NEW YORK, March 6, 2026, 08:44 EST
Shares of Rigetti Computing dropped 4.4% ahead of the bell on Friday, with the quantum-computing firm missing quarterly revenue targets and posting a deeper operating loss. LSEG pegged the stock at $16.97 in premarket action.
This comes during a stretch when investors are sifting through earnings from quantum players such as IonQ and D-Wave Quantum, looking for evidence that lab advances are finally driving revenue growth. The group remains volatile: thin top lines, hefty valuations, and extended R&D cycles have fueled choppy trading in the past.
The pressure on Rigetti isn’t hard to spot in its filings. Public agencies accounted for 90.2% of 2025 revenue, the company disclosed, adding a warning: shifts or hold-ups in government contracts could have a significant impact on performance.
Rigetti reported fourth-quarter revenue of $1.9 million, down from $2.3 million in the same period last year. Operating loss expanded to $22.6 million. For the full year, revenue reached $7.1 million, with a GAAP net loss of $216.2 million. As of the end of 2025, the company held $589.8 million in cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale investments.
Chief Executive Subodh Kulkarni flagged ongoing growth in demand for on-premises quantum systems among government and research buyers. The company cited an $8.4 million deal with India’s C-DAC for a 108-qubit system, plus two previously announced Novera system sales totaling roughly $5.7 million. A separate Japanese order for a Novera QPU—quantum processing unit—is scheduled for shipment in April.
Rigetti wants investors’ attention on its 108-qubit system. Kulkarni told analysts that deployment is still on track for “by the end of March,” and the company is aiming for two-qubit gate fidelity around 99.5% median — that’s how precisely paired quantum operations can execute. A qubit, for reference, is the quantum analog of a bit. NIST
During the earnings call, Kulkarni told analysts the company had “intentionally delayed” launching the system, citing unexpected interactions between tunable couplers at that scale. Rigetti has since resolved the problem, he said, and now expects to roll it out soon. The Motley Fool
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bertelsen said that “a little less than half” of the $5.7 million in Novera sales is set to be recognized in the first quarter. The rest will show up in 2026. As for the C-DAC system, Bertelsen explained, it will hit the books only after installation and validation testing, not spread out over several quarters. The Motley Fool
So Rigetti finds itself up against IonQ and D-Wave Quantum, with not many other public players in the mix—every press release or product tweak gets picked apart for signs of real business, not just tech milestones. Lately, coverage has made it clear: investors don’t wait around when the financials fall short.
The risk is hard to miss. Rigetti now expects its 108-qubit Cepheus-1-108Q won’t reach general availability until about the end of the first quarter of 2026. Quarterly revenue, the company notes, can shift depending on delivery schedules and changes in government contract flows. If there’s another delay, or if revenue from booked deals arrives more slowly, investors could be in for an even longer wait before sales pick up in any significant way.
Even so, management maintains the balance sheet gives the company breathing room. Kulkarni said Rigetti thinks it’s about three years away from reaching “quantum advantage,” where its machines outperform classical systems on real-world tasks. The company is targeting a system with over 150 qubits around December 2026, and expects to hit more than 1,000 qubits by, or close to, 2027. The Motley Fool
