IonQ has announced the acquisition of the operating assets of Entangled Networks, a small Toronto-based company which had been focusing on connecting quantum computers to create multi-QPU distributed architectures.
Entangled Networks essentially will form the core of IonQ’s newly launched IonQ Canada business, and also represents a step toward IonQ’s evolution to become a full-stack quantum computing company, according to IonQ. This is IonQ’s first acquisition. Financial terms were not announced. Entangled Networks last announced funding in early 2021.
The deal comes as quantum networking is starting to look like the next major trend in the burgeoning quantum sector (IQT has a whole upcoming event dedicated to the topic). As innovations supporting entanglement-based networking have surged in the past year, more companies have started to see quantum networks and architectures that can link QPUs as key to maximizing the computing potential and increasing the value of quantum computers, similar in some respect to the significance of network bridges between processors in the classical supercomputers..
“For quantum computers to scale significantly, they need to follow a similar model,” an IonQ statement said. “Future quantum computers will need to be built from multiple processors and networked together. But unlike classical networking, quantum computers allow entanglement across cores to form a single, much large quantum computer. Quantum computers use the network for computation, not communication.”
IonQ further stated that it has been working on its own quantum networking hardware, and this year expects to demonstrate an early version of a quantum network between two quantum computers.
“Partnering with Entangled Networks furthers our goal of making IonQ the world’s best performing quantum computing company,” said Peter Chapman, IonQ’s President and CEO. “In acquiring the Entangled Networks assets, IonQ will benefit from not only some of the top experts in quantum architecture, but also from software tools that we intend to use to drive substantial speed-ups in our system performance. We are also excited about the opening of IonQ Canada. This expansion will help us better support the thriving quantum computing community in Canada and further our collaborations with IonQ partners and customers.”
Dan O’Shea has covered telecommunications and related topics including semiconductors, sensors, retail systems, digital payments and quantum computing/technology for over 25 years.