Earnings

Rigetti Has $497.1 Million For Development — Its Revenue Forecast Hinges On Customer Acceptance

The quantum-computer builder targets larger machines, while its operating loss widened to $33.2 million in the third quarter.

Matteo Parrino Jonathan Ponciano

Matteo Parrino, Jonathan Ponciano

— 3 min read
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Rigetti Has $497.1 Million For Development — Its Revenue Forecast Hinges On Customer Acceptance

Rigetti Computing, which builds quantum computers and their processors, ended the third quarter with $497.1 million in cash and investments and no debt, according to the earnings release accompanying Tuesday's SEC filing. Its approximately $20 million revenue forecast for 2026 depends on India's C-DAC accepting its system so Rigetti can book the sale in the fourth quarter.

Cash Funds A Growing Research Bill

Rigetti's third-quarter revenue fell to $1.4 million from $1.9 million a year earlier. The longer view was stronger: sales for the first nine months rose approximately 110%, reaching $10.9 million against $5.2 million.

Research and development spending reached $25.5 million, compared with $15.0 million a year earlier. The operating loss widened to $33.2 million from $20.5 million, even though quarterly gross profit increased to $857,000 from $404,000.

A $25.3 million non-cash gain from revaluing warrants helped narrow the reported net loss to $3.1 million from $201.0 million. The adjusted loss, which excludes stock-based pay and changes in warrant and earn-out valuations, widened to $20.5 million from $10.7 million. Diluted losses per share were $0.08 under standard accounting and $0.06 on an adjusted basis.

Rigetti used $49.1 million in operating cash during the first nine months, against $43.6 million a year earlier. Purchases of property and equipment also increased, to $42.6 million from $14.1 million.

C-DAC Acceptance Separates Delivery From Sales

C-DAC's $8.4 million order was slated for fourth-quarter acceptance testing. Customer approval is the step on which Rigetti's annual revenue expectation rests.

Most of Rigetti's revenue comes from technology development contracts. It also sells processors, complete computers, cloud access and engineering services to businesses, government organizations, universities and research laboratories. It manufactures processors at its U.S. Fab-1 facility and provides cloud access directly and through Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure Quantum. In 2025, purchase orders for two Novera systems totaled approximately $5.7 million.

In August, Rigetti established a delivery organization dedicated to customer systems, appointing David Rivas chief operating officer and Andrew Bestwick chief technology officer.

Its September Commerce Department agreement provides an award of up to $100 million under the CHIPS Act. The research covers smaller readout electronics, expanded cooling capacity and manufacturing for highly connected chip designs. The department received a minority, non-controlling equity stake as a condition of the award.

From 108 Qubits To More Than 300

Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni said its Cepheus-1-108Q machine “achieved our goal of 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity.” The measure describes accuracy in operations involving paired qubits.

The 108-qubit machine combines 12 interconnected chips containing nine qubits each. Smaller portions achieved higher accuracy: 99.6% across 80 qubits and 99.7% across 50.

Rigetti targets more than 300 qubits by mid-2028, with approximately 99.7% paired-qubit accuracy and operation times below 60 nanoseconds. Plans include more qubits per chip, faster readout and additional cooling capacity.

The company also continues to target approximately 1,000 qubits, approximately 99.9% accuracy and operation times below 50 nanoseconds within approximately three years. It plans to pack more qubits into a single refrigeration unit rather than connect multiple units, an approach it believes can improve performance at lower cost.

The nearer commercial test is C-DAC's acceptance in the fourth quarter: Rigetti's approximately $20 million annual sales outlook assumes that approval and the associated revenue booking.

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