Quantum News Nexus

IonQ yesterday confirmed its acquisition of optical communications company Skyloom Global, the latest in a long string of acquisitions by the company as it looks to dominate every facet of the quantum technology world.

The Skyloom deal is at least the fourth by IonQ within the last year–after its acquisitions of Capella Space, Qubitekk, and Lightsynq, and its investment in ID Quantique–to be focused on quantum networking, and more specifically around IonQ’s plan to support secure, space-based quantum communications via satellite. 

The formal announcement of the Skyloom acquisition in a press release came several days after IonQ Chairman and CEO Niccolo de Masi openly discussed the deal in an interview with CNBC. During that interview, prompted by a question about the prospects for IonQ’s demonstrated M&A pattern to continue, de Masi said, “We entered into an agreement just recently to acquire a company called Skyloom. This is building on our investments in quantum networking, and signals… we’re ultimately building a platform for quantum key distribution, not just on the ground but also up into space with satellites.”

That timing of statement might have caught a lot of people by surprise, though I don’t think anyone is generally surprised that IonQ continues to acquire other firms, or will be much surprised even if it announces another acquisition before the end of this year.

As for Skyloom, it provides Space Development Agency (SDA)-qualified Optical Communications Terminals (OCTs) for both satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground laser communications,” according to the press release, which continues, “With almost 90 terminals delivered for SDA missions by 2025, Skyloom has already demonstrated scalable production of OCT hardware.”

There was also this nugget: “Integrating Skyloom’s optical networking systems into IonQ’s broader infrastructure platform is expected to unlock immediate performance improvements by boosting data throughput by up to 500% and reducing latency for critical applications from many hours to under one hour. The addition of Skyloom’s terminals also strengthens IonQ’s ability to offer fully integrated quantum networking and distributed quantum entanglement capabilities across space and ground infrastructure.”

The release adds that IonQ now owns “all critical technology layers for distributed quantum entanglement and ultra-secure connectivity,” which makes the Skyloom acquisition sound like that rug that really tied the room together. I’m guessing we will be hearing a lot more about IonQ’s quantum networking offering in the year to come.

Despite de Masi’s openness in discussing the acquisition last week, financial terms of the Skyloom deal were not disclosed. After the acquisition closes, Skyloom CEO Marc Eisenberg will report to Frank Backes, President of Quantum Infrastructure at IonQ.

Quantum News Nexus is a new site from freelance writer and editor Dan O’Shea that covers quantum computing, quantum sensing, quantum networking, quantum-safe security, and more. You can find him on X @QuantumNewsGuy and doshea14@gmail.com.