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DATE

May 11, 2026 at 5 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

  • Chief Executive Officer — Subodh Kulkarni
  • Chief Financial Officer — Jeffrey A. Bertelsen
  • Chief Technology Officer — [Name not provided; participated in Q&A only]

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TAKEAWAYS

  • Revenue -- $4.4 million, up from $1.5 million, mainly due to on-premises QPU deliveries, related contracts, and government/research project contributions.
  • Gross Margin -- 31%, compared to about 30%, impacted by a higher mix of QPU and system deliveries that included lower-margin third-party refrigeration.
  • Operating Expenses -- $27.3 million, up from $22.1 million, with spending concentrated in R&D, engineering headcount, fabrication, and integration.
  • GAAP Net Income -- $33.1 million, compared to $42.6 million, driven by $53.7 million in non-cash gains from fair value changes in derivative warrant and earn-out liabilities.
  • Non-GAAP Net Loss -- $14.7 million (or $0.04 per diluted share), improved from $15.3 million (or $0.05 per diluted share); excludes stock-based compensation and fair value adjustments.
  • Operating Loss -- $26.0 million, up from $21.6 million, due to increased R&D and stock-based compensation expenses.
  • Cash, Cash Equivalents, and Investments -- $569.0 million at quarter-end, down from $589.8 million at year-end, with no debt.
  • CPS-108Q Launch -- 108-qubit modular system now available on Rigetti QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and KubeRay; first gate-based system on Amazon Braket exceeding 100 qubits.
  • Technical Performance -- Median two-qubit gate fidelity of about 99.1%, single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9%, and two-qubit gate speeds at approximately 60 nanoseconds on CPS-108Q.
  • Prototype Gate Performance -- Highest demonstrated two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9% at 28-nanosecond speeds on prototype, compared to 99.8% at 40 nanoseconds on nine-qubit system.
  • On-Premises Nuvera QPU Sales -- Recent orders from universities and research organizations, with $5.7 million in purchase orders announced late last year driving recognized and expected 2026 revenue.
  • 108-Qubit System India Order -- $8.4 million order to be recognized primarily in 2026 after installation and performance acceptance testing.
  • UK Investment Plan -- Announced intention to invest up to $100 million in the United Kingdom over several years to expand headcount, infrastructure, and on-premises systems.
  • Customer Traction -- Growing demand from national labs, universities, and commercial users in sectors such as materials, logistics, and financial services.
  • Capital Expenditures -- Elevated for the period, primarily driven by fab investments and increased dilution refrigeration capacity for scaling higher-qubit systems.
  • FY2026 CapEx Outlook -- Expected to remain high due to refrigeration and infrastructure, with no major changes to fab footprint anticipated.
  • Revenue Recognition Timing -- Revenue profile continues to be influenced by the timing of system deliveries and large contract acceptance, resulting in quarterly variability.
  • Technology Road Map -- Path to quantum advantage set at about three years, targeting 1,000-qubit systems, 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, <50-nanosecond speeds, and error mitigation or limited error correction.
  • M&A Approach -- Company remains focused on organic growth, considering M&A only if it accelerates the road map without compromising financial discipline.

SUMMARY

Management presented the first generally available 108-qubit modular quantum system, making Rigetti Computing (RGTI +8.34%) the initial provider of a 100+ qubit gate-based device on Amazon Braket, Azure Quantum, and KubeRay. The period showed meaningful revenue growth, attributable to Nuvera QPU and system sales, with anticipated further recognition in the year from outstanding orders such as the $8.4 million India contract. Rapid advances in gate fidelity and system architecture were disclosed, along with plans for further product evolution and a focused $100 million United Kingdom expansion. The balance sheet remains debt-free, with $569.0 million in liquidity supporting a disciplined capital framework tied to core R&D and infrastructure scale-up.

