RGTI

Quantum computing remains one of Wall Street's highest-risk, highest-reward themes, and the latest earnings season gave investors a fresh reason to compare two of the sector's biggest names. While Rigetti Computing RGTI and IonQ IONQ are pursuing different technology road maps, both used their second-quarter 2026 updates to showcase accelerating commercial traction and ambitious scaling plans. IONQ delivered the bigger financial headline. Revenues surged 287% year over year to $80.1 million, marking its fifth straight record quarter, while management raised full-year revenue guidance to $280-$290 million. The company also strengthened its vertically integrated strategy through the SkyWater acquisition and highlighted progress toward semiconductor-based 256-qubit systems. Rigetti's numbers were smaller, with revenues climbing 185% to $5.1 million, but its quarter centered on execution. The company advanced its 108-qubit Cepheus-1 platform, reiterated its chiplet-based roadmap toward 1,000 qubits and secured a Department of Commerce letter of intent for up to $100 million in potential CHIPS Act funding. Investors have rewarded the stronger commercial momentum. Over the past month, IONQ and RGTI’s shares have gained 14.3% and 4.6%, respectively, reflecting greater confidence in IonQ's near-term execution. Still, Rigetti's government backing, modular architecture and hybrid computing partnerships suggest this race is about more than today's revenue figures. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Let's get into more detail. Rigetti's second quarter reinforced its execution-focused investment case as revenue rose 185% year over year to $5.1 million, driven by on-premises Novera QPU sales, while gross margin expanded to 43% from 31% a year ago. The company also advanced its 108-qubit Cepheus-1 platform, reaffirmed its chiplet-based roadmap toward 1,000 qubits, secured a U.S. Department of Commerce letter of intent for up to $100 million in potential CHIPS Act funding and maintained a strong balance sheet with $541.3 million in cash and investments and no debt. Rigetti's biggest challenge remains translating technical progress into sustained commercial scale. Despite strong revenue growth, quarterly sales remain modest at $5.1 million, while operating expenses increased to $30.3 million as the company continued investing heavily in R&D, fabrication, refrigeration infrastructure and chip development. The company also needs to deliver meaningful improvements in Cepheus-1's gate fidelity and coherence times while executing on its ambitious 1,000-qubit roadmap, with the proposed CHIPS Act funding still awaiting a definitive agreement. IonQ strengthened its leadership position in the second quarter as revenue surged 287% year over year to $80.1 million, while organic revenue climbed 132%. The company continued expanding its commercial footprint, with 60% of revenues coming from commercial customers, 50% from international markets and 25% from multiproduct sales, while remaining performance obligations jumped to $485 million. IonQ also raised its 2026 revenue guidance to $280-$290 million and reinforced its full-stack strategy through the SkyWater acquisition and growing exposure across quantum computing, networking, security and defense. IonQ's rapid expansion continues to come with elevated costs and execution demands. The company posted an adjusted EBITDA loss of $120.3 million during the quarter, while SkyWater-related investments increased near-term spending as it accelerated product development and supply chain integration. Although the $1.8 billion SkyWater acquisition strengthens IonQ's long-term manufacturing strategy, it also raises the complexity of integrating operations while delivering on an ambitious roadmap spanning semiconductor-based quantum hardware, networking and security solutions. For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for RGTI’s bottom line is pegged at a loss of 19 cents per share, implying a 70.3% improvement over the 2025 reported figure. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IONQ’S 2026 bottom line is pegged at a loss of $1.19 per share, implying 34.6% growth over the 2025 reported loss. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Based on short-term price targets offered by 12 analysts, the average price target for IonQ represents an increase of 55.1% from the last closing price of $44.86. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Based on short-term price targets offered by 11 analysts, the average price target for RGTI represents an increase of 64.99% from the last closing price of $17.91. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research IonQ appears to have won the second-quarter earnings battle with far stronger revenue growth, higher commercial traction and a raised 2026 outlook, while Rigetti's update leaned more on technical milestones and long-term execution. However, neither stock currently carries a favorable Zacks rating. IonQ carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), while Rigetti carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), suggesting weaker near-term expectations for both. Given IonQ's stronger operating momentum but elevated spending and integration risks, and Rigetti's earlier-stage commercial profile, investors may prefer to stay on the sidelines until fundamentals improve and their Zacks ratings turn more favorable. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

IonQ IONQ has witnessed a notable rebound since its Aug. 5, 2026, second-quarter earnings release, with shares surging 15.9% since then, outperforming Rigetti Computing’s RGTI 12.1% gain and D-Wave Quantum’s QBTS 1% decline. Importantly, this momentum follows a massive July selloff that sharply reset valuations across pure-play quantum stocks, with IonQ among the hardest hit. The post-earnings recovery reflects improving fundamental momentum. IonQ reported a strong revenue increase of 287% year over year, while remaining performance obligations reached $485 million. The company also raised its 2026 revenue outlook to $280-$290 million. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The completion of the SkyWater acquisition further strengthens its vertically integrated, U.S.-based manufacturing strategy and quantum roadmap. With quantum computing gaining strategic importance amid rising government and enterprise investment, investors should now thoroughly reassess IonQ’s execution, valuation and commercialization trajectory for potentially significant 2026 upside. Stronger Fundamentals:  IonQ delivered 287% year-over-year revenue growth and 20% above the midpoint of its prior guidance. Growth was driven by global deployments of its Tempo systems, cloud utilization and broader commercial momentum. Importantly, 60% of revenues came from commercial customers, while international and multi-product revenues represented about 50% and 25%, respectively. RPO also climbed 297% year over year, supporting the company’s decision to raise 2026 revenue guidance to $280-$290 million. Management expects $135-$145 million of revenues in the second half and does not anticipate a sequential revenue decline, pointing to continued growth through year-end. The 2026 outlook also assumes more than 100% organic growth and excludes any contribution from the recently completed SkyWater acquisition, leaving potential upside if the integration and commercialization strategy progresses as planned. Favorable Policy and Strategic Backdrop: The June 22 White House executive order explicitly called for accelerating the commercialization and deployment of quantum computing, sensing and networking, while also strengthening domestic quantum supply chains and manufacturing. This aligns closely with IonQ’s July 31 completion of its SkyWater acquisition, which creates a vertically integrated U.S. quantum platform. The second-quarter update also cited new defense and national-security initiatives with Anduril and Sandia National Laboratories, potentially expanding IonQ’s addressable government market. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for IONQ’s third-quarter and 2026 EPS is pegged at a loss of 26 cents and a loss of $1.19 per share, respectively, implying 92.74% and 34.6% improvements over year-ago reported figures. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Technically, the chart shows IONQ is currently slightly above its 50-day SMA and above its 200-day SMA, indicating that the recent post-earnings rebound has pushed the stock back above both key trend indicators. The move above the 200-day SMA is notable after the July selloff and suggests that near-term momentum is improving. However, the narrow gap between the stock price and both moving averages indicates that the recovery is yet to establish a strong technical cushion. The valuation remains demanding despite the recent pullback. IONQ is currently trading at 46.51x P/S versus 5.03x for the S&P 500, a roughly 9.2x premium. While below its three-year median of 67.48x, the premium leaves limited room for execution missteps. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research IonQ’s improving fundamentals and quantum-computing progress support its long-term prospects, but the near-term risk-reward profile appears less attractive following the recent rally. Also, limited cushion above its 50- and 200-day moving averages suggests that much of the near-term optimism may already be priced in. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) and trades at 46.51x sales, significantly above the broader market. With shares already up 15.9% since the second-quarter release, investors may consider locking in gains while reassessing the stock after its strong recovery. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. ET Chief Executive Officer - Subodh Kulkarni Chief Financial Officer - Jeffrey Bertelsen Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rigetti Computing Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Subodh Kulkarni, CEO of Rigetti. Please go ahead. Subodh Kulkarni: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Rigetti's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I'm pleased to be joined today by our Chief Financial Officer, Jeffrey Bertelsen who will walk you through our financial results in more detail following my overview. We appreciate your continued interest in Rigetti and look forward to answering your questions at the conclusion of our prepared remarks. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today's call, along with our second quarter 2026 press release, contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current expectations, objectives and underlying assumptions regarding our outlook and future operating results and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These risks and uncertainties are described in more detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, our Form 10-Q filing for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, and other periodic reports filed from time to time with the SEC. Rigetti undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call, except as required by law. During today's call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. For details on these measures and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures, please refer to today's earnings release on our Investor Relations website at www.rigetti.com and to the 8-K furnished with the SEC. Before I dive into the quarter, I want to frame our discussion around 3 key takeaways. First, we continue to demonstrate technical leadership with our Cepheus-class systems, including ongoing progress to improve the performance of our 108Q, Cepheus-1-108Q platform. Second, the letter of intent we signed with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $100 million in funding over 3 years further validates our superconducting chiplet-based approach and strengthens our ability to invest against our road map to Quantum advantage. Third, we recently announced an expanded collaboration with HPE and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to develop a hybrid quantum classical supercomputer, reflecting growing demand for our approach and positioning Rigetti to deliver differentiated quantum-enhanced HPC solutions. Q2 was another important proof point in our strategy to combine technical progress with real-world access and long-term strategic partnerships. Quantum computing remains a long-cycle opportunity, but we are increasingly seeing the ecosystem coalesce around platforms that can scale in a practical way and that are available to users where they already run their workloads. We believe Rigetti is well positioned in the environment for 3 reasons. We are focused on superconducting gate-based quantum computing, which offers a combination of scalability and speed that is difficult to replicate with other modalities. We are pursuing an open modular architecture that allows us to integrate innovative solutions from partners to advance our technology faster, such as QEC technology from Riverlane and transduction technology from QphoX. We pioneered and continue to lead in chiplet-based architectures, which we believe provide a more practical path to scaling to 1,000 qubits and beyond than monolithic approaches. Let me start with our technology and product progress. Cepheus-1-108Q remains one of the highest qubit count, generally available gate-based quantum computers in the world and the largest modular quantum computing system on the market today. The system is built from 12 interconnected 9-qubit chiplets and is accessible to customers via Rigetti Quantum Cloud services and through Amazon bracket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and qBraid. We are just 1 of 3 companies, including IBM and Google, who have delivered gate-based systems with over 100 qubits, and we believe that our modular approach gives us a strong advantage on the path towards higher qubit count systems. Today, Cepheus-1-108Q continues to operate at a median single qubit gate fidelity of approximately 99.9% and a median 2-qubit gate fidelity of roughly 99.1% with gate speeds around 60 nanoseconds. This performance levels at the 100-plus qubit scale are meaningful, and our teams remain focused on improving fidelity throughout 2026 as we refine chip design, materials and fabrication processes and incorporate learnings from our R&D platforms. From a systems engineering perspective, our work this quarter extended beyond adding qubits. We continue to mitigate coupling interactions between tunable couplers that become more pronounced beyond the 100 qubit scale and to address coherence time limitations that are now the primary constraint on fidelity. As we discussed with investors in May, our current coherence times are in the 25 to 30 microsecond range, and we are executing on a set of chip design and material initiatives intended to roughly double or triple those times over the next several years. This includes joint IP with Fermilab where capping niobium superconducting contacts with tantalum has demonstrated meaningful coherence time improvements in fundamental experiments, and we are now incorporating those learnings into production chip designs. We are also refining deposition, oxidation and etch processes to smooth interfaces in the Josephs junction area, which we believe will further improve coherence and ultimately gate fidelities. Beyond Cepheus-1-108Q, we remain on track with the chiplet-based road map we laid out earlier this year and have begun investing in dilution refrigeration and infrastructure that can support 1,000 qubit systems. Our objective remains to reach approximately 1,000 qubits, 2 qubit gate fidelities of 99.9% and gate speed below 40 nanoseconds in roughly 3 years. I would now like to spend a few minutes on the U.S. Department of Commerce letter of intent we announced on May 21. Under this LOI, the department has selected Rigetti for a potential award of up to $100 million in funding over 3 years to accelerate superconducting quantum computing R&D that addresses key technical challenges in scaling and advancing our systems. The contemplated transaction