National security checks hold up tech sale
The $1.1 billion sale of a leading UK quantum computing company to an American rival is being delayed on national security grounds.
The acquisition of Oxford Ionics by IonQ was announced in June, but as a strategically important technology the deal is subject to extra checks by the government under the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA).
The process entails a 30 working-day screening period which it is thought has been extended to allow Whitehall officials to ask further questions.
A Cabinet Office spokesman declined to comment.
The UK has ploughed billions into the quantum sector and is a global leader.
With this sale there are concerns it is losing another of its brightest businesses.
Oxford Ionics was spun out of Oxford University in 2019 by Dr Chris Ballance and Dr Tom Harty. It has developed a way to overcome some of the barriers holding quantum computing back, including scalability, size, integration and performance. Underlining its importance, in March Lord Vallance of Balham, the minister for science, opened Oxford Ionics’ new 30,000 sq ft global headquarters.
The NSIA, introduced in January 2022, gives the government new powers to intervene in transactions that pose a national security risk, to impose conditions on them or block them. In late 2022 a Chinese company’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab, a semi-conductor business, was unwound under the act.
Niccolo de Masi, chief executive of IonQ, said he hoped the deal would close by the end of the year, arguing that it had geopolitical significance.
“The US and UK governments don’t spend as much as China on quantum computing or networking. So the private sector has to step in here and make sure our countries prevail.”
The acquisition of Oxford Ionics by IonQ was announced in June, but as a strategically important technology the deal is subject to extra checks by the government under the National Security and Investment Act (NSIA).
The process entails a 30 working-day screening period which it is thought has been extended to allow Whitehall officials to ask further questions.
A Cabinet Office spokesman declined to comment.
The UK has ploughed billions into the quantum sector and is a global leader.
With this sale there are concerns it is losing another of its brightest businesses.
Oxford Ionics was spun out of Oxford University in 2019 by Dr Chris Ballance and Dr Tom Harty. It has developed a way to overcome some of the barriers holding quantum computing back, including scalability, size, integration and performance. Underlining its importance, in March Lord Vallance of Balham, the minister for science, opened Oxford Ionics’ new 30,000 sq ft global headquarters.
The NSIA, introduced in January 2022, gives the government new powers to intervene in transactions that pose a national security risk, to impose conditions on them or block them. In late 2022 a Chinese company’s acquisition of Newport Wafer Fab, a semi-conductor business, was unwound under the act.
Niccolo de Masi, chief executive of IonQ, said he hoped the deal would close by the end of the year, arguing that it had geopolitical significance.
“The US and UK governments don’t spend as much as China on quantum computing or networking. So the private sector has to step in here and make sure our countries prevail.”
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