  • Subodh Kulkarni said, "we continue to believe that superconducting gate-based quantum computing with chiplet-based scaling offers a compelling combination of speed and scalability."
  • Management stated that the majority of spending is directed toward core R&D activities that directly advance the technology platform, including chiplet-based architecture, systems, and cloud integration.
  • Rigetti controls its own fab, allowing for multiple chip revision cycles annually, depending on complexity and required changes.
  • Management re-emphasized the three-year path to quantum advantage as a "timeline to get all metrics aligned," defining the target as a 1,000-qubit platform with high gate fidelity and advanced error mitigation.
  • On error correction integration, systems today utilize mitigation mainly in ambient control circuits, not on the quantum chip, while future road map steps include adding error-correction-ready capabilities through partnerships.
  • Quanta’s $40 million investment has resulted in new control system technology already incorporated into recent offerings, with further co-development planned for the hardware stack.
  • CPS-108Q’s largest barrier to increasing gate fidelity is currently coherence time, now between 25 and 30 microseconds, with targeted experiments expected to boost both coherence and fidelity over the coming quarters.
  • Quarterly financial results remain affected by the timing of large system contracts and project-driven revenue recognition, a dynamic management positions as inherent to the market's current stage.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

  • QPU (Quantum Processing Unit): Dedicated hardware for executing quantum algorithms, typically composed of multiple qubits with specialized control and readout systems.
  • CPS-108Q: Rigetti’s 108-qubit “Chiplet-based Processor System,” an advanced modular quantum computer made from interconnected nine-qubit chiplets.
  • Nuvera QPU: Rigetti’s on-premises quantum processor, engineered for integration into customer cryogenic and control environments to enable quantum research and development.
  • Two-qubit gate fidelity: A measure of accuracy for operations involving two qubits; higher percentages indicate fewer errors and are essential for practical quantum computation.
  • Adiabatic CZ gate: A quantum gate process used by Rigetti to achieve high-fidelity, rapid entanglement between two qubits; “CZ” stands for controlled-Z operation.
  • Dilution refrigerator: Specialized cooling equipment required for superconducting quantum processors, operating at temperatures near absolute zero for qubit function.
  • Chiplet-based scaling: Architectural technique in which multiple small-scale quantum processor units (“chiplets”) are interconnected, enabling rapid scalability and modular system design.
  • Quantum advantage: The milestone at which quantum computers outperform classical counterparts for specific, commercially meaningful tasks.
  • Error mitigation: Methods used to reduce computational errors in quantum operations, distinct from full quantum error correction, and essential for near-term practical results.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Subodh Kulkarni: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for Rigetti Computing, Inc.'s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. I am pleased to be joined today by our Chief Financial Officer, Jeffrey A. Bertelsen, who will walk you through our financial results in more detail following my overview. Also with us is our Chief Technology Officer, who will be available to participate in the Q&A session following our prepared remarks. We appreciate your continued interest in Rigetti Computing, Inc., and we look forward to answering your questions at the conclusion of our remarks. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that today’s call, along with our first quarter 2026 press release, contains forward-looking statements.

These statements reflect our current expectations, objectives, and underlying assumptions regarding our outlook and future operating results. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties are described and discussed in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the year ended 12/31/2025, our Form 10-Q for the three months ended 03/31/2026, and other periodic reports filed by the company from time to time with the SEC.

We encourage you to review these filings for a comprehensive discussion of these risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Rigetti Computing, Inc. undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during this call except as required by law. During today’s call, we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures. For details on these measures and reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures, and for further information regarding the factors that may affect Rigetti Computing, Inc.’s future operating results, please refer to today’s earnings release on investors.rigetti.com or to the 8-K furnished with the SEC today after the close.

Before I begin, I want to frame today’s discussion around three key takeaways. First, with the general availability of our 108-qubit CPS-108Q system on Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and KubeRay, we believe we have delivered one of the most powerful, generally available quantum computers in the world and the largest modular quantum computing system on the market today. Second, we are seeing growing adoption of Rigetti Computing, Inc. systems across government, academic, and commercial customers, including new on-premises Nuvera QPU sales that support meaningful year-over-year revenue growth.

Third, we remain focused on disciplined execution against our road map to quantum advantage, continuing to improve fidelity on CPS-108Q and advancing toward higher-qubit, higher-fidelity chiplet-based systems, underpinned by a strong balance sheet and prudent capital deployment. Now I will step back and put the quarter in context. Q1 was an important proof point in our strategy to combine technical progress with real-world user access and usage. Quantum computing remains a long-cycle opportunity, but we are increasingly seeing the ecosystem coalesce around platforms that can scale in a practical way and that are available to users where they already run their workloads. Our progress this quarter reflects that reality. Let me start with our technology and product milestones.