structure includes a department receiving an equity stake in Rigetti, consistent with the total amount of funding and the funding itself would be allocated under the CHIPS Research and Development Office broad agency announcement pursuant to the CHIPS Act. We believe that this prospective partnership reflects the view that quantum computing will have far-reaching impacts on national security, economic interest and overall prosperity and that superconducting qubit platforms are central to U.S. leadership in this field. It also reflects the administration's broader CHIPS R&D investments in quantum computing and related technologies designed to build domestic industry, create high-paying jobs and strengthen technological resilience. For Rigetti, this LOI is strategically significant in several ways. It would allow us to tackle key scaling bottlenecks more rapidly associated with multichip architectures. It would enable us to accelerate multiple generations of superconducting quantum processors and associated control electronics at Fab-1, our dedicated quantum device manufacturing facility. It would deepen our collaboration with the U.S. government at a time when global investment in quantum computing is increasing and geopolitical competition in this domain is intensifying. It is important to emphasize that the LOI is not yet a definitive agreement. Any final structure will also include issuance of securities to the department and will be subject to customary approvals and conditions. We view this prospective partnership as aligned with our long-term strategy and our commitment to disciplined capital deployment. Jeff will provide additional context on how we are thinking about this funding opportunity within our broader capital framework. Turning to customer momentum and market traction. Our strategy is to meet customers where they are across public cloud, hybrid infrastructure and dedicated quantum systems. On the cloud, Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services, Amazon bracket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and qBraid provide global access to our systems, including Cepheus-1-108Q. We continue to see engagement from researchers and enterprises seeking to experiment on one of the most capable generally available gate-based platforms where they benefit from ease of use and consistent uptime. In parallel, we are building a growing base of on-premises system deployments. Earlier this year, we outlined 3 systems targeted for delivery in 2026. bit Novera systems and a 108-qubit system for C-DAC in India. We remain on track and are seeing additional demand for Novera QPUs from national labs and universities with recent wins, including the University of Saskatchewan and a research arm of a large Japanese conglomerate. These deployments deepen technical engagement, create multiyear usage pathways and generate high-value feedback that informs our road map. At this stage of the market, we are prioritizing customers committed to active experimentation and collaboration, and we are deliberate in how we build those relationships. As part of this customer momentum, we recently expanded our collaboration with HPE and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Rigetti will deliver a 9-qubit Novera quantum computing system into PSC's new TangleLab test bed, which is being funded by a National Science Foundation grant. Working with HPE, this deployment is designed to integrate the Novera system with an HPE-powered supercomputing environment so that researchers and industry users can develop and test hybrid quantum classical workloads on real hardware. We view this as an important step in moving our HPE relationship from early experimentation toward commercially relevant quantum-enabled HPC solutions. More broadly, global investment in quantum computing continues to expand, led by governments and national labs and increasingly complemented by commercial interest. Outside the United States, we are seeing structured programs such as the U.K. government's 6-year ProQure initiative, where we intend to invest up to $100 million over time in systems, talent and infrastructure. In India, our 108-qubit C-DAC award reflects national level interest in superconducting platforms. And across Europe and Asia, we are seeing growing number of coordinated quantum initiatives. Commercial revenue remains early, but engagement is increasing across industries such as materials, logistics and financial services as they explore hybrid and quantum-inspired workloads. As system performance improves and the industry moves closer to quantum advantage, we expect commercial adoption to build on the government and research foundation in place today. Let me briefly connect these developments back to our long-term road map. We remain focused on a clear sequence designed to position Rigetti to reach quantum advantage in roughly 3 years. Near term, that means driving Cepheus-1-108Q toward a median 2-qubit gate fidelity of approximately 99.5% later this year while maintaining our gate speed advantages. Beyond that, we are working toward deploying higher qubit systems that leverage our chiplet-based architecture as the foundation for scaling beyond 1,000 qubits with fidelities and speed better mitigated and eventually fall tolerant computation. In support of this road map, we continue to invest in Fab-1 and associated refrigeration infrastructure as well as partnerships with organizations such as Riverlane, Quanta and QphoX to integrate innovative solutions into the stack. The prospective CHIPS Act funding would further reinforce our ability to execute on multiple generations of processes while maintaining prudent capital discipline. We intend to update our published technology road map later this year once we have additional operational data from Cepheus-1-108Q and clearer visibility into subsequent system deployments. Our objective is to provide investors with a transparent view of the milestones that matter most for Quantum Advantage, including specific targets for qubit count, fidelity, coherence time and gate speed. With that overview, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Jeff Bertelson, to discuss our financial results and capital deployment in more detail. Jeffrey Bertelsen: Thank you, Subodh, and good afternoon, everyone. I will spend a few minutes walking through our second quarter 2026 financial results, our balance sheet and liquidity and how we are thinking about capital deployment as we continue to execute on the road map Subodh described, including the potential implications of the Department of Commerce LOI. For the second quarter of 2026, revenue was approximately $5.1 million compared to $1.8 million in the second quarter of 2025. The year-over-year increase was driven by on-premises Novera QPU sales, reflecting recognition of previously announced Novera purchase orders. Gross margin for the quarter was approximately 43% compared to 31% in the second quarter of 2025, with variability driven by contract mix and pricing and the relative contribution from the Novera QPU sales. Total operating expenses for the second quarter were $30.3 million compared to $20.4 million in the same period last year, with spending concentrated in research and development, including engineering headcount, fabrication, chip design and control electronics development as well as investments in refrigeration and infrastructure to support higher cubic count systems. Stock-based compensation for the quarter was approximately $7 million compared to $3.6 million in the second quarter of 2025. Operating loss was $28.1 million compared to $19.9 million in the prior year period. On a GAAP basis, net loss for the quarter was $52.6 million compared to a net loss of $39.7 million in the prior year period, with results again impacted by noncash fair value adjustments to derivative warrant and earn-out liabilities. As we have said previously, these fair value adjustments can introduce significant quarter-to-quarter volatility into our GAAP results and do not affect how we operate the business or allocate capital. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and fair value adjustments to warrant and earn-out liabilities, net loss for the quarter was approximately $16 million or $0.05 per diluted share compared to a non-GAAP net loss of $13.3 million or $0.04 per diluted share in the second quarter of 2025. Let me provide a bit more color on revenue drivers and how we are thinking about the remainder of the year. As we discussed on our prior call, we expected strong year-over-year revenue growth in the first half of 2026, driven by the previously announced Novera purchase orders we received late last year and earlier in 2026. In Q2, we continued to progress on the $8.4 million C-DAC order for an on-premises 108-quubit system in India, which we still expect to recognize in the fourth quarter of this year following installation and performance acceptance testing. More broadly, our revenue profile continues to be influenced by the timing of system deliveries and government-funded projects. We view this variability as inherent to the current stage of the quantum computing market and not as a driver of our long-term capital allocation or technology strategy. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the second quarter of 2026 with approximately $541.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments compared with $569 million as of March 31, 2026, and $589.8 million as of December 31, 2025. We continue to operate with no debt. And given our current operating profile, we believe our capital position provides sufficient runway to execute against our technology and system deployment milestones, including continued progress on scale, fidelity, system integration and our planned investment in the United Kingdom. Capital expenditures in the quarter were primarily driven by investments in Fab-1 and additional dilution refrigeration capacity to support higher cubic count systems. As we noted previously, we expect 2026 CapEx to be elevated relative to prior years, largely due to investments in dilution refrigeration and fab equipment. Our approach to capital deployment remains disciplined and consistent with what we have discussed on prior calls. The majority of our spending is directed toward core R&D activities that directly advance our technology platform, including our chiplet-based architecture, control systems and cloud integration. We are not managing the business around short-term revenue optimization. We are managing it around credible long-term progress toward Quantum Advantage and commercially relevant systems. Should we move from the current LOI to definitive agreements with the Department of Commerce, we would expect the CHIPS Act funding to be deployed in a way that is tightly aligned with this philosophy. That means focusing the capital on specific technical programs that address scaling bottlenecks and packaging and enhancements while being mindful of potential dilution associated with any equity issuance. To close, our financial strategy is unchanged from what we outlined last quarter. We are focused on maintaining flexibility, funding innovation responsibly and aligning capital deployment with the long-term value creation of our technology road map, including the CHIPS Act funding. Quarterly results will continue to reflect the early-stage nature of the quantum computing market and the timing of large system contracts. but we believe our balance sheet and capital discipline position us to execute with patience and control. With that, I will turn it back to Subodh for closing remarks before we open the call for questions. Subodh Kulkarni: Thank you, Jeff. We are encouraged by the progress we are making on our technology road map, the strengthening engagement we are seeing from customers across cloud and on-premises channels and the strategic support we are beginning to see from governments such as the United States and the United Kingdom. We remain focused on delivering against the milestones we have laid out, including fidelity improvements on Cepheus-1-108Q, higher qubit systems and disciplined execution of our capital plan. On behalf of the entire Rigetti team, thank you for your continued interest and support. Operator, we are now ready to open the call for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Brian Kinstlinger of Alliance Global Partners. Brian Kinstlinger: On the last conference call, you highlighted coherence time as the primary limitation on your new architecture to fidelity and that you believe you could address that challenge. And then you gave some details around that today. When is a reasonable time frame where we can expect to see that impact fidelity? Subodh Kulkarni: Indeed, as we discussed in the call, coherence time is the limiting factor for 2-qubit gate fidelity at this time, and that's why we are so focused on improving coherence time. Right now, it's in the 25 to 30 microseconds range. We want to obviously bump it up as much as possible, but we think a factor of 2 or 3 improvement is practical in the near term, and that's what we are working on. The kind of stuff we are working on, we disclosed during the call, things like smoother interfaces at the Josephson junction level or capping off the niobium and tantalum, which seems to improve the coherence time, and we have published some papers along those lines. Those are the kinds of things we are doing. We definitely expect fidelity to increase at the 108 qubit level before the end of this year, and we'll update everyone when we are ready to deploy a new system. I just want to put some the developments in a little perspective here. Keep in mind that there are only 3 very capable more than 100 qubit systems with the gate-based world in quantum computing right now. Besides IBM at 120 qubits, we are at 108 and Google is at 105 qubit. Everyone else, even though they may be talking a lot and about road maps in future are well below that. And many companies are well below 50 qubits when it comes to actual systems. We get incredible feedback from end users who are using our systems every day that our system is one of the easiest to use and has consistent uptime. So we want to be careful that before we upgrade our system, if you will, with higher coherence time and higher fidelity, we have checked off all the other metrics, and we don't inadvertently go backwards in the technical progress. So we are careful with how we are doing the experiments and how we will deploy it in the actual system that is deployed for the whole world. Hopefully, that answers your question. Brian Kinstlinger: Does. If I can just ask one follow-up. A few months back, there was a change in the leadership in DARPA's QBI. Has this had any impact on Rigetti's chances of getting to stage B? And do you think this is still achievable by year-end? Subodh Kulkarni: Certainly, there was a change in leadership at DARPA. Our plan stays the same. DARPA gave us a bunch of areas where they wanted to see improvements to get into Phase B. We continue to work with them. We have periodic calls with them and meetings with them, and we will continue to demonstrate improvements in the areas that we pointed out. We still feel optimistic that we will get into DARPA Phase B relatively soon. It's impossible to predict the exact time lines on all these kinds of things, but we continue to make very good progress. and we continue to get -- we continue to believe we will get into Phase B soon. Along with DARPA, there are other initiatives, as I mentioned in my call, there is a U.K. government's procure initiative, which is kind of like the DARPA QBI initiative and some other initiatives across the world. So we are engaged in multiple initiatives like that. So it's not just DARPA alone. And as you saw, the Department of Commerce in the U.S. created a separate initiative focused on accelerating road maps, and we are definitely part of that. So DARPA is and will continue to be an important player in the quantum computing ecosystem, but it's not the only one. There are multiple areas that we are participating in right now. Operator: And our next question