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Intel has agreed to buy Classiq, an Israeli startup that makes software for programming quantum computers.

The chipmaker announced the deal on Monday without giving a price, but it is worth about $2.3bn, Bloomberg reported , citing people familiar with the matter. Intel declined to comment on the figure.

Quantum computers use qubits, which can handle certain problems, such as simulating molecules, far faster than ordinary chips. But writing programs for them is hard and usually needs specialists.

Classiq tries to make that easier. Its platform lets developers describe what they want a program to do and then designs the quantum circuit for them, much as chip design software does for regular processors.…