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Rigetti Computing: the superconducting chip maker with its own factory

Rigetti had $7.1 million of revenue in 2025, 90.2% of it from governments. Its 2026 outlook of about $20 million rests on one customer accepting a system.

Main takeaways

  • Rigetti Computing (RGTI) sells superconducting quantum computers, Novera processors and cloud access. Most revenue so far is research contracts with government agencies.
  • It was valued at about $4.2 billion at the November 10, 2026 close, against 2025 revenue of $7.1 million.
  • Government entities paid 90.2% of 2025 revenue. The first nine months of 2026 brought in $10.9 million.
  • Main risk: the 2026 outlook of about $20 million assumes one customer, India’s C-DAC, accepts a system in the fourth quarter.
  • Next dates: the warrants expire on March 2, 2027, and a system of more than 300 qubits is targeted for mid-2028.

Rigetti Computing (RGTI) builds quantum computers from superconducting chips that it designs and makes in its own factory in Fremont, California. It sells the machines, and time on them over the cloud, mostly to governments and national laboratories: government entities made up 90.2% of its 2025 revenue, according to its annual report. At the November 10, 2026 Nasdaq close of $12.15 (price from Yahoo Finance), the company was valued at about $4.2 billion, on the 342.8 million shares in its latest quarterly filing.

Key numbers

Metric Value As of
Market value About $4.2 billion, at $12.15 a share November 10, 2026 close
Revenue $7.1 million Full year 2025
Net loss $216.2 million Full year 2025
Cash and investments $497.1 million September 30, 2026
Largest system 108 qubits, Cepheus-1-108Q November 10, 2026
Employees 164 March 1, 2026
Founded 2013
Headquarters Berkeley, California
Revenue by year$ million
Revenue, 2022: 13.1 $ millionRevenue, 2023: 12.0 $ millionRevenue, 2024: 10.8 $ millionRevenue, 2025: 7.1 $ million13.112.010.87.12022202320242025Revenue, 2022: 13.1 $ millionRevenue, 2023: 12.0 $ millionRevenue, 2024: 10.8 $ millionRevenue, 2025: 7.1 $ million13.112.010.87.12022202320242025

Source: Rigetti Computing, Form 10-K filings for 2023, 2024 and 2025

Loss from operations by year$ million
Loss from operations, 2022: 109.1 $ millionLoss from operations, 2023: 72.3 $ millionLoss from operations, 2024: 68.5 $ millionLoss from operations, 2025: 84.7 $ million109.172.368.584.72022202320242025Loss from operations, 2022: 109.1 $ millionLoss from operations, 2023: 72.3 $ millionLoss from operations, 2024: 68.5 $ millionLoss from operations, 2025: 84.7 $ million109.172.368.584.72022202320242025

Source: Rigetti Computing, Form 10-K filings for 2023, 2024 and 2025

What the company does

The annual report describes three things Rigetti sells.

  • Complete quantum computers installed at the customer’s site. In January 2026, India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) placed an $8.4 million order for a 108-qubit system, Rigetti said. A qubit is the basic unit a quantum computer computes with.
  • Novera, a 9-qubit processor sold on its own since December 2023. Rigetti received orders for two, worth about $5.7 million together, in 2025.
  • Access to its machines over the cloud, sold directly through its Quantum Cloud Services platform and through Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure Quantum.

Most of the revenue so far comes from none of these. The annual report says the company generates “the majority of our revenues from technology development contracts”: research paid for by agencies such as DARPA, the U.S. Department of Energy and Innovate UK.

What is promised is a machine that does useful work a normal computer cannot, known as quantum advantage. Rigetti’s own bar for that is more than 1,000 qubits, fidelity (a measure of accuracy, explained below) above 99.9% and operations faster than 50 billionths of a second. Its largest system today has 108 qubits, and the annual report puts large machines that correct their own errors “roughly a decade away”.

The technology in plain words

A superconducting qubit is a small electrical circuit on a silicon chip. The chip sits in a dilution refrigerator, a cooler that holds it at about 0.02 Kelvin, a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. Rigetti says it chose the design because such circuits can be made with the chip industry’s existing methods.

The known strength is speed. Rigetti says in its third-quarter release that its operations take 50 to 70 billionths of a second, about 10,000 times faster than trapped-ion machines and 100 times faster than neutral-atom machines, two rival designs that use individual atoms as qubits. The comparison is the company’s.

The known weakness is errors, and they grow with size. The number to read is two-qubit gate fidelity: how often an operation on a pair of qubits gives the right result. By its own measurements, Rigetti reported a median of 99.5% across all 108 qubits of its Cepheus-1 system, 99.6% on an 80-qubit part of it and 99.7% on a 50-qubit part. At 99.5%, about one operation in 200 fails.

Google says its hardware also “focuses on superconducting qubits”. Rigetti’s distinguishing choice is to build a large processor from small tiles it calls chiplets: Cepheus-1 is 12 linked 9-qubit chips. IonQ (IONQ) uses individual atoms instead.