comes from Krish Sankar of TD Cowen. Sreekrishnan Sankarnarayanan: The first question on the current fab facility in Fremont. The current tooling and your -- what's the annual QPU production capacity? And what kind of CapEx requirement should we expect for that? Subodh Kulkarni: So Krish, right now, the fab we have in Fremont is a 150-millimeter fab. Frankly, capacity is not a concern at all. We have plenty of capacity in that fab with 150 millimeters because each quantum chip is capable of significant computation, as you're aware. So we make a number of 9-qubit chips right now. And with our chiplet architecture, we are using 9-qubit chiplets to get a 36-qubit system or 108-qubit system. In future, we believe we will make things like 36qubit chiplets that will take us to 1,000 qubits and beyond, and we will continue to increase the size of the chiplets in the future. Right now, I mean, to give you a reference, the 9-qubit chiplet is roughly 6 millimeter by 6 millimeter. So as you can imagine, we can build plenty of 9-qubit chiplets in a single 150-millimeter wafer, and we can run a number of wafers a day. So we -- capacity is not an issue at all. Challenge, of course, is getting the capability out there. And there are some limitations with 150-millimeter equipment and it's not an automated line. And we believe there are some limitations that come with nonautomated line and 150-millimeter size. So we continue to look at alternative options for upgrading the fab, but it's mostly for capability, not for capacity. Sreekrishnan Sankarnarayanan: Got you. Very helpful, Subodh. And then a follow-up on HPE -- 9-qubit Novera QPU system. Will you be providing this QPU chips only? Or would it be QPU dilution switch controls and other infrastructure? And what is kind of like the timing for delivery on that? Subodh Kulkarni: So yes, it's a good question. And we are really excited to partner with HPE and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. It's really a great initiative to demonstrate how hybrid computing works. If you go out there right now, a lot of people talk about hybrid computing, but honestly, there are very, very few places, in fact, hardly any where you can go and actually do demonstrate hybrid computing and how it's supposed to work. So we believe we will be one of the first ones to do that along with HPE. Our contribution to that NSF sponsored project is a full 9-qubit system. So not just the QPU, but the QPU plus addition refrigeration plus control system and everything. Obviously, HPE is a top player in the HPC world. So HPE's contribution is HPC and the interfaces is what we will be working on, and that's really the role of Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. It's going to be an exciting project to bring in the best of HPCs, the best of quantum computing and allow access to anyone in the world where they can easily play around with hybrid computing and see how hybrid computing works. In particular, I will bring forth that because we are using superconducting gate technology, we have a huge benefit in terms of speed. Our gate speeds are in the 50 nanosecond, 60 nanosecond range, which are roughly 1,000x to 10,000x faster than trapped Ion or atoms or other modalities. And that really will shine and will come forward when we show the data coming out of hybrid computing because clearly, a trapped Ion or an atom-based quantum computer with its very, very slow speed will have a tough time keeping up with CPU and GPU -- and you can see that in some of the results being discussed when they talk about hybrid computing, whereas with superconducting computing, you will really see the benefit of speed and how speed helps in the overall computation and coming into the correct answer much, much faster than the other modalities. So we are pretty excited about this partnership opportunity and demonstrating how hybrid computing will work particularly with superconducting. Sreekrishnan Sankarnarayanan: Maybe just to follow up on that with Jeff's last question, timing of delivery and how to think about rev rate for this? Subodh Kulkarni: Yes. So we believe the delivery will be sometime in 2027. We don't know the exact quarter yet. The program just got kicked off recently. As we find out, we will be transparent about the time lines. But at this point, it definitely will be a 2027 delivery. We'll let you know once we know exactly when it will happen. Operator: And our next question comes from Troy Jensen of Cantor Fitzgerald. Troy Jensen: Maybe a quick question to start with Subodh here. Just any thoughts on the executive order? And has there been any change in kind of government activity post signing of that order? I'm wondering if it's mainly security more or just system level, but just love to get your thoughts and if anything has changed since then. Subodh Kulkarni: Sure. So indeed, with the executive order passed by the President, there has been increased emphasis on quantum computing. A number of initiatives have started because of those executive orders. I would say they are still generally in the early stages, but you're already seeing some of them, the Department of Commerce initiative using the CHIPS Act certainly is one of those. We definitely expect more funding coming into the overall quantum computing ecosystem from the U.S. government because of those executive orders. There are various bills that are being debated as we speak, whether it's the NQR authorization bill that funds the Department of Energy, labs or the NDAA, which funds the Department of Law and there are many line items included in that for quantum computing. So overall, I would say, definitely, the executive orders highlighted the importance of quantum computing for national security and strategic reasons. It is definitely helping free up funding in quantum computing. You are already seeing that a little bit with the Department of Commerce, but definitely expect more of those kinds of things from both from Department of Energy as well as Department of Law. Troy Jensen: All right. Makes sense. And then just another one for you maybe. Congrats on the HPE announcement. I think that's huge. Obviously, you're close to them in Quanta. I guess I would assume there's tons of big data center partnerships that you guys could have. Is HPE as much on the networking side? Or is that on the server side, but just any more kind of details on that would be wonderful. Subodh Kulkarni: Certainly, we are excited to partner with HPE. They are, as I mentioned, the top player in the world of HPCs. The partnership will certainly evolve as we get into demonstration and what else can we do. It's not an exclusive partnership. We are certainly going to be talking to other HPC players. And certainly, HPE will be talking with other modalities and other quantum computing companies too. I think the exciting part for both of us is truly bring state-of-the-art HPC with a state-of-the-art quantum computer and see how exactly we do the trifurcation of data, if you will, where CPUs do sequential, GPUs do parallel and quantum does simultaneous computing and with superconducting our speeds are commensurate with CPU and GPU, and that's really where it will help to truly show the benefit of quantum computing. So certainly, a lot of applications we will be able to take on with that kind of a setup and show really how quantum computing helps reduce the overall time to results or the accuracy of results or even some applications that are near impossible to solve with the current HPC setup. So certainly, we are looking forward to putting the system together between now and 2027 and making it available to general public at that time. But we'll continue to talk to HPE and other HPC players on how to leverage quantum computing in different workload applications. Operator: And our next question comes from John McPeak of Rosenblatt Securities. John McPeake: Great. Excellent. Subodh and Jeff, congrats on the execution here, steady progress. Actually, I have a couple for Jeff. You talked about CapEx. I got that. That was one of my questions. But deferred revenues ticked up more than in any quarter I've seen in the history. And you actually had your largest billings quarter if you just look at the change in deferred and revenues. Could you talk a little bit about what that's about, if anything? Jeffrey Bertelsen: Sure. Sure. That mainly relates to C-DAC, with that order, there were some prepayments and so forth that added to deferred revenue. So that was the main driver there. John McPeake: Okay. That makes sense. And then one for Subodh. I've heard compliments about your QPUs from some optical interconnect companies. I'm curious if you've had any discussions with respect to with your open architecture potentially at least doing some exploratory work on optical interconnect of your Novera QPUs? Subodh Kulkarni: John, for telling us that you hear good things about us from optical interconnect companies. Indeed, we are very proud of the fact that our QPUs are some of the best CPUs, if not the best CPUs out there, and we consistently hear that from end users who use our QPUs. They keep telling us that they are extremely reliable, consistent, very easy to use. So it's not a surprise, but it's always good to hear from third parties. We talk to multiple optical players, the publicly disclosed partnerships among the publicly disclosed partnerships, we have mentioned QphoX where we are working with them on transduction. That's basically converting microwave signals to optical signals and vice versa. The reason that AI is important is because right now, our 9-qubit or even our 108-qubit system does not use any optical signaling. We are basically relying on coax signaling. And that will continue for a while. We plan to use flex cable technology to get to 1,000 qubits. But beyond 1,000, certainly, when we start talking 10,000 and 100,000 qubits, we cannot rely on flex cables and certainly not coax cables. And that's really where optical signaling comes in. And so the early research work is what we are doing right now with companies like QphoX, understanding how to convert microwave signal to optical and reverse that without losing fidelity or any other issues. It all shows promising results right now, but I would caution it's still early research before all of that can be converted into road map and definitive time lines. We still have some work to do. But it's encouraging to see that optical signal is going to work out, and that allows us to get to the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of qubits. Operator: And our next question comes from Quinn Bolton of Needham & Company. Shadi Mitwalli: This is Shadi Mawali on for Quinn. Now that you have your 108 qubit system up and running in the cloud, can you just talk about what you guys are seeing in regard to user engagement? And then I have a follow-up. Subodh Kulkarni: As I mentioned in my comments earlier, we are getting excellent feedback from end users who are using our 108 qubit system. They're consistently hearing it's one of the best systems out there. And again, to remind everyone, there's only 3 more than 100 qubit systems out there in the world, IBM at 120 qubit, we at 108 and Google at 105. Everyone else is well below that. And most of the players that are well below 50 qubits. So really, we are in the top -- we are in the second place right now as far as quantum computing capability is concerned. We get excellent feedback, customers who have used it and thousands of customers are using it through AWS and Azure as well as other cloud platforms. And we consistently hear our system is one of the easiest to use. It's always up and running. The results are consistent, reliable. So we are really happy to hear that kind of feedback. Most of the work that we are still doing is very much research kind of work. We acknowledge openly that we have not quite close to quantum advantage. We need to get to -- as we have mentioned in the past, closer to 1,000 physical qubits, closer to 99.9% 2 qubit fidelity along with some error mitigation or correction before we can start talking tactical workload applications and demonstrating value with that. So we fully understand that we are building systems right now for research applications. That's exactly what we see customers are doing. They're trying to understand how to design algorithms, how to fundamentally look at quantum computing, how it fits in their ecosystem. But overall, I would say we are very pleased with the feedback we are getting from end users who have been using our 108-qubit system for a while now. Shadi Mitwalli: Got it. That's great to hear. And then on the $100 million LOI, it sounds like this will likely be a milestone or technical base. So can you just talk about what Rigetti would need to approve to unlock all of the funding? Subodh Kulkarni: Yes. Good question. We are still -- the agreement is not definitive yet. So we are still discussing with commerce department on what exactly is expected when to get the $100 million. Broad-based, we know the areas we are working on. We are working on things like cryogenics. We are thinking -- working on things like miniaturization of electronics in the readout chain, those kinds of things. So we know at a high level -- and basically, it's accelerating our road map. What the overall goal of this $100 million is to accelerate our road map. And that's exactly what we are working on. We are defining exactly what our road map is and which milestones can be accelerated. So it's still a work in progress. Hopefully, it becomes a definitive agreement soon, and then we can disclose in more detail what and when we plan to do. Operator: And our next question comes from Tyler Anderson of Craig-Hallum. Tyler Perry Anderson: This is Tyler Anderson on for Richard Shannon. So just to start for a very quick question. For the HPE and PSC deployment, is this still fridge in control unit yours? Or is this going to be a third parties? Subodh Kulkarni: It's our, Tyler. Basically, it's a full system that we build. We obviously are outsourcing parts of the system. So we are buying dilution refrigerators from vendors. We are -- obviously, we are partnered with Quanta for control system and so on. So we will use third-party components, but the overall system is designed and built by us. Tyler Perry Anderson: Okay. That's very interesting with the Quanta. And then getting into what's getting your coherence time up or what you are doing to do that. So the niobium caps you had previously done before. And I'm just wondering, was integrating all of these technologies required to get you to the fidelities that you were aiming for originally? Or is this something that you've kind of held in your back pocket and you've been deploying these benefits as you need them to increase the coherence time? And then I have a quick follow-up. Subodh Kulkarni: Yes. As you can imagine, Tyler, I mean, when you are doing advanced R&D on these kinds of complicated systems, you never hear anything in your back, right? You pretty much do the best you can and try to put it together and see how the systems are working. We have been working with Fermilab on the capping of niobium specifically with tantalum, and those results show very good promise. There are various reasons why we have not quite deployed it in the system that is available for everyone today. We definitely plan to include that. But as I mentioned earlier, we have to be careful. We don't just throw everything and then turn it on and deploy it right away. Right now, the system is working very, very well right now. And so before we upgrade the system that is on the cloud right now. We want to test it exhaustively, make sure everything is good. We have not sacrificed something inadvertently in the process. So that's the kind of testing we are doing. We are just being deliberate with every testing, so we don't change something and inadvertently find out that we have deteriorated something else in the process. I hope that answers your question. Tyler Perry Anderson: That does. And that totally makes sense doing things one at a time and seeing what the impact is. And with that, if we implement