French quantum computing company Pasqal has acquired Canadian photonic integrated circuits (PICs) company Aeponyx for an undisclosed amount.

“This strategic move strengthens Pasqal’s hardware platform and accelerates the company’s roadmap to fault-tolerant quantum computing,” the company said in a statement.

Aeponyx’s PICs offer a more compact and efficient way to generate and control the light fields necessary to trap, arrange, and entangle atoms. By integrating Aeponyx’s PICs with its technology, Pasqal will be able to replace optical setups with chip-scale photonic circuits, increasing the stability and precision of atom control and individual qubit manipulation whilst simplifying scaling from hundreds to thousands of qubits, the company said.

“Aeponyx has built some of the most precise and scalable light-control chips available now,” said Loïc Henriet, CEO of Pasqal. “By combining their technology with our neutral-atom architecture, we’re tightening our control over a critical part of the hardware stack. This gives us a competitive edge in scalability, advanced individual control of qubits, and hardware stability – three main goals every quantum company must achieve to deliver value at scale.”

Philippe Babin, CEO of Aeponyx, added: “Quantum computing is crossing a threshold – from proof-of-concept to real, usable processors. Joining Pasqal means our photonics will help power that leap. Together, we’re not just making better quantum machines – we’re building the foundation of a new computing era.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, prior to the acquisition, Aeponyx raised $22 million in funding to support PIC research and development.

Pasqal was founded in 2019, and its co-founder, Professor Alain Aspect, was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2022 for his work on entangled photons. In January 2023, the company raised $108 million and has since gone on to install quantum computers in Saudi Arabia and Germany.