Cambridge Quantum Computing, a quantum computing and algorithm company founded by Ilyas Khan, Leader in Residence and a Fellow in Management Practice at Cambridge Judge Business School, announced it will combine with Honeywell Quantum Solutions, a unit of US-based Honeywell, which has been an investor in Cambridge Quantum since 2019.
Ilyas was also the inaugural Chairman of the Stephen Hawking Foundation, is a fellow commoner of St Edmund’s College, and was closely involved in the foundation of the Accelerate Cambridge programme run by the Business School’s Entrepreneurship Centre.
The new company “is extremely well-positioned to lead the quantum computing industry by offering advanced, fully integrated hardware and software solutions at an unprecedented pace, scale and level of performance to large high-growth markets worldwide,” Cambridge Quantum said in an announcement.
The combination will “form the largest, most advanced standalone quantum computing company in the world, setting the pace for what is projected to become a $1 trillion quantum computing industry over the next three decades,” Honeywell said in a companion announcement.
The new company, which will be formally named at a later date, will be led by Cambridge Quantum founder Ilyas Khan as Chief Executive with Tony Uttley of Honeywell Quantum Solutions as President. Honeywell Chairman and CEO Darius Adamczyk will serve on the board of directors as the Chairman. Honeywell will have a 54% share of the merged entity, which was dubbed by publication Barron’s as the “Apple of Quantum Computing”, and CQC’s shareholders will have a 46% share.
In addition, Honeywell will invest between $270 million to $300 million in the new company. Cambridge Quantum was founded in 2014, and has offices in Cambridge, London and Oxford, and abroad in the US, Germany and Japan.