all of these things and we start to see a really good impact to the coherence time, these adiabatic gates seem to be doing you pretty well with the fidelity increases with the 36 cubic QPU. Is this something that could potentially accelerate the road map if everything else goes well plus adiabatic gates? Subodh Kulkarni: Yes. Certainly, adiabatic gates and we published a white paper on it last year. We definitely see a lot of promise with that. That definitely is a technology we plan to deploy. We are using a version of that right now in our 108-gbit system, but not the full thing that we disclosed in our white paper. There are reasons for doing that. Definitely, work is going on in that area, and we definitely plan to include adiabatic CZ gates as part of our road map for future systems. Operator: And our next question comes from Gary Mobley of StoneX Group. Gary Mobley: I know in the past, you've done some work for the U.K.'s NQCC, and I believe that was at one point, a substantial portion of your revenue. What's the prospect for renewal funding -- renewal of the funding for that work and potentially some sort of reengagement there looking forward? Subodh Kulkarni: That's a really good segue into the U.K.'s overall deployment of quantum ecosystem. If you notice, the U.K. government has announced a multiyear initiative that they call procure. It's kind of like DARPA QBI, but a little different in the way the U.K. government is defining the milestones. The end goal is roughly similar, both of this DARPA QBI as well as the U.K. procure are targeting fall tolerant quantum computing system is roughly 6 to 7 years. But the path to get there is a little different for the 2 programs, but both have merits about why they are doing what they're doing. We are definitely involved with the U.K. government with those kinds of discussions. We are continuing -- our system is at NQCC right now. Again, it's a 36-qubit system over there right now, one of the best systems that they have ever seen. So we get very good input from them, again, about how easy our system is to use, consistent the results are and how reliable it is. So they like working with our system. We are definitely working with them on the procure initiative. Hopefully, we'll be able to announce things as the U.K. government announces their decisions. But definitely, our plan is to be in the U.K. ecosystem and continue to be investing in the U.K. Gary Mobley: When you examine your pipeline of potential deals, how does it compare today versus a year ago or any other recent point in time? And where does that money trailer lead back to? And what I mean by that, is it disproportionately skewed to commercial experimentation, government-backed funding, university research grant funding or PQC? Subodh Kulkarni: Well, we definitely see a lot more interest today in quantum computing than a year ago or certainly 2 years ago. but the interest is coming from all the different areas. Certainly, governments are getting a lot more interested, as you can see from the U.S. government side, things like the commerce initiative and continued discussion on the NQI or NDAA, the recent NSF award we got for -- with HPE to do the hybrid computing. So you are already seeing the U.S. government being a lot more active today than what it was a year or 2 years ago in quantum of today. I just mentioned the U.K. government and the big initiative they have with ProQure. You saw from our announcement what's happening in the country of India and their government and how they are going about it. But you see across Europe and many other countries in Asia, just about every major economy has a quantum mission or something that they like a quantum mission -- many governments have freed up funding and certainly, they want to be part of at least a leader or the leader in the quantum ecosystem. So a lot of activities happening at the government level. And certainly, that leads to universities. A lot of advanced universities are very getting more and more active in quantum computing. I mean, there are historical places like Yale University or MIT or for instance, of the world were already there. But now you see broader swath of universities getting involved. I mean you saw us announcing with Montana State University and University of Saskatchewan and those kinds of places. And you will see more and more universities in this. What is exciting is actually the commercial companies getting more and more interested in quantum computing right now. If you notice, our first 2 9 qubit systems that we delivered this year were both to commercial organizations -- now they are not buying quantum computers on-premise for their data centers to do any practical workload. They fully understand these are research systems. But there's enough interest in understanding the basics of quantum computing that we are seeing increased commercial traction now in addition to the government and university area. And that's where you're seeing sales growth coming for our sales first half of sales growth is primarily driven by commercial organizations buying on-premise quantum computing systems. So we definitely see that increasing. That wasn't there at all a year or certainly 2 years ago. So that's an exciting development to watch. But overall, we see huge interest in quantum computing across the entire spectrum, government, universities and commercial. The commercial one is a new one, pretty exciting to see. Operator: [Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Nehal Chokshi of Northland Capital Markets. Nehal Chokshi: It looks like the 36 median cubic gate fidelity did improve from 99.5% in the first quarter to 99.6% in the second quarter. I may have missed this, but could you just say what was the driver of that improvement? Subodh Kulkarni: Yes. I mean we do. We continue to work on fidelity just about every day, as you can imagine. There are multiple things we have done in the background to improve our 9 qubit and 36 qubit along with the 108 qubit fidelity. A lot of it goes into the -- in a broad sense, we do change the design of the qubit. We change fab processes along with it and sometimes even the materials that are used in the fab like the tantalum discussion we had earlier. Most of that improvement -- at the 9-qubit level, we are at 99.8%, 2-qubit gate fidelity and at 36 qubit, you are right, we have improved it to 99.6% median 2 qubit fidelity. Most of that improvement came from design optimization. It's how we -- how the lines are designed and the coupling of the lines with the qubit. That's where we are seeing some of the improvements right now. Certainly, we are incorporating those learnings and we'll continue to do more work to get all that learning incorporate into the 108 qubit systems and in future larger systems. Nehal Chokshi: Got it. So to be clear, the improvements that were implemented to drive that improvement in the 36-qubit system has not been applied to the 108 qubit system yet or it's in flight at this point in time to see if that -- those changes also result in an improvement to 108 qubit system? Subodh Kulkarni: In general, you're right. I mean we are, as I mentioned earlier, being deliberate that we don't turn too many norms at the same time and inadvertently hurt the performance. Right now, there are many users who are using our 108-qubit system every day. Obviously, we don't want to tinker around while they're using the system and cause some inadvertent problems. So we are working on other 108-qubit systems independent of the one that is deployed in the cloud. And that's where we are beginning to incorporate the learnings from 9-qubit and 36-qubit systems. Operator: I show no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn it back to Subodh Kulkarni for closing remarks. Subodh Kulkarni: Thank you, operator. In closing, we are encouraged by our progress in the second quarter and remain focused on executing against our strategic priorities as we advance Rigetti's position in the quantum computing ecosystem. In the coming months, we will be out meeting with investors at a number of conferences and related events, and we hope to see you there. Thank you for your continued interest in Rigetti. Operator: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Rigetti Computing, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Rigetti Computing wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $400,209!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,375,393!* That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by 4x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2026. This article is a transcript of this conference call produced for The Motley Fool. While we strive for our Foolish Best, there may be errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in this transcript. As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Rigetti (RGTI) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Rigetti Computing RGTI is drawing renewed investor attention following its second-quarter 2026 results, as strong revenue growth, technology progress and expanding customer engagement strengthen the long-term quantum computing story. Revenues surged 185% year over year to $5.1 million, driven by on-premises Novera QPU sales. Management highlighted progress on the 108-qubit Cepheus-1 system, growing commercial traction and strategic collaborations with HPE and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The potential funding up to $100 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce also adds another layer to Rigetti's growth prospects, although the funding agreement has yet to be finalized. Yet, the investment case is far from straightforward. Rigetti continues to operate at a significant loss, with operating expenses rising to $30.3 million in the second quarter, while commercialization remains at an early stage and quarterly revenue can fluctuate with large system deliveries. At the same time, peers IonQ IONQ, D-Wave Quantum QBTS and Quantum Computing Inc. QUBT are also competing for investor attention as the quantum computing race intensifies. With Rigetti targeting major technology milestones, including higher fidelity and a path toward roughly 1,000 qubits, the key question for investors is whether second-quarter execution has strengthened the stock's case for a Buy or whether its ambitious roadmap and ongoing losses call for a more cautious Hold stance. In the year-to-date period, Rigetti shares have lost 20.4%, reflecting continued volatility across the quantum computing sector. Among its peers, IonQ has performed relatively better, losing 5.3%, while QUBT and QBTS have plunged 13% and 22.8%, respectively. The broader Zacks Internet Software industry has slipped just 3.1% over the same period, outperforming all four quantum computing stocks. Rigetti has been the second-worst performer in the group, ahead of only QBTS, highlighting continued investor caution toward the sector despite growing interest in quantum computing and Rigetti's technology progress. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Strong Q2 Revenue Growth Signals Improving Commercial Traction: Rigetti delivered a strong top-line performance in the second quarter. Revenues surged 185% year over year to $5.1 million, primarily driven by on-premises Novera QPU sales. Management also noted that commercial interest in quantum computing is increasing, with the company’s first two 9-qubit systems delivered this year going to commercial organizations. This marks an encouraging shift beyond Rigetti’s traditional research and government customer base. Rigetti is also expanding access to its systems through cloud and on-premises deployments. Its 108-qubit Cepheus-1 system is available through Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and qBraid. The company expects to recognize revenues from its $8.4 million C-DAC order for a 108-qubit system in the fourth quarter. These developments could help broaden its customer base as enterprises move from quantum research toward practical experimentation. Technology Progress Strengthens Rigetti’s Quantum Roadmap: Rigetti continues to make progress on the technology front. Its 36-qubit system achieved a 99.6% median two-qubit gate fidelity in the second quarter, up from 99.5% in the first quarter. Management attributed much of the improvement to design optimization and said these learnings are being incorporated into the 108-qubit platform and future systems. The company also expects further fidelity improvements at the 108-qubit level before year-end. Rigetti is targeting a much larger leap over the next few years. Management remains focused on reaching roughly 1,000 qubits, 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity and sub-40-nanosecond gate speeds in about three years. Efforts to improve coherence time could be important to achieving these goals, with the company targeting a two- to three-fold improvement from the current 25-to-30 microsecond range. Strategic Partnerships and Government Support Add to Growth Potential: Rigetti's strategic relationships are becoming another important part of its growth story. The company expanded its collaboration with HPE and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to deploy a 9-qubit Novera system in an HPE-powered supercomputing environment. The project aims to demonstrate hybrid quantum-classical workloads on real hardware. Management expects the system to be delivered in 2027. Government support could provide another meaningful catalyst. The U.S. Department of Commerce has selected Rigetti for a potential award of up to $100 million over three years to accelerate superconducting quantum computing R&D. The funding could help address scaling bottlenecks and accelerate development at Fab-1. While the agreement is yet to be finalized, the potential funding and growing government interest in quantum computing strengthen the strategic backdrop for Rigetti. Revenue Growth Remains Dependent on Large System Deliveries: Rigetti's strong second-quarter revenue growth is encouraging, but the underlying revenue profile remains uneven. Management acknowledged that revenues remain influenced by the timing of system deliveries and government-funded projects. Commercial adoption is also still at an early stage. Management said that customers are largely using Rigetti's systems for research, algorithm development and experimentation rather than practical workloads. While commercial interest is increasing, meaningful adoption remains tied to improvements in quantum performance. This could keep revenue growth volatile in the near term. Heavy R&D Spending Continues to Weigh on Profitability: Rigetti continues to invest heavily to advance its quantum roadmap. Operating expenses rose to $30.3 million in the second quarter from $20.4 million a year ago. Higher spending on engineering, chip design, fabrication, control electronics and refrigeration contributed to an operating loss of $28.1 million. The company also remains far from profitability. Its adjusted net loss widened to approximately $16 million, or 5 cents per share, from $13.3 million a year ago. Rigetti expects elevated capital expenditures in 2026 as it invests in Fab-1 and dilution refrigeration capacity. These investments are important for its long-term roadmap but could keep cash burn elevated. Rigetti stock is not so cheap, as suggested by the Value Score of F. Rigetti is currently trading at a price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 10.05X, which is higher than the industry average of 4.98X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research In 2026, Rigetti is expected to experience a 257.3% improvement in revenues. On the profitability front, the company is expected to remain in loss but estimates reflect loss per share narrowing by 71.9% year over year. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Rigetti's second-quarter execution provides several reasons for optimism. Revenue growth was strong, commercial interest is increasing, and the company continues to advance its 108-qubit platform. Its HPE collaboration, potential $100 million Department of Commerce funding and roadmap toward roughly 1,000 qubits add to the long-term opportunity. Rigetti also ended the second quarter with $541.