Last month, we announced the general availability of our 108-qubit CPS-108Q quantum computing system, accessible to customers via Rigetti Computing, Inc. Quantum Cloud Services and through Amazon Braket, the quantum computing service by AWS, as well as Microsoft Azure Quantum and KubeRay. CPS-108Q is our highest qubit count system to date and the industry’s largest modular quantum computing system, built from 12 interconnected nine-qubit chiplets. This system triples the number of qubits and chiplets from our previous 36-qubit CPS-36Q system and, more importantly, validates our proprietary chiplet-based scaling architecture in a production setting. Today, CPS-108Q achieved a median two-qubit gate fidelity of approximately 99.1% with gate speeds of roughly 60 nanoseconds and a median single-qubit gate fidelity of 99.9%.

These are meaningful performance levels at this scale, and we expect to continue improving fidelity throughout 2026 as we refine the performance of our individual chiplets, innovate across materials and fabrication, and incorporate learnings from our prototype and R&D platforms. We achieved a median 99.8% two-qubit gate fidelity with 40-nanosecond gate speeds on our nine-qubit system using a proprietary adiabatic CZ gate scheme. Leveraging the same gate scheme, we also demonstrated two-qubit gate fidelities as high as 99.9% at 28-nanosecond gate speeds on a prototype system, and those advancements are informing how we operate CPS-108Q and design future systems. From a systems engineering perspective, this launch is about more than just adding qubits.

During development, we identified and mitigated coupling interactions between two-level couplers that become more pronounced beyond the 100-qubit scale. By defining our chip architecture to address those interactions, we effectively shifted the primary performance limitation from coupler behavior to coherence time, which we are confident we can address as we continue to optimize our entire stack. I also want to highlight what this means for users. With CPS-108Q now available on Rigetti Computing, Inc. QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and KubeRay, researchers and enterprises can access our highest qubit count system on platforms they already use for classical and quantum R&D.

CPS-108Q is the first gate-based device on Amazon Braket with more than 100 qubits, offering improved fidelities that enable wider and deeper circuits for applications such as materials science, optimization, and quantum simulation. AWS is a leader in cloud infrastructure, so extending our relationship with Amazon Braket, and now Azure Quantum and KubeRay, is an important validation of our technology and our go-to-market strategy. Stepping back, we continue to believe that superconducting gate-based quantum computing with chiplet-based scaling offers a compelling combination of speed and scalability. Our current systems achieve gate speeds on the order of 50 to 70 nanoseconds, which is roughly 1,000 times faster than some other alternative modalities such as trapped ion or neutral atom systems.

As we scale, we intend to maintain those speed advantages while driving fidelity higher and integrating error-correction-ready gate operations into the stack. Let me now turn to customer momentum and market traction. Our strategy is to meet customers where they are—whether that is on the public cloud, on hybrid infrastructure, or in dedicated quantum centers. On the cloud side, the combination of Rigetti Computing, Inc. QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and KubeRay provides global access to our systems, including CPS-108Q, and we are seeing strong interest from researchers who want to experiment on one of the most capable, generally available gate-based platforms in the market today. In parallel, we continue to expand our base of on-premises Nuvera QPUs.

The Nuvera QPU is designed to integrate into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems, providing a high-performance on-premises platform for quantum R&D. Recent events include an order from a university where our QPU will support quantum research and education, and we also announced Nuvera QPU and Nuvera system sales to additional research organizations globally. These optimized systems deepen technical engagement, create multiyear usage pathways, and showcase the flexibility of our product portfolio from nine to more than 100 qubits. As discussed in our prior call, Nuvera and other system deliveries contribute to significant year-over-year growth, albeit with some variability quarter to quarter based on shipment timing and contract mix.

