WISeKey International Holding AG (WQEY) News & EventsWQEYWISeKey International Holding AG

IonQ to Acquire Elisity for Up to $1.3B

Welcome to the latest edition of "Quantum Leap" where The Fly decodes news and activity in the quantum computing space.ELISITY ACQUISITION:On Monday, IonQentered into a definitive agreement to acquire Elisity in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3B. Elisity will provide IonQ with expanded channels to bring its PQC, QKD and quantum computing offerings to market for both enterprise and government networks, opening up the more than $10B microsegmentation opportunity with double-digit CAGR to IonQ. Under the terms of the agreement, IonQ will acquire Elisity in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3B, including up to $150M in earnout opportunity subject to performance of the Elisity business. The number of IonQ shares to be issued in the transaction will be calculated at closing based on the volume weighted average price of IonQ common stock for the 20 trading days prior to, but not including, the third business day before the closing date, but that price will not be greater than $49.61 or less than $33.07 per share. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approval.Rosenblatt maintained a Buy rating and $100 price target on IonQ following the acquisition announcement. The firm noted that on the surface, the Elisity move is "outside pure quantum," but it does fit IonQ's approach as an integrated supplier of solutions.ENTANGLEMENT RATES:Separately, IonQ announced the achievement of entanglement rates above 1,000 per second, 1 kHz, between a trapped ion qubit and a solid-state memory, through a photonic interconnect. "IonQ has crossed a pivotal milestone for memory enhanced quantum interconnects, achieving more than 1,000 entanglement events per second," said Niccolo de Masi, chairman and CEO of IonQ. "Classical data centers achieved massive scale by connecting specialized processors, memory, and networks. Quantum systems will scale in much the same way. This breakthrough addresses a critical interconnect bottleneck and advances IonQ's roadmap to build the networked quantum data centers of the future."ALZHEIMER'S APPLICATION:INmune Bioand Quantum Computingannounced a collaboration to apply quantum computing, artificial intelligence and data analytics to identify new potential applications for XPro, INmune Bio's investigational treatment for Alzheimer's disease and other disease conditions. The collaboration brings together INmune Bio's data from pre-clinical research through four clinical trials and understanding of disease biology with QCi's Dirac-3S quantum optimization machine. The companies intend to use quantum computing alongside AI and conventional data analytics to uncover relationships that could help find diseases driven by the same biology XPro targets, and to prioritize those with the greatest potential for success. The Stage 1 engagement represents QCi's first commercial customer in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market.QUANTUM SPECTRUM-DF:Infleqtionhas been awarded GBP 9M by Innovate UK to continue development of a deployable quantum radio frequency, direction finding system as part of the Quantum Missions Primer program. Infleqtion is developing a Quantum Spectrum-DF product within the second phase of the Quantum Direction Finding project, designed to accurately detect and locate signals in environments where existing technologies are limited.MULTI-YEAR AGREEMENT:SkyWater Technology and D-Wave Quantumannounced a multi-year agreement. This collaboration extends the partnership between both companies, to continue specialized semiconductor process development and manufacturing in support of D-Wave's quantum technology roadmap. Under the new agreement, D-Wave will continue its relationship with SkyWater's Minnesota fab team, providing manufacturing continuity and access to specialized process expertise developed around its technology requirements.QUANTISIMO:Quantisimo, a special purpose vehicle established by WISeQeyand Sealsq, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger. The proposed business combination would result in Quantisimo and GigCapital8becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of a newly formed British Virgin Islands holding company, Quantisimo Holding, whose ordinary shares are expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol (QSMO). Quantisimo is a special purpose technology vehicle established by WISeQey and its subsidiary Sealsq to build a pure-play sovereign quantum vertical platform, "Root to Qubit." Prior to closing, WISeQey and Sealsq will contribute to Quantisimo their interests in the operating businesses of Miraex, Sealcoin, WeCan Group SA and WISeSat.Space. Under the agreement and plan of merger, a subsidiary of PubCo will merge with and into GigCapital8, with GigCapital8 surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of PubCo, and immediately thereafter a second subsidiary of PubCo will merge with and into Quantisimo, with Quantisimo surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of PubCo. Each GigCapital8 Class A ordinary share will be exchanged for one PubCo ordinary share, each five GigCapital8 rights will convert into one PubCo ordinary share, and the shareholders of Quantisimo will receive an aggregate of 66,610,000 PubCo shares, consisting of ordinary shares and Class F shares, with all Class F shares carrying, in the aggregate, 49.999999% of PubCo's total voting power. Closing is conditioned on, among other things, available cash of at least $15M, comprising cash from GigCapital8's trust account after redemptions and any PIPE investment, together with a cash contribution from Sealsq, which will receive additional PubCo ordinary shares at $10.00 per share for its contribution. Any PIPE investment is expected to be priced at not less than $10.00 per share. WISeQey, Sealsq, GigCapital8's sponsor and GigCapital8's directors and officers will enter into customary lock-up agreements for six months following closing, and GigCapital8's sponsor has agreed to vote its shares in favor of the transaction and not to redeem them. The boards of directors of GigCapital8, Quantisimo, WISeQey and Sealsq, and PubCo have approved the business combination, and the board of directors of GigCapital8 has unanimously recommended that GigCapital8's shareholders approve it. The business combination is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of GigCapital8's shareholders, the effectiveness of the registration statement referenced below and the approval of PubCo's listing on Nasdaq.PATENT APPLICATION:Quantum X Labsannounced that it filed a patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office titled "Structured-Beam Zeeman Slower and Atomic Push-Beam System." The application covers laser cooling, manipulation and transport of neutral atoms using optical beams with non-Gaussian intensity profiles, which are meant to give more control over how atoms are slowed, pushed, guided and moved inside its cold-atom quantum computer. The technology is being developed for the company's cold-atom quantum computing program, where atoms must be slowed, cooled and positioned before they can be trapped and used for quantum operations.DARPA QBI STAGE C:IonQ has advanced to Stage C of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, or QBI. IonQ and DARPA have signed a Stage C agreement with a potential value of up to $300M to continue validating IonQ's approach to delivering large-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers. Funding beyond the initial obligation remains subject to future appropriations and DARPA funding actions." IBMhas also been selected for Stage C, the third phase of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, or QBI, led by DARPA, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This phase will advance IBM through DARPA's verification process, in which independent experts extensively test and measure quantum hardware, technology, systems engineering, and architectures to determine if a company can build a fault-tolerant quantum computer. As an independent research and development arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, DARPA launched the QBI in 2024 to determine whether an industrially useful fault-tolerant quantum computer can be built by 2033. The program defines such a system as one whose computational value will exceed its cost. IBM has successfully progressed through the QBI's assessment process, including the first two stages that analyzed comprehensive R&D plans and risk mitigation approaches. Those selected for Stage C will move beyond conceptual plans and progress to evaluation by DARPA's QBI independent verification and validation team as they test the companies' hardware.

