Key points
- How many new shares IonQ could issue
- What Elisity's software does
- Why IonQ wants a security company
IonQ (IONQ) agreed to buy Elisity, a Zero Trust cybersecurity company, in an all-stock deal valued at up to $1.3 billion, IonQ announced Monday. IonQ shares were down 9.2% at $36.21 as of 10:31 a.m. ET, from Friday's close of $39.89.
About $1.15 billion will be paid in IonQ stock at closing. The share count will depend on IonQ's volume-weighted average price over 20 trading days, subject to a $33.07 floor and a $49.61 cap.
By our calculation, that would mean about 34.8 million new shares at the floor or 23.2 million at the cap, equivalent to 8.6% or 5.7% of IonQ's roughly 405 million existing shares. Monday morning's price was much closer to the floor, though the final count will depend on the 20-day average.
Up to another $150 million could be paid if Elisity hits performance targets. The release doesn't say how any earnout shares would be priced.
Elisity limits how far an attack can spread
Zero Trust security treats every user and device as untrusted until it's verified. Elisity's software gives each user, device, workload, and AI agent access only to the network connections it needs, which helps contain an attack if one gets in. Its IdentityGraph product pulls identity, asset, and risk data together to set those access rules.
Elisity was founded in 2019 and has more than 100 customer deployments worldwide, according to the release. The company says it has doubled its revenue and customer base year over year, with zero churn among deployed customers. The release doesn't give Elisity's revenue. CEO James Winebrenner will keep running the business after the deal closes.
IonQ is building out a security business
IonQ already sells post-quantum cryptography, which is encryption designed to hold up against future quantum computers, and quantum key distribution, which uses physics to share encryption keys. The company says it has built quantum-safe national communications networks in Switzerland, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.
IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi said in the release that Q-Day is coming much faster than predicted. Q-Day refers to the point when sufficiently powerful quantum computers could break widely used public-key encryption. The release also cites a June 22, 2026, White House executive order and says recent executive orders are speeding the federal government's move to post-quantum cryptography.
IonQ said its multiproduct revenue, from customers buying more than one of its products, grew 40% year over year in the second quarter. De Masi compared the deal to IonQ's addition of SkyWater Technology, which expanded its chip design, fabrication, and packaging work.
The deal comes days after DARPA moved IonQ into the final stage of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative on October 7. IonQ has a market value of about $14.7 billion, based on Monday morning's price and roughly 405 million shares.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