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments and no debt, providing financial flexibility to fund its technology initiatives. However, the investment case remains balanced. Commercial adoption is still in its early stages, while heavy R&D spending continues to drive substantial losses. Revenues also remain dependent on the timing of large system deliveries and government-funded projects. The potential Department of Commerce funding is encouraging, but the agreement has yet to be finalized and could involve equity issuance. With a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), investors may want to maintain a cautious stance on RGTI. The company's second-quarter progress supports its long-term potential, but stronger evidence of commercial adoption and continued technology improvements are needed before taking a more bullish view. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) : Free Stock Analysis Report IonQ, Inc. (IONQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report D-Wave Quantum Inc. (QBTS) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Rigetti Computing, Inc. RGTI centered its second-quarter earnings call on technical execution, government backing and customer engagement as it advances its superconducting quantum-computing roadmap. Revenues of $5.1 million topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $4.9 million, while non-GAAP loss per share of $0.05 was wider than the $0.03 consensus estimate. Rigetti Computing, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Rigetti Computing, Inc. Quote Chief executive officer (CEO), president and director Subodh Kulkarni said Cepheus-1-108Q is operating at about 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity, with coherence time of roughly 25 to 30 microseconds the main constraint on improvement. Kulkarni said Rigetti expects fidelity on the 108-qubit system to increase before year-end and is working on chip design, materials and fabrication changes intended to lift coherence time without compromising the cloud system. An Alliance Global Partners analyst pressed on timing. Kulkarni said a two- to threefold improvement in coherence time is practical in the near term, while reiterating that upgrades will be deployed deliberately. Kulkarni highlighted the U.S. Department of Commerce letter of intent for up to $100 million over three years as a potential accelerator for research and development tied to scaling superconducting systems. The proposed structure would give the Department of Commerce an equity stake consistent with the funding amount. Kulkarni emphasized that the LOI is not yet a definitive agreement. A Needham analyst asked what Rigetti must achieve to unlock the funding. Kulkarni replied that work is expected to focus on cryogenics and miniaturization of readout electronics, with details under discussion. The CEO said demand is broadening across government, academic and commercial customers, while on-premises Novera QPU sales drove the year-over-year revenue increase in Q2. Rigetti is also expanding its collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Kulkarni said a complete 9-qubit system for the TangleLab hybrid quantum-classical project is expected in 2027. A TD Cowen analyst asked about the deployment scope. According to Kulkarni, Rigetti will provide the QPU, dilution refrigeration and control system, while HPE will provide the high-performance-computing side. Chief financial officer (CFO) Jeffrey Bertelsen said the $8.4 million C-DAC order for a 108-qubit system in India remains targeted for fourth-quarter revenue recognition after installation and performance acceptance testing. Bertelsen said quarterly revenues will continue to vary with large system deliveries and government-funded projects. The CFO added that Rigetti is not managing the business around short-term revenue optimization. Bertelsen said second-quarter gross margin was about 43%, up from 31% a year earlier, while operating expenses rose to $30.3 million from $20.4 million as spending increased on engineering, fabrication and infrastructure. A TD Cowen analyst asked whether Rigetti’s Fremont fab needs capacity expansion. Kulkarni said capacity is not a concern with the current 150-millimeter facility, though the company continues to evaluate capability and automation upgrades. A StoneX analyst asked how the opportunity pipeline compares with a year ago. The CEO said interest has increased across governments, universities and commercial customers, with commercial demand representing a newer source of activity. Kulkarni said Rigetti’s first two 9-qubit systems delivered in 2026 went to commercial organizations for research use. He also stated that practical workloads still require progress toward roughly 1,000 physical qubits and higher fidelity. Kulkarni said the company remains focused on a roughly three-year path toward about 1,000 qubits and 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, supported by its chiplet architecture and continued infrastructure investment. Bertelsen said Rigetti ended Q2 with $541.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments and no debt, providing flexibility to fund its technology roadmap and system deployments. RGTI carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). The Style Score framework places the strongest emphasis on Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy) stocks, so a 3 rank does not carry the same favorable near-term signal. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Its Value, Growth, Momentum and VGM Score are all F, the weakest grade in the A-to-F hierarchy. The combination lacks the stronger profile associated with top Zacks Ranks paired with an A or B Style Score, and the Zacks Rank can change as estimates are revised after the just-reported results. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Download the Complete Report Here Key Takeaways: XNDU’s 2Q26 hardware progress and higher fabrication activity are beginning to translate post-listing capital into faster roadmap execution. XNDU’s second public-company quarter provided more tangible evidence that its expanded capital base is supporting measurable photonic-component improvements and a faster development cadence. The company achieved average edge-coupling loss of 0.085 dB per facet, supported by its internal advanced photonic chip-packaging facility, customized fiber and fiber-array work with Corning, and wafer-singulation support from DISCO. The 0.085 dB result represents a significant component-level improvement and, according to XNDU, may be the lowest edge-coupling loss achieved in the industry. XNDU’s remaining 5-10x loss gap provides a more measurable framework for tracking progress toward fault tolerance. The aggregate optical-loss gap has declined by as much as 200x over roughly four years, with a further 5-10x reduction still required to reach the threshold for scalable fault-tolerant operation. This gives investors a clearer benchmark for evaluating whether future hardware improvements are translating into meaningful progress against the company’s long-term roadmap. XNDU is addressing the remaining loss gap through both hardware improvement and architectural simplification. Progress is coming from more chip runs and improvements across fabrication, packaging, propagation loss, coupling, and detector efficiency, while architectural changes are designed to reduce the number of components and optical operations photons must traverse. XNDU expects to provide a more detailed loss and hardware roadmap around the end of summer or Analyst Day, consolidating these contributors into two principal optical paths and extending the framework toward 2029-2030. The update should be an important near-term catalyst by providing clearer benchmarks around current performance, required thresholds, timing, and system dependencies. Higher wafer throughput should accelerate development cycles across the company’s two core material platforms. Fabrication activity increased approximately 75% for thin-film lithium niobate and 50% for silicon nitride. Silicon-nitride availability through NY CREATES increased from approximately 100 to 150 wafers, while thin-film-lithium-niobate activity through WaferTech, a UMC subsidiary, increased from slightly above 100 to approximately 175 wafers per month. XNDU expects both corridors to increase further. Albany expansion should strengthen XNDU’s access to U.S. semiconductor infrastructure and engineering talent. XNDU is expanding its U.S. operations around Albany, New York, where proximity to semiconductor research, photonics infrastructure, foundry partners, and government stakeholders should improve coordination across design, fabrication, packaging, and testing. U.S. headcount has increased more than fivefold since 2023, with further significant growth expected by year-end. The public listing has also improved recruiting visibility and compensation flexibility through liquid equity awards, broadening the pool of specialized engineering candidates. Together, the expanded U.S. footprint and deeper talent base should support higher tapeout and wafer activity, greater parallel component development, and a faster hardware iteration cadence. QROM improvements demonstrate how software innovation can reduce future hardware requirements and reinforce the value of the full-stack model. The company published a patent-filed quantum read-only memory, or QROM, technique that cuts required Toffoli-gate operations by roughly half by reducing unnecessary data-movement and unlocking steps. Because QROM is a common subroutine for loading classical data into quantum algorithms, lower gate requirements could ultimately reduce physical-qubit, error-correction, and runtime needs, easing the burden on the hardware roadmap; the implementation is already available through PennyLane. XNDU also trained a Fourier-based quantum-machine-learning model with more than one million parameters to learn the distribution of ribosomal RNA, demonstrating the software stack’s ability to support increasingly complex scientific workloads, although commercial applicability remains early. PennyLane continues to expand its developer reach and strengthen XNDU’s future customer funnel, while monetization remains early. The company released PennyLane 0.45 and Catalyst 0.15, improving end-to-end algorithm development and compilation, while the foundational PennyLane paper surpassed 2,000 citations. Active users, university relationships, and corporate engagement continue to grow, with the latest disclosed metrics at more than 35,000 active users, approximately 200,000 monthly downloads, and roughly 150 university partners. PennyLane remains more important today as a developer and customer-acquisition funnel than as a software revenue driver, with researchers and enterprises trained on the platform potentially becoming future users of enterprise software, application-development services, and quantum-compute access as fault-tolerant hardware becomes available toward 2029-2030. Partnership activity is increasingly supporting application development, workforce readiness, and future enterprise adoption. The company expanded its Lockheed Martin relationship through a joint quantum-machine-learning and workforce-training initiative that uses PennyLane, educational resources, and dedicated workshops to train AI developers and research engineers through the Quantum Talent Pipeline. The program addresses a shortage of internal quantum specialists while broadening PennyLane adoption across aerospace and defense. XNDU also brought PennyLane and its Lightning simulator to Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier supercomputer, enabling distributed quantum simulation across AMD-powered nodes; renewed its multi-year Rolls-Royce collaboration in computational fluid dynamics and aerodynamics; continued research with Fidelity FCAT; and disclosed advanced-stage engagements with several major banks focused on systematic-risk modeling and multi-input correlations. Engagement with Los Alamos and membership in the Unitary Foundation further extend the company’s research, talent-development, and open-source ecosystem. Project OPTIMISM is nearing a potential funding decision that could materially reduce the capital intensity of XNDU’s manufacturing roadmap. The program remains in final discussions, with a potential update expected over the next one to two months. It could provide up to C$390 million of support from the governments of Canada and Ontario for photonic packaging, wafer-level testing, heterogeneous integration, and quantum-module assembly. If finalized, the funding would strengthen XNDU’s manufacturing capacity while supporting Canada’s sovereign quantum supply chain. The program should not be viewed as unrestricted upfront liquidity, however, as funding is expected to be received over time against qualifying R&D and capital investments; final terms, eligible expenditures, cost-sharing requirements, and reimbursement timing will determine the ultimate balance-sheet and cash-flow benefit. DARPA Stage C could provide an important external validation point for the company’s fault-tolerance roadmap. DARPA remained the principal driver of 2Q26 revenue through Stage B of the Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, with XNDU indicating that required milestones are being met and expressing confidence around potential advancement to Stage C. Selection would matter beyond incremental funding by providing independent validation of the company’s loss-reduction and fault-tolerance progress, strengthening the credibility of its hardware roadmap, and increasing visibility with U.S. government and sovereign-compute customers. Continued progress through DARPA’s benchmarking process could also improve the longer-term pathway toward government procurement. The synthetic ATM expands funding flexibility for roadmap acceleration. XNDU established a synthetic ATM facility with Yorkville Advisors for up to $300 million over 36 months, allowing the company to issue up to 30 million Class B shares with no minimum usage requirement. During 2Q26, the company raised $67.2 million through the issuance of 5.5 million shares at an average net price of $12.28, with the company retaining flexibility to draw selectively based on market conditions and valuation. The facility reduces near-term financing risk and supports additional engineering, wafer, and manufacturing investment; however, future issuance will need to translate into measurable optical-loss reduction, qubit-factory progress, and faster roadmap execution. Revenue remains early-stage, concentrated, and largely program-driven. 