US quantum computing company IonQ plans to acquire UK rival Oxford Ionics for $1.08 billion.

The deal will primarily involve shares of IonQ common stock, with only around $10m coming in the form of cash.

IonQ develops systems with trapped ion technology, and hopes to combine its compute and networking research with Oxford Ionics' ion-trap technology manufactured on standard semiconductor chips.

The companies said that, together, they expect to build systems with 256 physical qubits at accuracies of 99.99 percent by 2026 and advance to over 10,000 physical qubits with logical accuracies of 99.99999 percent by 2027.

By 2030, they claim they should achieve two million physical qubits with logical qubit accuracies exceeding 99.9999999999 percent.

Both Oxford Ionics founders, Dr. Chris Ballance and Dr. Tom Harty, are expected to remain with IonQ. All existing customer relationships are not expected to be impacted, including those with the UK government.

“Today’s announcement of our intention to acquire Oxford Ionics accelerates our mission to full fault-tolerant quantum computers with two million physical qubits and 80,000 logical qubits by 2030,” said Niccolo de Masi, CEO of IonQ.

“We believe the advantages of our combined technologies will set a new standard within quantum computing and deliver superior value for our customers through market-leading enterprise applications.

Earlier this month, IonQ completed its acquisition of photonic interconnect and quantum memory company Lightsynq. The month earlier, it said it would acquire Capella Space with plans to develop the world’s first space-based quantum-secure communications network.

The acquisition of Oxford Ionics is expected to close in 2025, subject to standard closing conditions.