FTC approves IonQ's acquisition of SkyWater Semiconductor foundry

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved IonQ’s acquisition of SkyWater Semiconductor, clearing a roughly $1.8 billion deal that links a leading quantum-computing company with a U.S.-based chip foundry. IonQ said the combination would create the only vertically integrated full-stack quantum platform company.

The deal terms call for SkyWater shareholders to receive $35.00 per share, made up of $15.00 in cash and $20.00 in IonQ common stock, subject to a collar. FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson said in his July 31 statement that he did not prefer the outcome of the review, but the Commission had a multi-member process and reasonable minds differed. The agency’s early termination of review removed the main regulatory hurdle.

Foundries are where chips are actually manufactured. SkyWater is a U.S.-based, pure-play semiconductor manufacturer and a DMEA-accredited Trusted supplier, with headquarters in Bloomington, Minnesota. SkyWater was created in 2017 from a Minnesota semiconductor fab carve-out and went public in 2021. SkyWater also completed its acquisition of Fab 25 in June 2025, expanding U.S. pure-play foundry capacity for critical semiconductor technologies before the IonQ transaction closed.

IonQ’s roadmap points to fault-tolerant quantum computing and a path to 2 million physical qubits, and in a December 2025 webinar the company said it intended to acquire Oxford Ionics and target 80,000 logical qubits by 2030. A foundry gives IonQ more direct control over research, prototyping and eventual commercialization, and can speed hardware changes needed for specialized quantum systems.

Washington has made domestic chip capacity and resilient supply chains central to industrial policy, especially for defense-related and other sensitive technologies. IonQ said SkyWater would continue to serve customers as a U.S.-based semiconductor foundry after the acquisition.