Quantum Leap: Sealsq enters SPA to buy France-based IC’ALPS SAS

Welcome to the latest edition of “Quantum Leap” where The Fly decodes news and activity in the quantum computing space. 

SHARE PURCHASE AGREEMENT: Sealsq (LAES) announced the signing of a share purchase agreement with the shareholders of IC’ALPS SAS, an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit design and supply specialist based in Grenoble, France, for the acquisition of 100% of the share capital and voting rights of IC’ALPS. The SPA is the result of a period of exclusive negotiations between Sealsq and the sellers, announced on February 27. The main terms and conditions of the SPA announced by Sealsq on May 22 remain applicable. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter, subject to satisfying the conditions to closing, including the necessary regulatory approval by the French Ministry of the Economy.

ACQUISITION: Arqit Quantum (ARQQ) announced the acquisition of Ampliphae’s product portfolio IP and innovations team. The Ampliphae product portfolio and team specialises in encryption risk advisory and AI analytics. This acquisition brings together Ampliphae’s industry-leading Encryption Intelligence products with Arqit’s quantum encryption technology and global reach, delivering a comprehensive proposition to identify and mitigate cyber risk exposure from both current and quantum threats. “Encryption Intelligence is a vital choice for organisations looking to understand and reduce their encryption risk,” said Andy Leaver, CEO of Arqit. “By combining our quantum encryption expertise with Ampliphae’s analytics technologies, we can deliver unmatched protection and advisory services on a global scale.”

STRATEGIC INVESTMENT: Sealsq announced a strategic investment in Wecan Token, reinforcing its commitment to secure and decentralized digital identity solutions through the Wecan Token. The Wecan Token, originally developed to support decentralized compliance through Wecan Comply, is now positioned as a central component in Sealsq’s digital trust ecosystem. As part of this strategic initiative, Sealsq is creating a dedicated reserve of Wecan Tokens to support its ecosystem and future integrations.

MOU: IonQ (IONQ) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, a national science and technology research institute and supercomputing center. The memorandum marks an expansion of IonQ’s long standing relationship with South Korea’s government, academic and industry sectors, aligning efforts intended to accelerate the national development of quantum science and industry. Under the terms of the MoU, IonQ and Kisti will collaborate in four key areas: advanced infrastructure access, education, talent and knowledge exchange as well as collaboration to expand market opportunities. The two organizations will work together with the intent to introduce quantum systems into Kisti and plan to integrate these systems with Kisti’s high-performance computing infrastructure. IonQ and Kisti also plan to collaborate on joint initiatives for talent upskilling including internships and training programs to strengthen the quantum computing research community in South Korea.

ASCENSION: IonQ is aiming to become the industry leader in quantum computing, envisioning an ascent similar to that of the biggest names in the semiconductor industry-and it doesn’t plan on doing quietly. Mackenzie Tatananni of Barron’s wrote. “We’re in the business of quantum just like Nvidia (NVDA) and Broadcom (AVGO) are in the business of classical GPUs,” CEO Niccolo de Masi said in an interview with Barron’s. “I believe IonQ will be the Nvidia player. There will be other people that copy us and follow us; they have always copied and followed us.” The company is outspoken about its mission to “build the world’s best quantum computers to solve the world’s most complex problems.” “People forget that we are a fully fledged company,” de Masi continued. “We have a manufacturing, a customer service team. We have a marketing team, a sales team, engineering team; of course, physicists. We also have an applications team.” Shares of IonQ jumped over 44% to $48.44 in Thursday afternoon trading.

MS6003: Sealsq announced the launch of the MS6003 secure element chip. Preloaded with a FIDO2 authentication application, the MS6003 delivers unparalleled protection for identity verification, device integrity, and access control, empowering device manufacturers, OEMs, and system integrators to meet the surging demand for phishing-resistant, passwordless authentication. The MS6003 simplifies the adoption of secure, standards-compliant authentication, enabling customers to reduce time-to-market, streamline compliance, and future-proof their solutions in enterprise, industrial, IoT, and consumer applications.

1H REVENUE: Consistent with management’s preliminary assessment of the expected range of revenue which was announced 4 April 2025, Arqit Quantum reported revenue for the first half period ended March 31 was $67,000. Revenue for the first half of fiscal year 2025 was generated from 6 contracts. Two of the contracts which generated revenue during the period are multi-year contracts representing annually recurring revenue. The company ended the period with cash and cash equivalents of $24.8M as of March 31.