For example, we expect a meaningful portion of previously announced Nuvera purchase orders to be recognized in 2026, and we are executing on additional system-level contracts such as the CDAC order we announced earlier this year. While the timing of revenue recognition can move between quarters, these contracts underscore growing demand for Rigetti Computing, Inc. QPUs and systems among national labs, universities, and quantum computing centers. We are also encouraged by continued engagement from commercial customers who are exploring quantum-inspired and hybrid use cases. While commercial revenue remains early, we are seeing increased interest from industries such as materials, logistics, and financial services as they look to understand where quantum computing can augment classical high-performance computing over time.

More broadly, we are starting to see tangible examples of how even relatively small-scale quantum systems can impact real-world workloads. For example, a team in China recently demonstrated that a nine-qubit quantum system could outperform classical reservoir networks with thousands of nodes on a realistic weather forecasting task, highlighting how modest-size quantum devices can begin to disrupt AI and modeling applications. We view results like this as early validation of the commercial opportunities that systems like our Nuvera QPUs and CPS-class devices are positioned to address as they mature. Let me briefly connect this back to our long-term road map.

We remain focused on a clear sequence of milestones that we believe positions Rigetti Computing, Inc. to reach quantum advantage in roughly three years. Near term, that means driving CPS-108Q to a median two-qubit gate fidelity of approximately 99.5% later this year while maintaining our gate speed advantages. Beyond that, we are working toward deploying systems that leverage our chiplet-based architecture as the foundation for eventually scaling to more than 1,000 qubits with fidelities and gate speeds that support error-mitigated and, ultimately, fault-tolerant computation. In support of this road map, we recently announced our intention to invest up to $100 million in the United Kingdom over the next several years to accelerate quantum computing development.

This will be our first major investment outside the United States and builds on our existing 36-qubit system deployment at the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre, as well as the UK government’s multibillion-dollar commitment to quantum technologies. In parallel, we continue to collaborate with partners such as Riverlane and others to integrate error-correction-ready capabilities into the stack. This includes support for high-fidelity native gates, circuit compilation, and control electronics enhancements that are designed to be compatible with future error-corrected architectures. Our intention is to update our published technology road map later this year once we have incorporated operational data from CPS-108Q and can provide more detail on the specific steps we expect to take to quantum advantage.

Turning to the financial framework, our approach remains straightforward and disciplined. We exited last year with a strong cash position and no debt, giving us the flexibility to continue investing behind our technology road map and customer opportunities. Our spending remains concentrated in core R&D, including fabrication, chip design, and control electronics development, along with the CapEx required to support higher qubit count systems and associated cryogenics infrastructure. While this results in elevated CapEx in the near term, we believe these investments are directly tied to the capabilities that will differentiate Rigetti Computing, Inc. in the market. We are not managing the business around short-term revenue optimization.

We are managing it around credible progress toward large-scale, high-fidelity quantum systems that can deliver commercially meaningful value. To that end, our capital allocation remains focused on organic execution, and we will consider M&A only where we can clearly accelerate our road map without compromising our financial discipline. To close my remarks before turning it over to Jeff, I want to reiterate the three key messages we hope you take away from today’s call. First, CPS-108Q is now generally available through Rigetti Computing, Inc. QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and KubeRay, and we believe it represents one of the most powerful generally available gate-based quantum computers in the world and the largest modular system on the market today.

Second, customer adoption continues to build across cloud and on-premises channels, with Nuvera sales and other contracts supporting strong year-over-year revenue growth and deepening our engagement with leading research institutions and emerging commercial users. Third, we remain committed to disciplined execution on the road map that targets quantum advantage in about three years, anchored in our chiplet-based architecture, high-speed superconducting qubits, improving fidelity, a strong balance sheet, and strategic initiatives such as our planned $100 million UK investment that enable us to invest with patience and control. Thank you for your continued support and interest in Rigetti Computing, Inc. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Jeffrey A.

Bertelsen, who will walk you through our financial results in more detail.

Jeffrey A. Bertelsen: Thank you, Subodh, and good afternoon, everyone. I will spend a few minutes walking through our first quarter 2026 financial results, our balance sheet, and how we are thinking about capital deployment as we continue to execute on the road map Subodh described. For Q1 2026, revenue was $4.4 million compared to $1.5 million in Q1 2025. The year-over-year increase was driven primarily by on-premises QPU deliveries and related contracts, as well as certain government and research projects. Gross margin for the first quarter was 31% compared to approximately 30% in Q1 2025. Our first quarter 2026 gross margin was impacted by contract mix, including the higher contribution from QPU and system deliveries that include lower-margin third-party refrigeration.

