New York, June 2, 2026, 05:03 (ET)
- Rigetti last changed hands at $25.63 in early premarket, an increase of 8 cents over the prior close.
- Researchers using Rigetti hardware reported new results on real-time quantum error correction in a paper published June 1 in Nature Communications, signaling steps forward on one of the biggest barriers to practical quantum computers.
- Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni and CTO David Rivas sold shares after exercising options, June 1 filings show.
Rigetti Computing traded slightly higher ahead of Tuesday’s open, with the stock near where it’s been lately as the market looked at a new quantum computing milestone and recently reported executive stock sales. Shares were last sitting at $25.63, up 0.3% in premarket action. Regular Nasdaq trading hours are 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET.
Timing is key here. Rigetti is among the small group of pure-play quantum stocks trading on public markets, with its value tied more to progress in hardware than to near-term profit. The company’s path depends on hitting technical milestones. Quantum error correction — tech to spot and fix errors in delicate quantum work — is at the heart of getting machines to run useful jobs for longer.
Riverlane, Rigetti and collaborators have shown low-latency feedback on a superconducting quantum processor, according to a June 1 paper in Nature Communications. The group ran an 8-qubit stability test using qubits, the key units in quantum computing, and posted a mean decoding time under a microsecond for each round.
Rigetti’s research page says the project used a scalable FPGA decoder inside the control system for a superconducting quantum processor. The FPGA, which stands for field-programmable gate array, is a chip that gets reconfigured for fast, special-purpose processing.
The focus stays on Rigetti’s tech plan after the U.S. Commerce Department last month signed letters of intent for $2.013 billion in planned quantum awards. Rigetti got earmarked for up to $100 million to develop advanced superconducting quantum systems, including new readout electronics and cryostat setups, with the government set to get a minority, non-controlling equity piece in each company that takes funding.
Rigetti said it has a letter of intent for as much as $100 million over three years. CEO Subodh Kulkarni said the funding should let the company “tackle key scaling bottlenecks more rapidly.” GlobeNewswire
Rigetti’s latest earnings still set the tone. The company had Q1 revenue of $4.4 million and reported an operating loss of $26.0 million. As of March 31, Rigetti had $569.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments. CEO Subodh Kulkarni said the 108-qubit Cepheus-1-108Q system is now live for general use on Rigetti QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and qBraid.
The Form 4 filing on June 1 looked less straightforward. Kulkarni exercised options for 214,601 shares and sold 104,190 shares between May 28 and June 1, according to the document. The sales, the filing noted, were done to cover option exercise costs or taxes. After these moves, Kulkarni held 110,411 shares directly.
Chief Technology Officer David Rivas sold 499,328 shares on May 29 after exercising options, according to a June 1 Form 4. The weighted average price was $25.396. Rivas held 325,945 shares directly after these trades.
IonQ shares dropped 3.9% in early moves after the Commerce Department left the company out of a $100 million funding list naming D-Wave and eight others. D-Wave fell 3.3%. Quantum Computing Inc edged up 3.5%. Peers showed mixed action.
The downside is still clear. U.S. funding comes from a letter of intent, not a done deal. The new paper is just a technical milestone and doesn’t mean revenue soon. Executive stock sales can hit sentiment in a choppy name, even if they’re tied to taxes or options. Rigetti keeps burning cash to scale up, with first-quarter operating loss much bigger than its revenue.
For now, Rigetti is a milestone in the market’s eyes. The next question is if new technical proof and government research money actually lead to more system sales, instead of just another jump in quantum trading.
