IonQ to Acquire Zero Trust Firm Elisity for Up to $1.3 Billion

What happened

Funding/M&A IonQ to Acquire Zero Trust Firm Elisity for Up to $1.3 Billion The all-stock deal brings Elisity’s least-privilege access technology into IonQ’s security portfolio. The startup raised more than $70 million.

The all-stock deal brings Elisity’s least-privilege access technology into IonQ’s security portfolio. Up to $150 million of that amount is earnout consideration, contingent on how Elisity’s business performs.

IonQ expects to complete the acquisition (one company buying another) in the fourth quarter of 2026. The number of IonQ shares issued will depend on the company’s volume-weighted average price over 20 trading days ending shortly before closing, but the price will be kept between $33.07 and $49.61.

Founded in 2019, Elisity sells software that restricts which users, devices, workloads and AI agents (AI that carries out multi-step tasks rather than answering one question) can communicate on enterprise networks, based on least-privilege policies. A component called IdentityGraph combines what Elisity collects itself with data from partner tools, including identity, asset and risk details, to guide access decisions. According to IonQ, Elisity has more than 100 customer deployments.