Rigetti Computing Faces Challenges Amid Market Decline
Rigetti Computing Inc's stock has dropped 3.05% and hit a 20-day low, reflecting broader market weakness as the Nasdaq-100 is down 2.26% and the S&P 500 is down 1.40%.
Despite Rigetti's impressive growth of 137.1% over the past five years, recent concerns about its future prospects have led to a significant decline in its stock price. The company has faced challenges such as a net loss of $351 million and limited market demand for its quantum computing technology, which has contributed to investor caution. The current market environment, characterized by high inflation and a bear market, has further exacerbated the situation, leading to a drop in Rigetti's stock value.
The implications of these developments suggest that Rigetti's future remains uncertain, and investors may need to reassess their positions in light of the company's financial struggles and the overall market conditions.
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- Stock Volatility: Rigetti Computing has garnered attention over the past year, yet its stock has plummeted approximately 70% from its all-time high, indicating a significant decline in market confidence regarding its future prospects, prompting investors to reassess its investment value.
- Competitive Landscape: In the quantum computing sector, Rigetti faces fierce competition from companies like IonQ, which is set to release a 256-qubit system in 2026, highlighting Rigetti's disadvantages in technological advancement and market share.
- Technical Challenges: Rigetti's 108-qubit system is lagging in achieving 99.5% two-qubit gate fidelity, while its nine-qubit system achieves 99.7%; however, insufficient performance in larger systems may hinder its market position and future funding capabilities.
- Investment Risks: Should Rigetti fail to accelerate its technological progress, it risks further stock declines or even bankruptcy, which poses a negative signal for investors, as the market's sell-off reflects concerns over its future performance.
- Stock Surge: As of February 4, 2026, Rigetti Computing's share price has skyrocketed by 1,420% over the past 15 months, trailing D-Wave Quantum's 1,910% increase but significantly outperforming IonQ's 770% rise, reflecting strong investor confidence in the quantum computing sector.
- Market Expectations: Investors widely believe that quantum computing will disrupt various industries, including encryption, genetic analysis, and financial forecasting, with Rigetti aiming to offer a comprehensive suite of quantum computing solutions from hardware manufacturing to cloud services to attract deep-pocketed enterprise clients.
- Profitability Challenges: Despite its impressive stock performance, Rigetti faces significant unprofitability, with a staggering valuation ratio of 757 times sales, making it appear unreasonable compared to its market peers, indicating potential overvaluation risks.
- Future Outlook: While the stock may experience volatility due to market sentiment in the short term, the company's ongoing losses and reliance on stock issuance to sustain operations suggest a looming risk of price correction within the next one to two years.
- Significant Stock Surge: Rigetti Computing's shares rose 18.3% on Friday, closing at $2.69, driven not by company-specific news but by a broader tech rally, indicating ongoing investor interest in the quantum computing sector.
- Market Recovery Context: Following a brutal four-day decline, the Nasdaq Composite rebounded with a 2.1% increase, as renewed fears of an AI bubble emerged, fueled by major tech earnings revealing accelerating spending, which boosted investor sentiment.
- Surge in Capital Expenditures: Alphabet expects capital expenditures to range between $175 billion and $185 billion in 2026, nearly doubling its 2025 spending, while Amazon raised its 2026 capex guidance to $200 billion, a 60% increase from $125 billion, highlighting a trend of escalating investments among major tech firms.
- Ongoing Business Challenges: Despite Rigetti's market cap exceeding $5 billion, analysts suggest that the timeline for achieving commercial viability in quantum computing may be overly optimistic, as breakthrough success could be much further away than current valuations imply, posing risks to stock sustainability.
- Quantum Technology Breakthrough: Infleqtion focuses on quantum computing and sensing powered by neutral-atom technology, boasting over 230 patents and leveraging Nobel Prize-winning technology, showcasing a strong technical foundation and market potential.
- Collaboration with Nvidia: Infleqtion is closely working with Nvidia to integrate its Sqale quantum computer with Nvidia's CUDA-Q and NVQLink technology, aiming to accelerate hybrid quantum-classical computing applications, potentially unlocking commercial quantum computing sooner.
- SPAC Merger Financing: The proposed merger with Churchill Capital Corp X is expected to generate approximately $540 million in gross proceeds, including over $125 million in new capital, reflecting strong market confidence in Infleqtion's future growth.
- Strong Market Performance: Churchill Capital shares rose 5.59% to $11.34 at the time of publication, indicating positive investor sentiment towards the merger, which may present a good opportunity for long-term holding.
- Market Valuation Discrepancy: Rigetti Computing boasts a market cap exceeding $5.8 billion, yet its sales over the past 12 months total only $7.5 million, indicating a serious disconnect that could expose investors to significant risks.
- Uncertain Technology Outlook: A recent MIT report suggests that large-scale commercial applications remain far off, with Morningstar's analysis projecting that general-use quantum computing could take two decades to materialize, undermining the justification for Rigetti's lofty valuation.
- Increased Funding Pressure: As the company must continually seek funding to sustain operations, this could lead to shareholder dilution, further impacting investor confidence and stock performance.
- Investment Strategy Shift: Despite the alluring prospects of quantum computing, analysts recommend that investors consider other more promising opportunities, such as Alphabet, to mitigate risks and pursue more stable returns.
- Stock Price Decline: IonQ's stock has dropped 8.8% over the past six trading sessions, currently valued at $14 billion, reflecting market concerns about its future prospects, particularly following Wolfpack Research's short-selling report.
- Revenue Growth Constraints: Although IonQ's revenue surged from $2 million to $43 million between 2022 and 2024, Wolfpack highlights that 86% of this revenue came from Pentagon contracts, which are now defunded, creating a $54.6 million revenue gap.
- Deteriorating Financial Condition: IonQ reported a $1.5 billion loss in 2025 and burned through $259 million in cash, with analysts predicting continued losses, exacerbating investor concerns about the company's viability.
- Negative Market Reaction: Given Wolfpack's report questioning IonQ's ability to sustain profitless growth, the prevailing sentiment among investors is to sell the stock, indicating a lack of confidence in its future profitability.