Quantisimo and GigCapital8 Enter Merger Agreement

Quantisimo, a special purpose vehicle established by WISeQey (WQEY) and Sealsq (LAES), announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement and plan of merger. The proposed business combination would result in Quantisimo and GigCapital8 (GIW) becoming wholly owned subsidiaries of a newly formed British Virgin Islands holding company, Quantisimo Holding, whose ordinary shares are expected to be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol (QSMO). Quantisimo is a special purpose technology vehicle established by WISeQey and its subsidiary Sealsq to build a pure-play sovereign quantum vertical platform, "Root to Qubit." Prior to closing, WISeQey and Sealsq will contribute to Quantisimo their interests in the operating businesses of Miraex, Sealcoin, WeCan Group SA and WISeSat.Space. Under the agreement and plan of merger, a subsidiary of PubCo will merge with and into GigCapital8, with GigCapital8 surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of PubCo, and immediately thereafter a second subsidiary of PubCo will merge with and into Quantisimo, with Quantisimo surviving as a wholly owned subsidiary of PubCo. Each GigCapital8 Class A ordinary share will be exchanged for one PubCo ordinary share, each five GigCapital8 rights will convert into one PubCo ordinary share, and the shareholders of Quantisimo will receive an aggregate of 66,610,000 PubCo shares, consisting of ordinary shares and Class F shares, with all Class F shares carrying, in the aggregate, 49.999999% of PubCo's total voting power. Closing is conditioned on, among other things, available cash of at least $15M, comprising cash from GigCapital8's trust account after redemptions and any PIPE investment, together with a cash contribution from Sealsq, which will receive additional PubCo ordinary shares at $10.00 per share for its contribution. Any PIPE investment is expected to be priced at not less than $10.00 per share. WISeQey, Sealsq, GigCapital8's sponsor and GigCapital8's directors and officers will enter into customary lock-up agreements for six months following closing, and GigCapital8's sponsor has agreed to vote its shares in favor of the transaction and not to redeem them. The boards of directors of GigCapital8, Quantisimo, WISeQey and Sealsq, and PubCo have approved the business combination, and the board of directors of GigCapital8 has unanimously recommended that GigCapital8's shareholders approve it. The business combination is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of GigCapital8's shareholders, the effectiveness of the registration statement referenced below and the approval of PubCo's listing on Nasdaq.