The results Rigetti has reported, and the targets it has set:

Date Target Status
January 2026 108 qubits (Cepheus-1-108Q) at 99.0% median two-qubit gate fidelity Reported by the company, internal testing
November 10, 2026 108 qubits at 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity, the goal the company had set Reached, by the company’s own measurement
Mid-2028 More than 300 qubits at about 99.7% fidelity, with operations faster than 60 billionths of a second Target
“Within approximately three years” About 1,000 qubits at about 99.9% fidelity, with operations faster than 50 billionths of a second Target

The business

Revenue is small and has fallen three years in a row, from $13.1 million in 2022 to $7.1 million in 2025. The annual report says revenue was hurt by the expiry of the U.S. National Quantum Initiative Act in September 2023, with its renewal still pending in Congress when the report was filed. In the first nine months of 2026 revenue was $10.9 million, up from $5.2 million a year earlier, but only $1.4 million of it came in the third quarter. The company expects about $20 million for the full year, on the assumption that C-DAC accepts its system in the fourth quarter, as we reported.

U.S. government entities alone were 48.0% of 2025 revenue, and 47.3% of revenue came from outside the United States.

Costs are far larger than sales. The loss from operations was $84.7 million in 2025, and $87.2 million in the first nine months of 2026 alone, against $62.1 million a year earlier. The net loss is a poor guide: it swings with the accounting value of the company’s warrants. In 2025, $150.6 million of the $216.2 million net loss was a non-cash charge of that kind.

Rigetti held $497.1 million in cash and investments on September 30, 2026, down from $589.8 million at the end of 2025, and no debt. Over the nine months, operations used $49.1 million and equipment purchases took $42.6 million, three times the $14.1 million of a year earlier. The company says its cash is enough for at least the next twelve months.

Funding and ownership

Rigetti listed on March 2, 2022 by merging with Supernova Partners Acquisition Company II, a blank-check company. Its cash comes from four stock sales in 2024 and 2025.

Date Round or offering Amount Lead or terms
2024 Shares sold into the market (at-the-market program) $97.5 million net 68.8 million shares, through B. Riley Securities and Needham & Company
November 27, 2024 Registered direct offering $96.0 million net 50.0 million shares, to two institutional investors
Second quarter of 2025 Shares sold into the market (at-the-market program) $346.7 million net 30.3 million shares at an average of $11.55, through Jefferies
April 29, 2025 Private placement $35.0 million 3.0 million shares to Quanta Computer at about $11.59
September 2026 Research award from the U.S. Department of Commerce Up to $100 million 7.74 million shares issued to the Department as a condition

The four sales add up to about 152 million shares, or 44% of the 342.8 million outstanding on November 6, 2026, for about $575 million. The cash flow statement shows no stock offering in the first nine months of 2026.

The shares issued to the Commerce Department, under an agreement signed in September 2026, are about 2.3% of the company. Separately, 8.7 million warrants, each a right to buy one share at $11.50, were outstanding at the end of 2025. They expire on March 2, 2027.

People

The business was founded in 2013 by Dr. Chad Rigetti. He said in November 2022 that he would step down as president, chief executive and director, effective around December 15, 2022. Dr. Subodh Kulkarni has been president and chief executive since December 2022, and Jeffrey Bertelsen chief financial officer since February 2023, according to the company’s site. In August 2026 Rigetti named Dr. Andrew Bestwick chief technology officer and David Rivas to a newly created chief operating officer role.

Risks

  • One customer, one quarter. The 2026 outlook depends on C-DAC accepting an $8.4 million system before the year ends.
  • Government money. Government entities were 90.2% of 2025 revenue, and the annual report says the lapse of one U.S. law has already hurt sales.
  • A roadmap that has slipped before. “We have in the past failed to meet publicly announced milestones”, the annual report says, and the company changed its roadmap in 2018, 2022, 2023 and 2025.
  • Dilution. The cash came from issuing shares equal to 44% of the November 6, 2026 count in two years, and spending is rising: Rigetti and Quanta Computer have each agreed to invest at least $250 million in quantum computing over the five years from February 2025.
  • Size against sales. The market value was about $4.2 billion at the November 10, 2026 close. The revenue the company expects for 2026 is about $20 million.

What to watch

  • The fourth-quarter report, which will show whether the C-DAC revenue was recorded. No date is announced. The 2025 annual report was filed on March 4, 2026.
  • March 2, 2027, when the warrants expire. If all 8.7 million were exercised, Rigetti would receive about $100 million and the share count would rise by about 2.5%.
  • Mid-2028, the date Rigetti set for a system of more than 300 qubits at about 99.7% fidelity.

Our read: Rigetti is betting that speed and its own factory will count for more than today’s error rates. The stock sales of 2024 and 2025 paid for the attempt, and spending is rising. Until the larger machines arrive, the revenue line mostly measures government research budgets and a few system deliveries.

Last checked 2026-11-11

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