2Q26 revenue increased 43% y/y to $1.5 million from $1.1 million but declined approximately 47% from $2.8 million in 1Q26, primarily reflecting the timing of DARPA Stage B revenue and milestone recognition. Two customers represented approximately 75% of 2Q26 revenue and 79% of 1H26 revenue, reinforcing the limited recurring nature of the current revenue base. Until revenue shifts toward scalable software subscriptions, cloud access, system sales, IP licensing, or repeatable application-development work, quarterly results should be viewed primarily as evidence of technical engagement and government validation rather than product-market maturity. Higher R&D and capex are beginning to translate the post-listing capital base into a faster engineering cadence. R&D expense increased to $19.7 million from $17.3 million in 1Q26, driven by engineering and manufacturing hiring, stock-based compensation, and broader development activity, while G&A rose to $11.1 million from $9.8 million on higher headcount, public-company costs, and capital-markets activity. Capital expenditures increased to $6.4 million from $0.3 million as the company invested in specialized equipment for chip testing, process refinement, and manufacturing scale-up. The step-up is consistent with the broader roadmap, as higher wafer throughput and tapeout activity require additional engineering capacity, testing infrastructure, and process-control capabilities, providing a clearer test of whether incremental capital is accelerating hardware development. Wider adjusted EBITDA losses reflect the deliberate step-up in R&D and public-company investment. Adjusted EBITDA loss widened to $21.3 million from $13.9 million in 1Q26 and $13.4 million in 2Q25, driven by higher R&D, G&A, and lower grant revenue, while GAAP net loss increased to $42.1 million. The GAAP result included $12.5 million of fair-value losses, $4.7 million of stock-based compensation, and $2.3 million of non-recurring transaction and financing expenses, which explain much of the gap between reported net loss and underlying operating investment. The core trend, however, remains one of higher spending and wider losses as XNDU accelerates engineering, manufacturing, and public-company buildout. Physical infrastructure commitments are increasing alongside XNDU’s manufacturing and engineering buildout. The company recognized a $19.1 million operating lease liability for a new Toronto facility under a 15-year term, driving much of the increase in long-term lease liabilities to $25.6 million from $7.2 million at year-end. The expanded footprint supports higher manufacturing, testing, and engineering activity as the roadmap scales, although it also increases the fixed-cost base ahead of scaled commercialization. The expanded balance sheet provides substantial capacity to accelerate technical execution. XNDU ended 2Q26 with $312.8 million of cash and approximately $32.5 million of debt, implying net cash of roughly $280 million. Operating cash use was $30.6 million in 1H26 versus $27.4 million a year earlier, while investing outflow totaled $7.2 million. Liquidity reflects the post-SPAC capital raise, supplemented by $67.2 million of 2Q26 synthetic ATM proceeds, providing flexibility to expand wafer activity, engineering headcount, and manufacturing infrastructure. Near-term financing risk remains limited, but with R&D and capex expected to increase through 2H26, the more relevant measure of capital efficiency will be whether higher spending translates into faster optical-loss reduction, qubit-factory progress, and broader roadmap execution. Disclaimer: Exec Edge does not publish proprietary estimates, ratings, price targets, or investment recommendations. The valuation discussion below is illustrative only and is based on company filings, management commentary, and third-party data and estimates. It does not constitute a recommendation, price target, rating, or prediction of future pricing. XNDU’s valuation has reset despite measurable technical and ecosystem progress and remains below listed quantum peers. At $10.4 per share, XNDU trades at a market capitalization of approximately $3.2 billion and enterprise value of roughly $2.9 billion, compared with approximately $4.1 billion and $4.3 billion, respectively, at the time of the May earnings update. This represents a roughly 22% decline in market capitalization and 33% reduction in EV despite progress in optical loss, materially higher wafer throughput, expanded manufacturing capacity, and broader software and partner engagement. XNDU’s current market capitalization is also roughly 47% below the peer average of about $6.0 billion, while its EV is approximately 44% below the roughly $5.2 billion peer average. The valuation gap is notable given XNDU’s scarce pure-play photonic exposure, differentiated architecture, and full-stack positioning, although relative valuation remains sensitive to differences in revenue scale, technical maturity, and commercialization timelines across quantum platforms. Architecture credibility, funding capacity and milestone execution remain the more relevant valuation framework. XNDU ended 2Q26 with $312.8 million of cash and has increased fabrication activity by approximately 75% for thin-film lithium niobate and 50% for silicon nitride, while the aggregate optical-loss gap has narrowed by as much as 200x over roughly four years, with a further 5-10x reduction estimated to remain. These metrics provide a more useful framework for assessing whether higher R&D, capex, and infrastructure investment are reducing technical risk and accelerating development. The upcoming detailed loss and hardware roadmap should therefore be particularly important for valuation, as it is expected to provide clearer benchmarks around current performance, required thresholds, timing, and the path toward the 2029-2030 roadmap. Rerating potential remains tied to measurable technical, funding, and commercial catalysts. Key drivers include further reduction in the remaining 5-10x optical-loss gap, continued increases in wafer and tapeout velocity, qubit-factory progress, DARPA Stage C advancement, finalization of Project OPTIMISM, updated PennyLane adoption metrics, and conversion of strategic partnerships into paid or procurement-linked demand. Successful execution across these milestones could support a narrowing of XNDU’s current valuation discount as technical risk declines and revenue visibility improves. Conversely, slower loss reduction, qubit-factory delays, rising R&D and capex without comparable technical progress, additional ATM dilution, or continued uncertainty around government funding could constrain rerating potential. Download the Complete Report Here Read Exec Edge’s Initiation on Xanadu Quantum Here Watch IPO Edge Fireside Chat with Xanadu Founder & CEO Christian Weedbrook Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter to Receive All Research Contact: Executives-Edge.com [email protected] The post Xanadu Accelerates Chip Production as Investors Await Next Catalyst in Race to Scalable Quantum Computing – Quarterly Update Report appeared first on ExecEdge.

Rigetti Computing RGTI reported second-quarter 2026 adjusted loss per share of 5 cents, wider than 4 cents in the prior-year quarter. The metric also missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings by 66.7%. GAAP loss per share in the reported quarter was 16 cents compared with 13 cents in the prior-year quarter. The company reported total revenues of $5.1 million, up 185.3% year over year. The top line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 4.68%. Shares of this company lost 3.5% in yesterday’s after-market trading. The company’s shares have plunged 22.6% in the year-to-date period compared with the industry’s decrease of 5.8%. However, the broader S&P 500 Index has increased 12.4% in the same time frame. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Rigetti’s second-quarter 2026 revenues benefited from growing demand for its on-premises quantum computing systems, including Novera-based deployments, along with broader engagement across government, academic and commercial customers. In the quarter under review, RGTI’s gross profit surged 286.6% year over year to $2.2 million. The gross margin expanded roughly 1,120 basis points to 42.6%. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased 37.5% year over year to $9.5 million. Research and development expenses rose 53.3% year over year to $20.7 million. Total operating expenses of $30.3 million increased 47.9% year over year. Operating loss for the quarter under review totaled $28.1 million compared with $19.9 million in the prior-year quarter. RGTI exited the second quarter of 2026 with cash, cash equivalents and short-term available-for-sale investments of $393.7 million compared with $418.2 million at the end of the first quarter of 2026. The company ended the quarter with no debts on its balance sheet. Cumulative net cash provided by operating activities at the second-quarter end was $14.9 million against net cash used in operating activities of $369.7 million a year ago. Rigetti exited second-quarter 2026 with mixed results, wherein revenues surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but earnings missed the same. Strong year-over-year revenue growth, driven by on-premises Novera QPU and system deliveries, was encouraging. Customer engagement also broadened across government, academic and commercial markets. Rigetti continued to fulfill on-premises system commitments, including its 108-qubit program for C-DAC in India. The company also expanded its collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. A 9-qubit Novera system is set to be deployed at PSC’s TangleLab testbed to support hybrid quantum-classical computing research. On the technology front, Rigetti continued to advance its Cepheus platform. Cepheus-1-108Q operated at approximately 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity, 99.9% median single-qubit gate fidelity and gate speeds of about 60 nanoseconds. The company also demonstrated median two-qubit gate fidelities of 99.8% and 99.6% on its 9-qubit and 36-qubit systems, respectively. Rigetti remains focused on improving coherence time through chip design, fabrication, materials and process enhancements. Its longer-term roadmap targets roughly 1,000 qubits, 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity and gate speeds below 50 nanoseconds. The Department of Commerce letter of intent for up to $100 million of potential funding could further support R&D aimed at addressing scaling challenges in superconducting quantum computing. However, profitability remains a concern. Non-GAAP net loss widened to $16 million from $13.3 million a year ago, while operating loss increased to $28.1 million. Higher research and development and selling, general and administrative expenses continued to weigh on results. Rigetti also faces the technical challenge of improving coherence and fidelity as systems scale to higher qubit counts. The Department of Commerce funding is subject to definitive award documentation and milestone requirements. Nevertheless, the company ended the quarter with $541.3 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments and no debt, providing financial flexibility to support its technology roadmap and system deployments. Rigetti Computing, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Rigetti Computing, Inc. Quote RGTI carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present. Some better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are McKesson MCK, Phibro Animal Health PAHC andCardinal Health CAH. McKesson carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present and has an estimated long-term growth rate of 13.7%. MCK’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 3.09%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. McKessonshares have gained 8.8% against the industry’s 12.7% decline in the year-to-date period. Phibro Animal Health, carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 21.5%. PAHC’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 16.25%. Phibro Animal Health stock has climbed 44.2% against the industry’s 17.1% decline in the year-to-date period. Cardinal Health, carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 17%. CAH’s earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 10.27%. Cardinal Health’s shares have lost 2.6% compared with the industry’s 3.1% decline in the year-to-date period. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cardinal Health, Inc. (CAH) : Free Stock Analysis Report McKesson Corporation (MCK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Phibro Animal Health Corporation (PAHC) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Interested in Rigetti Computing, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Revenue increased sharply: Rigetti reported Q2 2026 revenue of approximately $5.1 million, up from $1.8 million a year earlier, driven by Novera quantum processing unit sales. Gross margin also improved to about 43%, although operating expenses and net losses grew. Technology development continues: Rigetti’s 108-qubit Cepheus-1 system achieved roughly 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity, with the company targeting about 99.5% later in 2026 and an eventual goal of 1,000 qubits and 99.9% fidelity. Expansion is supported by a strong balance sheet and potential funding: The company held approximately $541.3 million in cash and investments with no debt, while pursuing up to $100 million in potential CHIPS Act funding that could accelerate development but may involve equity dilution. Quantum Earnings Could Decide Whether the Sector’s Sell-Off Has Gone Too Far Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of approximately $5.1 million, up from $1.8 million a year earlier, as the quantum computing company recognized revenue from previously announced on-premises Novera quantum processing unit purchase orders. Chief Executive Officer Subodh Kulkarni said the quarter underscored progress in the company’s Cepheus-class systems, prospective U.S. government funding and its expanded collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth D-Wave’s AT&T Deal Shows Quantum Computing Is Moving Beyond Theory “Q2 was another important proof point in our strategy to combine technical progress with real-world access and long-term strategic partnerships,” Kulkarni said. Rigetti reported a gross margin of approximately 43% in the second quarter, compared with 31% in the prior-year period. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bertelsen said the change reflected contract mix, pricing and the contribution from Novera QPU sales. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High The Ugliest Stocks in the Market Just Got a Very Expensive Vote of Confidence Total operating expenses rose to $30.3 million from $20.4 million a year earlier, driven primarily by research and development spending, including engineering personnel, fabrication, chip design, control electronics, refrigeration and infrastructure for higher-qubit-count systems. Operating loss was $28.1 million, compared with $19.9 million in the second quarter of 2025. GAAP net loss was $52.6 million, compared with $39.7 million a year earlier. Non-GAAP net loss was approximately $16 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, compared with $13.3 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, a year earlier. Cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments totaled approximately $541.3 million at June 30, down from $569 million at March 31. The company reported no debt. Bertelsen said GAAP results continued to be affected by non-cash fair-value adjustments to derivative warrant and earn-out liabilities, which can create substantial quarterly volatility. He said Rigetti’s capital position provides runway for its technology and deployment plans, including investments in the United Kingdom. