Insider Brief
- Rigetti Computing reported a $201 million net loss for 2024, driven by high operating expenses and non-cash charges, while securing a major partnership with Quanta Computer.
- The company launched its 84-qubit Ankaa-3 system with improved performance and AI-assisted calibration, while also making its first QPU sale to an academic institution.
- Rigetti and Quanta will each invest over $100 million in superconducting quantum computing over five years, with Quanta also committing $35 million in equity investment.
Rigetti Computing (Nasdaq: RGTI) reported a net loss of $201 million for 2024, reflecting high operating expenses and non-cash charges, while securing a strategic collaboration with Quanta Computer and launching its latest quantum processing unit, according to a company statement on earnings.
Rigetti’s financial results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2024 show ongoing challenges. The company posted revenue of $2.3 million for the quarter and $10.8 million for the year. The revenue missed a Wall Street consensus estimate of $2.5 million.
According to the company, operating expenses reached $19.5 million in Q4, contributing to an $18.5 million operating loss for the period. For the full year, Rigetti’s operating loss totaled $68.5 million, with a net loss of $201 million, largely due to $133.9 million in non-cash charges related to financial liabilities.
The company ended 2024 with $217.2 million in cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale securities. Rigetti raised $153.3 million in Q4 by selling 88.1 million shares of common stock. It also repaid all outstanding debt under its loan agreement with Trinity Capital.
Commercialization Timeline: Still “Very Much” at R&D Stage
In a transcript of an earnings call will analysts, Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni said the company is steadily building toward quantum advantage, but it will take time. Kulkarni’s timeline sets a pin in the four to five year range for commercialization of its quantum tech.
“Certainly, we see excitement growing about quantum computing, people are beginning to — it’s no longer a question of — if it’s a question of when, everyone seems to understand that when we talk to them,” said Kulkarni. “But clearly, it’s still in R&D stages. Unlike some other companies, we believe we are still four to five years from commercial applications of quantum computing in a meaningful way. I know there are some companies who claim they have quantum advantage or near quantum advantage now, but those are for very select niche kind of applications. There’s a lot of overhyping, under-hyping going on in quantum computing right now.”
Right now, the company is focused on building better quantum computers, he told the analysts.
“So, our view is that, we are still very much in R&D,” Kulkarni said. “We need to get to like several hundred qubits at or thousand qubits, 99.7% or 99.8%, less than 30 nanosecond gate speed and real-time error correction before we can start showing quantum computers to data center managers and demonstrating ROI. And we think that’s at least four or five years from now.”
Quanta Partnership Brings $100 Million Commitment
Rigetti also reported out on its strategic partnership with Taiwan-based Quanta Computer, a Fortune 500 company and a leading global server manufacturer. Each company will invest over $100 million over the next five years to develop superconducting quantum computing technology.
In addition to the collaboration agreement, Quanta has agreed to invest $35 million in Rigetti through a stock purchase, pending regulatory approval.
Kulkarni emphasized the complementary strengths of the two companies: “Quanta’s collaboration with Rigetti is designed to strengthen our position in this flourishing market. Our companies’ complementary strengths — Rigetti as a pioneer in superconducting quantum technology, with open, modular architecture enabling integration of innovative solutions across the stack, and Quanta as the world’s leading notebook/server manufacturer with $43 billion in annual sales — will support us in our goal to be at the forefront of the quantum computing industry.”
Academic Expansion: Montana State Purchases a Rigetti QPU
Rigetti sold its first quantum processing unit (QPU) to an academic institution, Montana State University, in December. The university will use the Novera QPU at its new quantum technology center, QCORE, to train scientists and engineers and to support quantum computing research and development.
Technology Advances: Ankaa-3 and AI Calibration
Rigetti launched its 84-qubit Ankaa-3 system in December, featuring a redesigned hardware architecture that significantly improves performance. The system achieved a 99.0% median iSWAP gate fidelity and a 99.5% median fidelity for fSim gates. The company aims to scale to more than 100 qubits by the end of 2025 while reducing error rates by half.
“We believe that superconducting qubits are the winning modality for quantum computers given their fast gate speeds and scalability,” Kulkarni said in the statement. “We’ve developed critical IP to scale our systems and remain confident in our plans to scale to 100+ qubits by the end of the year with a targeted 2x reduction in error rates from the error rates we achieved at the end of 2024. We believe our leadership in superconducting quantum computing continues to be reinforced as we push the boundaries of our system performance, as evidenced by the success of Ankaa-3,”
Rigetti also announced progress in AI-driven quantum calibration. A competition at the Israeli Quantum Computing Center demonstrated that AI tools from Quantum Elements and Qruise could remotely automate the calibration of a 9-qubit Rigetti QPU. The process integrated hardware from Quantum Machines and NVIDIA’s DGX Quantum system.
Kulkarni highlighted the company’s modular approach.
He said in the statement: “We believe that another advantage we leverage is our modular approach to developing our technology. By enabling our partners to integrate their technology with ours, we can explore and advance creative and flexible ways to improve quantum computing capabilities”
Research Milestone: Optical Readout for Qubits
Rigetti, along with QphoX and Qblox, published research in Nature Physics demonstrating an optical technique for reading superconducting qubits. This method could help build more scalable quantum computers by reducing the need for traditional microwave amplification systems, which require significant thermal and power resources.
The study showed that superconducting qubit signals can be converted into optical signals without introducing excessive noise or decoherence. The research suggests that optical fibers could replace conventional coaxial cables in quantum computing systems, potentially leading to more compact and efficient hardware designs.
Rigetti’s stock closed up 4% yesterday (March 6) at $8.18, but is down about 11% in pre-market trading this morning.
