The $2.3 Billion Quantum Exit
Published October 27, 2026
Intel announced on October 26, 2026 that it would acquire Israeli quantum software startup Classiq for $2.3 billion in cash and stock, the largest exit in quantum computing history. The company's three founders are each expected to receive $80-100 million, employees collectively hold about 10% of the company worth roughly $230 million, and early investor Entrée Capital stands to collect more than $300 million on an investment of just a few million dollars.
Intel announced on October 26, 2026 that it would acquire Classiq, an Israeli quantum computing startup, for $2.3 billion in cash and stock. The deal, expected to close in the first half of 2027 subject to regulatory approvals, would be the largest exit in the short history of the quantum computing industry, more than doubling the previous record set when IonQ bought Oxford Ionics for about $1 billion in 2025. For a company founded only six years earlier, with about 150 employees and annual revenue still in the tens of millions of dollars, the price is a striking vote of confidence in a technology that has not yet had its mainstream moment.
The windfall is concentrated at the top, but it reaches deep into the company. Classiq's three founders, chief executive Nir Minerbi, chief product officer Amir Naveh, and chief technology officer Prof. Yehuda Naveh, Amir's father, are each expected to receive between $80 million and $100 million from the deal. Employees collectively hold about 10 percent of the company, a stake worth roughly $230 million at the acquisition price, and Intel has set aside more than $100 million in retention grants to keep staff on board after the sale.
The early investors did even better in percentage terms. Entrée Capital, which led Classiq's pre-seed round and kept investing in later rounds, is expected to collect more than $300 million on an initial investment of just a few million dollars. Team8 Capital, the second-largest shareholder with about 9 percent, stands to gain roughly $207 million, and The Phoenix, an Israeli insurance and financial services group holding about 7.5 percent, would receive around $172.5 million. Classiq had raised only about $200 million in total since its founding in 2020, and its last major funding round in 2025 valued it at $600 million to $700 million, meaning Intel is paying more than three times that valuation.
What Classiq actually sells explains why Intel wanted it. The company does not build quantum computers; it builds the software layer that lets developers design and run quantum algorithms across different hardware platforms, without needing deep expertise in quantum circuit design. Quantum computing remains an immature field, with only about 117 quantum computers in existence worldwide and no breakthrough product yet, but Intel has been investing in the area since 2015 and says combining Classiq's software with its own silicon spin-qubit technology will make it a full-stack quantum provider.
The founders' backgrounds help explain the company's edge. Minerbi and the younger Naveh are graduates of the Israel Defense Forces' Talpiot program, an elite training track that has produced a generation of Israeli tech founders, and Yehuda Naveh previously held a senior position at IBM's Israeli development center. Intel's chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, framed the deal as transforming Intel's quantum group into a complete quantum business. Whether quantum computing fulfills its promise is still an open question, but for 150 people in Tel Aviv, the answer just became worth $2.3 billion.
The lesson: A small team solving a hard, unglamorous layer of a new industry can be worth billions — the software that makes a technology usable is often where the value lands.
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