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling Capital expenditures during the quarter were primarily related to Fab-1 and added dilution refrigeration capacity. The company expects elevated capital expenditures in 2026 as it invests in refrigeration and fabrication equipment. Kulkarni said Rigetti’s 108-qubit Cepheus-1-108Q platform remains accessible through Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and qBraid. The system is built from 12 interconnected nine-qubit chiplets. The company reported median single-qubit gate fidelity of approximately 99.9%, median two-qubit gate fidelity of roughly 99.1% and gate speeds of around 60 nanoseconds for the 108-qubit system. Rigetti is targeting median two-qubit gate fidelity of about 99.5% later this year while maintaining its gate-speed profile. Kulkarni said coherence time, currently in the 25- to 30-microsecond range, is the primary limitation on two-qubit gate fidelity. The company is pursuing chip-design, materials and fabrication initiatives intended to roughly double or triple coherence times over the next several years. Those efforts include work with Fermilab involving tantalum-capped niobium superconducting contacts, as well as refinements to deposition, oxidation and etching processes around Josephson junctions. During the question-and-answer session, Kulkarni said Rigetti expects fidelity to improve at the 108-qubit level before the end of 2026, though it is being deliberate in testing upgrades before deploying them to cloud users. The company remains focused on a roughly three-year objective of reaching approximately 1,000 qubits, 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity and gate speeds below 40 nanoseconds. Rigetti has begun investing in refrigeration and related infrastructure intended to support 1,000-qubit systems. Rigetti previously announced that it signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for a potential award of up to $100 million over three years. The prospective funding would support superconducting quantum computing research and development focused on scaling challenges. The contemplated transaction would include an equity stake for the Department of Commerce consistent with the amount of funding provided. Kulkarni emphasized that the letter of intent is not a definitive agreement and remains subject to approvals, conditions and final terms, including the issuance of securities to the department. Management said potential funding could accelerate work on multichip architectures, processor generations, control electronics, cryogenics, packaging and other scaling bottlenecks. Bertelsen said the company would weigh the technical benefits of the funding against potential dilution from any equity issuance. Separately, Kulkarni said the company remains optimistic about progressing to Phase B of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, though he said the timing is difficult to predict. Rigetti continues to work with DARPA on the improvement areas identified for advancement to the next phase. Rigetti said it remains on track to deliver two nine-qubit Novera systems and a 108-qubit system for India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, or C-DAC, during 2026. The company expects to recognize revenue from the $8.4 million C-DAC order in the fourth quarter following installation and performance acceptance testing. Bertelsen said increased deferred revenue in the quarter was mainly tied to C-DAC prepayments. The company also expanded its collaboration with HPE and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, or PSC, to provide a nine-qubit Novera system for PSC’s TangleLab testbed. The National Science Foundation-funded project is intended to integrate Rigetti’s quantum system with an HPE-powered supercomputing environment for hybrid quantum-classical workload development. Kulkarni said Rigetti will provide a full system, including the QPU, dilution refrigeration and control systems, while using third-party components where appropriate. He said delivery is expected in 2027, although the precise timing has not been established. Management said customer engagement is growing across cloud, government, academic and commercial channels. Kulkarni said the company has recently won Novera-related business involving the University of Saskatchewan and a research arm of a large Japanese conglomerate, while commercial users have increasingly begun purchasing on-premises research systems. Rigetti said it plans to update its published technology roadmap later in 2026 after gathering additional operating data from Cepheus-1-108Q and gaining clearer visibility into future system deployments. Rigetti Computing is a pioneering quantum computing company that designs and manufactures superconducting quantum processors alongside a complementary software stack. Founded in 2013 by CEO Chad Rigetti, the company has developed end-to-end quantum systems—from cryogenic hardware to control electronics—to advance the performance and scalability of quantum machines. At the core of Rigetti's offering is its Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, which enables developers and enterprises to access quantum processing units (QPUs) and hybrid quantum-classical workflows via the cloud. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Rigetti Computing Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Download the Complete Report Here Key Takeaways: 2Q execution moved HQ from internal platform development toward controlled external deployment, while keeping the company on track against its previously communicated technical roadmap. Beryllium entered early access, moving Triple Alpha’s highest currently available abstraction layer beyond internal development, while Ember-1, HQ’s company-operated superconducting quantum computer in Singapore, opened to its first external users. Together, these milestones advance the platform across both higher-level programming abstraction and direct, real-time execution at the hardware-control layer. The new applications team broadens HQ’s end-to-end strategy from software infrastructure toward commercially relevant problem development. Focused on high-value problems across three industries, the initiative links problem selection and algorithm design with Beryllium, reusable libraries, compilation, runtime orchestration, and execution on company-operated hardware. This gives HQ a more direct role in advancing commercially relevant workloads toward quantum advantage rather than relying on customers or hardware partners to identify them. Subsequent to quarter-end, the Quantum Machines collaboration added embedded calibration to Ember-1’s roadmap, extending Triple Alpha into the quantum control plane and targeting higher system availability. Warrant exercises materially strengthened liquidity and increased HQ’s capacity to fund its technical roadmap. HQ generated $27.5 million of gross proceeds from warrant exercises during the quarter, increasing cash and equivalents to $113.3 million at June 30, 2026, from $96.6 million at the end of 1Q26. Against a $5.5 million adjusted EBITDA loss and $5.1 million of operating cash use, the strengthened balance sheet provides additional flexibility to support R&D, hardware integrations, the applications organization, and HQ’s multimodal testbed infrastructure. We believe Beryllium’s release to early-access users marks an important step in making quantum software development more closely resemble modern classical programming. As Triple Alpha’s highest current abstraction layer, the object-oriented language introduces familiar constructs and reusable libraries that allow developers to build more modular programs while focusing less on the underlying mechanics of quantum execution. During 1H26, HQ also improved compiler performance and stability and began developing standard algorithmic libraries, including quantum Monte Carlo-related building blocks, to reduce coding complexity and broaden accessibility for domain experts. Opening Ember-1 to first users extends HQ’s differentiation from quantum language development into direct, real-time execution on company-controlled hardware. Operating in Singapore since December 2025, Ember-1 combines a Rigetti superconducting processor with Quantum Machines control electronics and Maybell cryogenic infrastructure, allowing Triple Alpha to execute complete Hydrogen programs directly through the control system rather than relying on cloud interfaces or post-selected execution. The platform supports real-time loops, measurement-based branching, recursive function calls, concurrent classical computation, and pulse- and gate-level access, capabilities that go beyond the fixed instruction sequences typical of circuit-oriented frameworks. This integration makes Ember-1 a development environment for the runtime, memory, input/output, and control services required by increasingly sophisticated quantum systems. The Quantum Machines collaboration could improve Ember-1 uptime while extending HQ deeper into the quantum control plane. Quantum processors require frequent recalibration as qubit frequencies, pulse parameters, and environmental conditions drift over time, reducing performance and forcing systems offline. HQ and Quantum Machines plan to develop lightweight calibration routines that run during normal operation, initially on Ember-1, with the goal of reducing downtime, increasing testbed availability, and accelerating the software-hardware feedback loop. The new applications team broadens HQ’s path toward quantum advantage by linking commercially relevant problems with its software and hardware infrastructure. Rather than relying entirely on customers, hardware manufacturers, or third-party developers to identify the first useful workloads, HQ is targeting a limited number of high-value computational problems across three industries. Working alongside the company’s agentic-AI capabilities, the team will pursue end-to-end development from problem selection and algorithm design through Beryllium, reusable libraries, custom compilers, runtime orchestration, and execution on Ember-1 and future testbed systems. HQ’s agentic AI capabilities are being integrated into the applications organization as an internal R&D accelerator rather than developed as a separate commercial offering. Since establishing a dedicated AI team in 2023, the company has built agentic systems designed to investigate open quantum-computing problems with progressively less human intervention; following access to newer frontier models, these systems generated hundreds of research notes within several weeks. Applying this capability to HQ’s selected high-value problems could accelerate hypothesis generation, algorithm discovery, and identification of required compiler or runtime improvements, increasing the effective capacity of its scientific organization. Hardware collaboration demand currently exceeds HQ’s technical capacity, reinforcing Triple Alpha’s relevance across multiple layers of the quantum stack. Management indicated that interest from hardware manufacturers is greater than the capacity of its science and engineering organization, suggesting engagement does not depend on completion of Carbon or broad Beryllium adoption. Partners can work with HQ across compiler development, runtime orchestration, control-system integration, calibration, pulse-level programming, and execution infrastructure, allowing Triple Alpha to create value before the highest abstraction layers are complete. Over time, broader integration with processor manufacturers, system builders, and control providers could position Triple Alpha as a common software layer across multiple hardware architectures. HQ’s differentiation rests on Triple Alpha’s breadth, reinforced by direct hardware access, multimodal partnerships, and an applications-led path to quantum advantage. Classical computing remains the industry’s primary benchmark because quantum systems must ultimately deliver superior outcomes on economically meaningful problems. While vendor-specific SDKs, circuit frameworks, libraries, and higher-level platforms address individual parts of the workflow, Triple Alpha is designed to span pulse-level control, dynamic execution, memory management, concurrent classical computation, and Beryllium’s object-oriented abstraction layer. Combined with company-operated testbeds, hardware and control-system integrations, and internally developed applications, this broader architecture could allow HQ to reduce the quantum expertise required from developers while supporting execution across multiple hardware modalities. Continued execution against the technical roadmap will now depend on broader platform access, deeper hardware integration, and delivery of the planned 2027-2028 milestones. Beryllium’s early-access release and real-time Hydrogen execution on Ember-1 represent progress against the communicated plan. The next milestones include further development of Beryllium libraries and fault-tolerant compiler capabilities during 2026-2027, broader Ember-1 access, runtime support on third-party hardware in 2027, installation of the IonQ trapped-ion system in Dublin, and an integrated compilation chain capable of automated algorithm construction by the end of 2028. Progress across library development, external platform use, hardware integrations, and compiler and runtime functionality will provide the clearest evidence that Triple Alpha is advancing toward a broadly deployable quantum software platform. Commercialization remains tied to industry-level quantum advantage rather than near-term services revenue. HQ reported no revenue in 2Q26 versus approximately $38,000 in 2Q25, reflecting its decision not to pursue nominal proof-of-concept work that could divert technical resources from Triple Alpha. The company expects early-access users to transition to paying customers through cost-per-use cloud or on-premise models once quantum systems can solve economically meaningful problems beyond classical computing. No customer count, pipeline value, platform-usage metrics, conversion data, or revenue guidance was disclosed, leaving external adoption and usage as the key evidence points ahead of monetization. Supporting this broader technical roadmap established a larger operating-expense base in 2Q26. Total operating expenses increased 158% y/y and approximately 10% sequentially to $7.2 million. R&D expense rose 117% y/y to $2.6 million, primarily reflecting additional science and engineering personnel and, to a lesser extent, testbed-related costs, while G&A increased 236% to $3.8 million due to higher headcount and expenses associated with operating as a public company. Sales and marketing expense increased 51% to approximately $0.4 million, driven by trade-show activity and industry engagement, consistent with an ecosystem-led approach focused on hardware partners and developers rather than scaled enterprise selling. Cash use increased as HQ funded its larger technical organization and multimodal testbed roadmap. Net cash used in operating activities rose to $5.1 million in 2Q26 from $4.2 million in 1Q26 and $2.0 million in 2Q25, bringing 1H26 operating cash use to $9.3 million versus $3.7 million in the prior-year period. Investing cash use increased to $5.5 million in 1H26 from $0.3 million in 1H25, reflecting continued investment in quantum systems and supporting infrastructure. Warrant exercises materially strengthened HQ’s liquidity and extended its financial runway. Approximately 2.4 million public warrants were exercised during 2Q26, generating $27.5 million in gross proceeds and lifting quarter-end cash and equivalents to $113.3 million from $96.6 million in 1Q26, a sequential increase of $16.7 million. As of August 3, approximately 2.5 million warrants, representing 79% of those outstanding at the closing of the business combination, had been exercised, generating cumulative gross proceeds of $28.7 million. The additional capital provides greater flexibility to fund software development, hardware integrations, the applications organization, testbed infrastructure, and the planned Dublin expansion, although the exercises also increased the share count and created dilution. Management is balancing continued technical investment with the need to preserve runway until quantum hardware becomes commercially capable. Stronger liquidity provides flexibility to fund selected initiatives, with execution of the technical roadmap remaining the primary spending priority. The spending framework is centered on aligning software maturity, hardware readiness, and financial capacity: investing too slowly could leave HQ unprepared as commercially capable systems emerge, while investing too aggressively could consume runway before the industry reaches quantum advantage. Accordingly, near-term assessment should remain focused on technical execution, ecosystem expansion, and disciplined cash deployment rather than financial targets. Disclaimer: Exec Edge does not publish proprietary estimates, ratings, price targets or investment recommendations. The valuation discussion below is illustrative only, based on company-disclosed outlook metrics and third-party data; it is not a recommendation, price target, rating or prediction of future pricing. HQ remains differentiated as one of the few publicly traded quantum companies focused primarily on software infrastructure and orchestration rather than proprietary hardware commercialization. Read Exec Edge’s Initiation on HQ Here Subscribe to our Weekly Newsletter to Receive All Research Contact: Executives-Edge.com [email protected] The post Horizon Quantum’s Commercial Push With Early Platform Launch, $113M Cash Position – Quarterly Update Report appeared first on ExecEdge.

