Honeywell Quantum Solutions, Cambridge Quantum Computing to Merge

Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum Computing will merge, creating a powerhouse integrated quantum computing and technology company that will offer a full suite of fully integrated quantum hardware and software solutions. In separate press releases, the companies announced that the still unnamed company, which will officially form via a combination that is expected to be complete in the third quarter of this year, will offer the world’s highest-performing quantum computer.

In addition to quantum technologies to support applications in the fields of cybersecurity, drug discovery, materials science, datacom and telecom, and finance, the combined company will work to advance the ability of industry to leverage the possibilities of quantum AI.

Honeywell will own a majority stake (54%) in the company, has committed to investing up to $300 million in the company, and will have a long-term agreement in place to help manufacture ion traps needed to power the quantum hardware the combined company will develop.

Honeywell’s trapped-ion-based quantum computing hardware (specifically, the Honeywell system Model H1 device) recently achieved a quantum volume of 512, which is reported to be the highest measured on a commercial quantum computer. The company’s trapped-ion technology approach uses trapped ions to hold quantum information, allowing it to be manipulated and encoded with laser pulses to achieve high measures of computing performance (quantum volume) that considers numerous performance traits of qubits.

Cambridge Quantum Computing software aims to optimize quantum computing hardware. Its software business will remain hardware agnostic and fully compatible with all global quantum hardware providers.

“The new company will have the best talent in the industry, the world’s highest-performing quantum computer, the first and most advanced quantum operating system, and comprehensive, hardware-agnostic software that will drive the future of the quantum computing industry,” Honeywell Chairman and CEO Darius Adamczyk said in a press release. “The new company will be extremely well positioned to create value in the near-term within the quantum computing industry by offering the critical global infrastructure needed to support the sector's explosive growth."

The quantum computing industry is expected to become a $1 trillion industry in the next three decades, with quantum hardware extending into the fields and disciplines of atomic physics, optics, cryogenics, lasers, magnetics, ultrahigh vacuum, and precision control systems.

Adamczyk will chair the new company, which will be led by Ilyas Khan, CEO and founder of Cambridge Quantum Computing. Honeywell Quantum Solutions President Tony Uttley will serve as president of the new company.

Honeywell has been an investor in and commercial partner with Cambridge Quantum Computing since 2019.