NEW YORK, December 31, 2025, 15:21 ET — Regular session.
- Rigetti Computing shares down about 1.7% in afternoon trade, holding near $22
- Quantum peers mixed as year-end trading stays thin and risk appetite wobbles
- Focus shifts to early-2026 updates on orders, cash burn and the next earnings report
Rigetti Computing Inc (RGTI) shares were down 1.7% at $22.03 by 3:21 p.m. ET on Wednesday, 38 cents below their prior close. The stock traded between $21.96 and $22.65, with about 16.9 million shares changing hands.
The move came as Wall Street’s major indexes edged lower in thin year-end trading, keeping pressure on smaller, high-volatility names. “it’s perfectly fine in any bull market to have moments of cost,” said Giuseppe Sette, co-founder and president of Reflexivity. Reuters
That matters for Rigetti because late-year liquidity can dry up fast, amplifying intraday swings. Traders also tend to keep positions tight into holiday closures, making sentiment-driven sectors more prone to sharp moves.
Other quantum computing stocks moved in the same direction: IonQ fell about 0.9%, while Quantum Computing Inc slid about 0.7%. D-Wave Quantum was up about 0.4%.
Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits — the quantum version of bits in conventional machines — to process information in ways that can differ from standard computing. Commercial adoption is still early, so investors often trade the group on engineering milestones and risk appetite.
Rigetti last reported results on Nov. 10, when it posted third-quarter revenue of $1.9 million and an operating loss of $20.5 million. The company said cash and investments totaled $558.9 million as of Sept. 30, and it outlined targets for 150-plus qubits around end-2026 and 1,000-plus qubits around end-2027. It also pointed to about $5.7 million in purchase orders announced in September for two 9-qubit Novera systems, with delivery expected in the first half of 2026.
Investors are watching whether Rigetti can turn those targets into repeatable system sales and rising cloud usage, without a sharp acceleration in cash burn. They are also looking for more color on delivery timing and the mix of government, academic and early commercial customers.
The next obvious catalyst is the company’s fourth-quarter results and outlook. Rigetti has not announced a reporting date, but Zacks expects the next earnings release on March 4, 2026.
In the near term, traders are watching whether the stock can reclaim Tuesday’s close near $22.41 or revisits the session low around $21.96. The day’s range has been narrow, but that can change quickly when volume is light.
For the sector more broadly, the tug-of-war remains between long-term optimism about quantum computing and near-term questions around customer adoption and revenue durability. That dynamic has kept pure-play names prone to abrupt reversals.
