. Cadence works because competing chip companies trust it with their designs. Intel says it will keep Classiq modality- and hardware-agnostic. Like I said about IonQ and SkyWater, it can't become viewed as captive. -IBM's Qiskit and NVIDIA's CUDA-Q mostly work at the circuit level. Classiq pitches itself as the design-automation layer above them, and it plugs into CUDA-Q instead of fighting it. -My colleague @Moor_Quantum says quantum no longer has a physics problem, it has a manufacturing problem. Hitachi plans to design 100-plus-qubit chips with Intel on an 18A-based quantum process. Nir's pitch to other qubit makers is Intel's foundry, simulation and controllers. IBM's Anderon is going after the foundry piece. -Intel's datacenter AI chip acquisitions, Nervana and Habana, didn't work out. This time, Pushkar told me he wants Nir to lead Intel's quantum business. Right call. I've said quantum is 5-7 years out for 15 years, and I'm sticking with it. That's why software matters now. Developers, apps and customers have to be in place before the hardware is ready. Intel missed mobile and this wave of DC GPU build out.. Lip-Bu doesn't want to miss quantum. Spin qubits, cryo-CMOS control, an 18A-based quantum process, its own SDK and now Classiq. Once this closes, Intel has a full quantum stack. Now it has to sell it.