Growing demand for Rigetti’s quantum systems, progress on the technology roadmap, and strategic U.S. government support BERKELEY, Calif., Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI) (“Rigetti” or the “Company”), a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, today announced financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026 and provided an update on recent business and technology milestones. Second Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights Total revenues for the three months ended June 30, 2026 were $5.1 million Operating loss for the three months ended June 30, 2026 was $28.1 million For the three months ended June 30, 2026: GAAP net loss $52.6 million; non-GAAP net loss $16.0 million For the three months ended June 30, 2026: GAAP diluted net loss per share $0.16; non-GAAP diluted net loss per share $0.05 As of June 30, 2026, cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments totaled $541.3 million “In the second quarter, we continued to execute on our strategy by focusing on our system performance, progressing our core technology roadmap, and broadening on-premises system deployments,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO. “Our recently announced expanded collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to develop a hybrid quantum-classical supercomputer reflects growing demand for our approach and positions Rigetti to deliver differentiated quantum-enhanced high-performance computing (HPC) solutions.” “We are seeing broadening engagement across government, academic, and commercial customers, and we believe our open modular approach, superconducting gate-based architecture, and chiplet-based scaling strategy continue to differentiate Rigetti in the market. End users who leverage our systems over the cloud benefit from ease of use and consistent uptime, which we will continue to prioritize as quantum computing R&D progresses,” Dr. Kulkarni continued. “In addition, our recently announced letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for up to $100 million in potential funding underscores the strategic importance of our platform and could help us accelerate key R&D programs aimed at scaling and advancing superconducting quantum computing.” Rigetti ended the second quarter of 2026 with a strong cash position and no debt, providing flexibility to continue investing behind its technology roadmap and customer opportunities. Business and Strategic Updates Hybrid-Quantum Classical Supercomputer with HPE and PSC Rigetti will deliver a 9-qubit Novera™ quantum computing system to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s new TangleLab testbed, funded by a National Science Foundation grant. The deployment builds on Rigetti’s strategic collaboration with HPE to advance the commercialization of quantum-enabled high-performance computing systems. Advancing On-Premises Quantum Computing Systems Rigetti is fulfilling recently announced on-premises systems, including Novera-based systems and the Company’s 108-qubit system program for C-DAC in India. The Company also continues to see demand from universities, national laboratories, and research organizations for on-premises quantum computing systems that support direct hardware access, experimentation, and ecosystem development. Strategic U.S. Government Letter of Intent In May 2026, Rigetti announced that it signed a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for an award of up to $100 million in funding over three years to accelerate superconducting quantum computing R&D. The funding is allocated under the CHIPS Research and Development Office Broad Agency Announcement pursuant to the CHIPS Act, and the LOI contemplates that the Department would receive an equity stake in Rigetti consistent with the total amount of the funding. Under the LOI, Rigetti would pursue R&D projects that address major technical challenges in scaling and advancing superconducting quantum computing. Technology Milestones Progress on Fidelity, Coherence, and SpeedRigetti continued to make progress against the technology milestones that management has identified as most important on the path to quantum advantage, including qubit count, two-qubit gate fidelity, coherence time, and gate speed. Cepheus-1-108Q currently operates at approximately 99.9% median single-qubit gate fidelity, approximately 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity, and approximately 60 nanosecond gate speeds. At 9-qubit and 36-qubit level, Rigetti has demonstrated 99.8% and 99.6% median two-qubit gate fidelities, respectively. The Company remains focused on improving coherence time, which management has identified as a key factor in raising fidelity further. Rigetti is pursuing chip design, fabrication, materials, and process improvements. These efforts are intended to improve coherence time and support the Company’s goal of continued fidelity improvement as systems scale. Roadmap Toward Higher-Qubit SystemsRigetti continues to target a path toward systems with approximately 1,000 qubits, approximately 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, and gate speeds below 50 nanoseconds over roughly a three-year time horizon. In support of that roadmap, the Company has continued investing in dilution refrigeration capacity and related infrastructure that can support higher-qubit-count systems. Rigetti believes its chiplet-based and open modular architecture provide a practical framework for scaling over time. International Expansion and UK InitiativeRigetti continues to advance its previously announced plan to invest up to $100 million in the United Kingdom over the next several years to accelerate quantum computing development. The planned investment is intended to support physical system deployments, talent, and facilities in the UK and builds on Rigetti’s existing presence in the country, including its deployed 36-qubit system at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre. Conference Call and Webcast Rigetti will host a conference call today, August 6, 2026, at 5:00 pm ET, or 2:00 pm PT, to discuss its second quarter 2026 financial results. You can listen to a live audio webcast of the conference call at https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/9pedzvky or the "Events & Presentations" section of the Company's Investor Relations website at https://investors.rigetti.com/. A replay of the conference call will be available at the same locations following the conclusion of the call for one year. To participate in the live call, you must register using the following link: https://register-conf.media-server.com/register/BI6483c92f267f4169a6d27a72dc7c5e58. Once registered, you will receive dial-in numbers and a unique PIN number. When you dial in, you will input your PIN and be routed into the call. If you register and forget your PIN, or lose the registration confirmation email, simply re-register to receive a new PIN. About Rigetti Rigetti is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. Rigetti quantum computers are based on superconducting qubits, which are widely believed to be the leading qubit modality given their maturity, clear path to scaling, and fast gate speeds. Rigetti quantum computing systems achieve gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds, which is about 10,000 times faster than trapped-ion systems and 100x faster than neutral-atom systems. Rigetti sells on-premises 9-qubit to 108-qubit quantum computing systems, which support national laboratories and quantum computing centers. Rigetti’s Cepheus 36-qubit to 108-qubit systems are based on the Company’s proprietary chiplet-based technology and include the Company’s control electronics. Rigetti’s 9-qubit Novera QPU supports a broader R&D community with a high-performance, on-premises QPU designed to plug into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems. The Company operates quantum computers over the cloud through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, enabling global enterprise, government, and research clients to pursue R&D. The Company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high-performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing. Rigetti developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. Leveraging this proprietary technology, Rigetti deployed the industry’s largest multi-chip quantum computer in 2026 with Cepheus-1-108Q, based on twelve 9-qubit chiplets tiled together. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Learn more at https://www.rigetti.com/. Contacts Rigetti Computing Investor Contact: [email protected] Rigetti Computing Media Contact: [email protected] Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement Rigetti’s consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), the Company uses certain non-GAAP financial measures, non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP net loss per share attributable to common stockholders-basic and diluted. The Company believes that providing these non-GAAP financial measures enhances the Company’s and investors’ ability to compare the Company’s past financial performance with its current performance. Non-GAAP net loss is defined as GAAP net income (loss) excluding stock-based compensation expenses, change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities and change in fair value of earn-out liabilities and non-GAAP net loss per share attributable to common stockholders-basic and diluted is defined as non-GAAP net loss divided by the weighted average shares used to compute net loss per share attributable to common stockholders-basic and diluted. The Company excludes stock-based compensation expenses, change in fair value of derivative warrant liabilities and change in fair value of earn-out liabilities from non-GAAP net loss and non-GAAP net loss per share attributable to common stockholders-basic and diluted, primarily because these are non-cash items that the Company believes are not reflective of ongoing operating results and such items may not be comparable from period to period due to changes in the fair market value of the Company’s common stock, which is influenced by external factors such as the volatility of public markets and the performance of the Company’s peers. These non-GAAP financial measures, which are included in this press release and which may be referred to on the conference call discussing the Company’s second quarter financial results, are provided as supplemental information to the financial measures presented in this press release and discussed on the conference call that are calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures determined or calculated in accordance with GAAP. The Company’s definitions of its non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. For a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to its most directly comparable GAAP measure, please refer to the reconciliation tables at the end of this press release. Cautionary Language and Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this communication may be considered “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements with respect to the Company’s expectations with respect to its future success and performance, including the belief that our open modular approach, superconducting gate-based architecture, and chiplet-based scaling strategy continue to differentiate Rigetti in the market; the potential funding of up to $100 million from our recently announced letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce; the potential that funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce could help us accelerate key R&D programs aimed at scaling and advancing superconducting quantum computing; the potential that Rigetti will deliver a 9-qubit Novera™ quantum computing system to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s new TangleLab testbed; the intention to improve coherence time and support the Company’s goal of continued fidelity improvement as systems scale; the belief that its chiplet-based and open modular architecture provide a practical framework for scaling over time; the targeting of a path toward systems with approximately 1,000 qubits, approximately 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, and gate speeds below 50 nanoseconds over roughly a three-year time horizon; and its planned investment that is intended to support physical system deployments, talent, and facilities in the UK and to build on Rigetti’s existing presence in the UK, including its deployed 36-qubit system at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre. These forward-looking statements are based upon estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company and its management, are inherently uncertain. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to: Company and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s ability to enter into definitive transaction agreements; the timing of entry into any such definitive transaction agreements; potential impact on the Company, its business and price of its securities with respect to the transactions contemplated by the LOI and definitive transaction agreements; the Company’s issuance of securities to the U.S. Department of Commerce pursuant to the transaction (including dilution to existing stockholders); the Company’s ability to achieve milestones, technological advancements, including with respect to its technology roadmap; Company’s ability to deliver products to customers in time or at all, including actions by customers, such as controls over their facilities and cancelling orders; the ability of the Company to obtain government contracts successfully and in a timely manner and the availability of government funding; the potential of quantum computing; the success of the Company’s partnerships and collaborations; the Company’s ability to accelerate its development of multiple generations of quantum processors; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against the Company or others; the ability to maintain relationships with customers and suppliers and attract and retain management and key employees; costs related to operating as a public company; changes in applicable laws or regulations; the possibility that the Company may be adversely affected by other economic, business, or competitive factors; the Company’s estimates of expenses and profitability; the evolution of the markets in which the Company competes; the ability of the Company to implement its strategic initiatives and expansion plans; the expected use of proceeds from the Company’s past and future financings or other capital; the sufficiency of the Company’s cash resources; unfavorable conditions in the Company’s industry, the global economy or global supply chain, including rising inflation and interest rates, deteriorating international trade relations, political turmoil, natural catastrophes, warfare, and terrorist attacks; and other risks and uncertainties set forth in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 and other documents filed by the Company from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and the Company assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements other than as required by applicable law. The Company does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.