NEW YORK, May 22, 2026, 04:10 (EDT)
- Rigetti finished Thursday at $22.04, up 30.57%. Early Friday, the stock traded at $24.10 before the open.
- The company has a preliminary deal with the U.S. Commerce Department for as much as $100 million over three years.
- The broader U.S. package names nine quantum companies and gives the government equity stakes.
Rigetti Computing was up again before the Nasdaq opened Friday as the quantum-computing firm secured a U.S. government funding deal that could total $100 million. The shares finished Thursday at $22.04, up 30.57%. Early Friday, the stock traded at $24.10 pre-market at 4:10 a.m. EDT, another 9.35% jump.
Washington is now backing the technology with taxpayer money and a government stake, even as it’s still untested at commercial scale. U.S. stock markets planned a regular session Friday before closing for Memorial Day on Monday, May 25.
Rigetti said it has a letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce for three years of funding to speed up superconducting quantum computing research. The agreement is still a preliminary deal, not a full contract. Superconducting quantum systems run qubits—quantum’s main info unit—with circuits kept at ultra-low temperatures.
Chief Executive Subodh Kulkarni said the investment will let Rigetti “tackle key scaling bottlenecks more rapidly” and bring it closer to “utility-scale quantum computing.” That’s the term the company uses for quantum machines able to do real work outside the lab. GlobeNewswire
Commerce signs nine LOIs for $2.013 billion in chip grants
The Commerce Department on Thursday said it has signed nine letters of intent covering $2.013 billion in incentives through the CHIPS and Science Act. The law aims to boost U.S. chipmaking and advanced tech research. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the investments will create “high-paying American jobs.” Bill Frauenhofer, executive director of Semiconductor Investment and Innovation, called it a “portfolio approach” with backing for competing quantum technologies. NIST
Rigetti is among several firms listed in the package. Reuters reported IBM is expected to get $1 billion to build a quantum chip venture, GlobalFoundries is set for $375 million, and D-Wave, Rigetti, and Infleqtion are each in line for about $100 million. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Reuters the IBM effort would give outside clients “the exact same capability” IBM uses inside. Infleqtion CEO Matthew Kinsella said the funding means quantum is “coming much faster than anybody thinks.” Reuters
Rigetti is set to get backing for next-gen superconducting systems, with work on smaller, more integrated readout electronics and new cryostat, or ultra-cold refrigeration, setups. The Commerce Department said it will take a minority, non-controlling stake in every firm it funds.
The stock move comes after Rigetti reported first-quarter revenue of $4.4 million. The company posted an operating loss of $26.0 million and said it had $569.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and available-for-sale investments at the end of March. Rigetti also pointed to full availability for its 108-qubit Cepheus-1-108Q system via Rigetti QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum and qBraid.
The deal isn’t done yet. According to a filing, the letter of intent still needs to turn into binding agreements. A government stock issuance could dilute current shareholders, cutting their ownership. The filing also pointed to risks on funding timing, technical targets, customer deliveries and whether the company can win government contracts.
Investors get a clearer catalyst, but the story stays messy. Friday trading will show if the market sees this as a balance-sheet and validation event, or just another quick jump in a stock caught up in long development cycles, big R&D costs, and murky demand.
