Rigetti Computing (RGTI) is one of Wall Street’s best-performing semiconductor stocks this month, following news that it was shortlisted for a U.S. government-backed quantum R&D program.
The stock is up more than 15% over the past month and remains above its April 2 closing price — the same day President Trump’s tariff blitz rattled markets.
RGTI is currently trading just under $10, giving the company a market cap of around $2.5 billion.
The rally began in early April after the U.S. Department of Defense’s research arm, DARPA, added Rigetti to its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI). The program aims to achieve industrial-scale quantum computing by 2033.
To get there, DARPA says it first needs to determine when “computational value exceeds cost” — a milestone it plans to reach through a decade of rigorous R&D.
While Rigetti remains a relatively small player in the quantum computing space, it has earned its name as a key pioneer in recent years.
The company has been part of Amazon Web Services’ Amazon Braket since late 2019.
Braket is AWS’s fully managed platform for quantum experimentation and access to third-party hardware — an early collaboration that helped establish Rigetti’s credibility in the space and likely laid the groundwork for its DARPA inclusion.
A rally driven by potential, not profits
Like many emerging tech stocks, Rigetti’s recent surge has more to do with future promise than today’s fundamentals.
On its latest earnings call, management acknowledged that significant commercial sales are likely still at least four years away. In the meantime, the company continues to burn through cash as it funds R&D and operational expenses.
Rigetti posted just $2.3 million in revenue for Q4 2024, down from an already modest $3.4 million the year before. Total operating expenses were $19.5 million, slightly lower than in the prior year’s quarter.
Still, the company is doubling down on its mission.
It has committed more than $100 million over five years to a strategic partnership with Quanta Computer Inc., a Taiwan-based electronics and notebook manufacturer.
As part of that agreement, Quanta will invest $35 million in Rigetti and acquire equity in the company.
Both firms are betting on a commercial breakthrough by 2030.
Citing Boston Consulting Group research, Rigetti said the quantum computing industry could generate $2 billion in annual revenue by then. The same report estimates that the broader economic impact of quantum technologies could reach $850 billion by 2040.
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