In 2017, Skywater Technology was spun out from Cypress Semiconductor as an independent semiconductor foundry based in Bloomington, Minnesota. In 2026, it was announced that they would be acquired by quantum computing giant IonQ for $1.8 billion. This episode is about everything that happened in between.

We sat down with the company’s CEO, Thomas Sonderman, to hear more about their path to becoming an integral part of some of the most advanced technological supply chains in the United States.

Sonderman shares how the company focused on growing their Advanced Technology Services (ATS) business, which pairs collaborative teams with clients that need rapid innovation and customized solutions for their technology. By marrying innovation as a service with manufacturing as a service, they’ve built a company that’s grown from 300 to 900 employees in Bloomington with another 900 employees located across the U.S.

Listen in to why the future of quantum computing runs through Bloomington.