College Park, MD, June 03 2025 -- IonQ, a leading commercial quantum computing and networking company, today announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Lightsynq Technologies, Inc., a Boston-based startup specializing in photonic interconnects and quantum memory. This strategic acquisition accelerates IonQ’s fault-tolerant quantum computing roadmap and advances progress toward the development of the quantum internet.

Lightsynq’s photonic interconnect platform supports high-fidelity, multi-nodal qubit operations and modularity, which are essential for scaling quantum computers. The company’s innovations in quantum memory and repeater technology complement IonQ’s trapped-ion quantum computing approach and will advance IonQ’s quantum networking systems.

“With this acquisition, we’re not just acquiring talent and technology, we’re accelerating our development timeline to fault tolerant quantum computers and long distance networking capabilities,” said Niccolo de Masi, CEO of IonQ. “This deal accelerates the shift from experimental bulk optics to scalable optical chips, moving us closer to commercializing our next generation of advanced quantum technologies and the quantum internet.”

Founded by Harvard quantum networking experts and former AWS research leads Dr. Mihir Bhaskar, Dr. Bart Machielse, and Dr. David Levonian, Lightsynq has developed universal photonic interconnect solutions designed to link multiple quantum processing units (QPUs) with high bandwidth to scale quantum systems.

“IonQ is already a leader in enterprise-grade quantum computing and networking, and by joining forces, we’re accelerating the path to modular architectures that will deliver data-center-scale quantum computers in the future,” said Dr. Mihir Bhaskar, CEO of Lightsynq. “Our work will enable IonQ’s systems to network at speed and scale, laying the foundation for distributed quantum computing.”

As part of this acquisition, IonQ will add to its patent portfolio over 20 patents and patent applications related to quantum memory and interconnect technologies, further strengthening IonQ’s intellectual property position in the quantum computing and networking industry. This acquisition augments IonQ’s growing leadership in the quantum networking space, including its recent acquisitions of quantum networking companies Qubitekk and ID Quantique, and the development of a quantum computing and networking innovation center with EPB in Chattanooga, Tennessee.