IonQ to Acquire Oxford Ionics in $1B Deal
IonQ to Acquire Oxford Ionics in $1.075B Deal—Polish VC Atmos Ventures Among Early Backers
Breakthrough moment for Polish venture capital as Oxford Ionics, backed early by Atmos Ventures, is acquired by U.S. quantum leader IonQ
College Park, MD and Oxford, UK – June 9, 2025 – IonQ, a global leader in quantum computing, has announced its agreement to acquire Oxford Ionics for $1.075 billion in a strategic move to accelerate the path toward scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems. Among the earliest supporters of Oxford Ionics was Atmos Ventures, a Warsaw-based deep tech venture capital firm—marking a significant milestone for Poland’s evolving investment ecosystem.
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The transaction, comprising approximately $1.065 billion in IonQ common stock and $10 million in cash, is expected to close later in 2025, pending regulatory approval. The deal will merge IonQ’s quantum computing stack with Oxford Ionics’ world-record-setting ion-trap-on-a-chip technology, with a vision to reach 2 million physical qubits by 2030.
Founded in 2019 by Dr. Chris Ballance and Dr. Tom Harty, Oxford Ionics has rapidly scaled its capabilities and earned global recognition for its fidelity benchmarks in quantum performance. Its early commercial success includes contracts with the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and Germany’s Cyberagentur. The acquisition will reinforce the UK’s status as a quantum R&D hub, with the Oxford Ionics team remaining in place and plans to expand headcount.
But for Poland, the deeper narrative is about early conviction.
Atmos Ventures’ early investment positioned it among a rare group of European VCs betting on the intersection of physics and computation at a time when quantum was still considered too academic or too speculative. Today’s acquisition validates that foresight—and places a Polish VC at the heart of a transatlantic breakthrough in quantum innovation.
This acquisition is expected to unlock advancements across fields such as materials science, aerospace, cybersecurity, logistics, and drug discovery—domains where quantum computing promises transformative value. IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi emphasized the significance:
“Our combined path to millions of qubits by 2030 will help ensure unit economics, scale, and power as quantum computing rapidly evolves.”
Oxford Ionics’ CEO Dr. Chris Ballance added:
“We’ve not only pioneered the most accurate quantum platform on the market—we’ve built a chip that’s manufacturable in standard fabs. Now, we scale that vision with IonQ on a global stage.”
While the transaction underscores the strategic cooperation between the U.S. and the UK in unlocking next-generation technologies, it also serves as a case study for the emergence of Central European capital in frontier markets. For Poland’s venture ecosystem, Atmos Ventures’ role offers a symbolic and tangible validation: local capital can fuel world-class outcomes when it bets on science, not just software. Read more. https://ionq.com/
