Insider Brief
- Rigetti Computing was awarded a five-year contract with the Air Force Research Lab.
- The contract appoints Rigetti as a supplier of quantum foundry services for the lab’s researchers.
- The researchers will be able to leverage Rigetti’s fabrication and manufacturing capabilities to build customized quantum systems.
PRESS RELEASE — Rigetti Computing, Inc. (Nasdaq: RGTI), a pioneer in full-stack quantum-classical computing, announced that it was awarded a five-year Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Information Directorate to supply its researchers with quantum foundry services. This contract allows AFRL to leverage Rigetti’s fabrication and manufacturing capabilities to build customized quantum systems. Within the scope of the contract, Rigetti will be able to provide quantum integrated circuits (QuICs), quantum-limited amplifiers, cryogenic microwave components, and 9Q QPUs. This contract builds on the existing relationship between Rigetti and AFRL to harness the Company’s fabrication capabilities for quantum networking hardware research and development.
“We are extremely privileged that AFRL’s world-class team of researchers have chosen to use Rigetti’s fabrication facilities and expertise to conduct its critical, fundamental research on how to build the next generation of quantum networks,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti Chief Executive Officer. “Being granted an IDIQ contract with such an esteemed institution reinforces our existing partnership, and demonstrates the value of our fabrication capabilities.”
Since being established in 2016 as the world’s first dedicated quantum foundry, Rigetti’s Fab-1 has been used for fabricating chips for internal research and development for the Company’s state-of-the-art quantum systems. Fab-1 has also been used by leading research institutions such as AFRL to pursue novel scientific research since 2020.
This partnership with AFRL has the potential to improve Rigetti’s understanding of the fabrication process at the device and design level given that AFRL is working to solve fundamental issues not yet being tackled by industry.
“AFRL is focused on developing quantum networking capabilities that can eventually be applied to real-world applications. A key piece of that research is the ability to develop designs for new superconducting quantum devices. Due to Rigetti’s established template and fabrication processes, AFRL is able to pursue the foundational science of understanding superconducting qubit behavior and performance,” said Dr. Matthew LaHaye, AFRL Team Lead – Senior Research Physicist.
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