By On October 12, IonQ announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Elisity, Inc., a Zero Trust security company, in an all-stock transaction valued at up to $1.3 billion. The acquisition brings together IonQ’s post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and quantum key distribution (QKD) capabilities with Elisity’s enterprise Zero Trust technology platform. On a combined basis, IonQ will benefit from an expanded cybersecurity platform that both uncovers and protects against present LLM and emerging quantum threats.
Elisity builds on IonQ’s expanding quantum security offerings with a high-growth enterprise security business, cutting-edge Zero Trust technology platform, and team of industry leaders led by cybersecurity expert CEO James Winebrenner. Elisity has a strong track record of doubling its revenue and its customer base year-over-year with zero churn among deployed customers. With more than 100 global customer deployments and deep CISO and security community relationships, 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 $10 billion microsegmentation opportunity with double-digit CAGR to IonQ.
“With Elisity and its team as part of IonQ, we will be well positioned to help customers protect critical infrastructure and enterprise networks throughout the transition to the quantum era. As I said first, Q-Day is coming much faster than predicted. IonQ is offering its customers a vertically integrated full-stack quantum platform across quantum computing, networking, sensing and cybersecurity. Just as adding SkyWater Technology expanded IonQ’s capabilities in chip design, fabrication and packaging, Elisity will bring proven enterprise policy enforcement scale and deployment experience to our quantum security strategy and will give IonQ a strong growth platform to serve customers and create value for our shareholders,” said Niccolo de Masi, chairman and CEO of IonQ.
“Our customers need to prioritize post-quantum cryptography initiatives while securing existing assets to keep essential operations running,” said James Winebrenner, CEO of Elisity. “With IonQ, we will be optimally positioned to partner with them to modernize their crypto-agility programs, accelerate post-quantum cryptography capabilities while advancing their holistic Zero Trust posture and deploy hybrid-cybersecurity solutions today that are prepared for the quantum future.”
Enterprises face two overlapping priorities: containing attacks that operate at machine speed and preparing to protect sensitive information against future quantum threats. The urgency of this transition is underscored by recent White House executive orders advancing quantum innovation and accelerating the federal government’s migration to PQC. These directives reinforce the importance of securing critical systems and preparing government networks for quantum-era threats while supporting long-term modernization.
Today, Elisity IdentityGraph combines native asset identity and partner-enriched context, and risk information to inform least-privilege access policy for users, devices, workloads and AI agents. Teams can simulate policies before limiting each identity to the communications it needs, helping reduce attack surface and contain an attack’s spread. By bringing together Elisity’s Zero Trust framework with IonQ’s PQC and QKD capabilities, the companies will combine cryptographic protection for sensitive information and communications with identity-based controls that limit unauthorized access and the spread of threats across enterprise networks. The shared roadmap with IonQ will extend IdentityGraph with cryptographic inventory and risk information. This integrated approach will help customers address quantum-related security risks through a multiyear transition while strengthening defenses against current cyberattacks, including threats involving AI agents.
Following closing, Elisity will continue serving its customers under its current leadership, including current CEO James Winebrenner. Together, the companies will continue their track record of innovation, customer success and strong partner relationships, backed by IonQ’s demonstrated approach of investing in the critical technologies it acquires.
Source: IonQ
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