Total operating expenses for the first quarter were $27.3 million compared to $22.1 million in the same period last year. Spending remains concentrated in research and development, including engineering headcount, fabrication, and system integration, consistent with the priorities we outlined on our fourth quarter call. Stock-based compensation for the quarter was $5.9 million compared to $4.2 million in Q1 2025. Operating loss for the first quarter was $26.0 million compared to an operating loss of $21.6 million in Q1 2025. On a GAAP basis, net income for Q1 2026 was $33.1 million compared to net income of $42.6 million in the prior-year period.

Q1 2026 included $53.7 million of non-cash gains from the change in fair value of derivative warrant and earn-out liabilities compared to $62.1 million in the prior-year period. As a reminder, these non-cash fair value adjustments can introduce significant volatility into our GAAP results quarter to quarter and do not affect how we operate the business or allocate capital. On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and fair value adjustments to warrant and earn-out liabilities, net loss for the quarter was $14.7 million, or $0.04 per diluted share, compared to a non-GAAP net loss of approximately $15.3 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, in Q1 2025.

Let me provide a bit more color on revenue drivers and how we are thinking about the remainder of the year. As we outlined in our fourth quarter call, we expected strong year-over-year revenue growth in 2026 driven by shipment of a portion of the $5.7 million of on-premises Nuvera quantum computing system purchase orders announced late last year. The first quarter results are consistent with that view, and we continue to expect the remaining Nuvera revenue to be recognized primarily in 2026. We also continue to execute on the $8.4 million 108-qubit system order in India, which we expect to recognize in 2026 following installation and performance acceptance testing.

As we said last quarter, the initial CDAC order did not include ongoing maintenance and support. We still expect to receive a separate purchase order for those services. More broadly, our revenue profile continues to be influenced by the timing of system deliveries and government-funded projects. We continue to view this variability as inherent to the current stage of the market, and not as a driver of our long-term capital allocation or technology strategy. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended Q1 2026 with approximately $569.0 million in cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale investments, compared with $202.1091 billion as of 03/31/2025 and approximately $589.8 million at year-end 2025.

The year-over-year increase relative to Q1 2025 reflects the capital raised and strategic investment activity we have previously discussed, while the sequential decline from year-end reflects ongoing operating spend and capital expenditures. We continue to operate with no debt. At our current operating profile, we believe our capital position provides sufficient runway to execute against the technology and system deployment milestones we have laid out, including continued progress on scale, fidelity, and system integration, as well as our planned investment in the United Kingdom.

Capital expenditures in the quarter were primarily driven by investments in the fab and additional dilution refrigeration capacity to support higher-qubit-count systems over the next several years, consistent with the framework we outlined in the fourth quarter. We continue to expect 2026 CapEx to be elevated relative to prior years, largely due to refrigeration and infrastructure needs rather than major changes to our fab footprint. Our approach to capital deployment remains disciplined and consistent with what we discussed on the Q4 call. The majority of our spending is directed toward core R&D activities that directly advance our technology platform, including our chiplet-based architecture, systems, and cloud integration. We are not managing the business around short-term revenue optimization.

We are managing it around credible long-term progress toward quantum advantage in commercially relevant systems. To close, our financial strategy is unchanged from what we outlined last quarter. We are focused on maintaining flexibility, funding innovation responsibly, and aligning capital deployment with the long-term value creation potential of our technology road map. While quarterly results will continue to reflect the early-stage nature of the quantum computing market and the timing of large system contracts, we believe our balance sheet and capital discipline position us to execute with patience and control. With that, I will turn it back to the operator to open the call for your questions.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or comment at this time, please press 11 on your telephone keypad. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, simply press 11 again. Again, ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question or comment, please press 11 on your telephone keypad. Our first question or comment comes from the line of Brian Kinstlinger from Alliance Global Partners. Your line is now open.

Brian David Kinstlinger: Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions. I will ask two. First, can you talk about the announced NVIDIA quantum models—when you expect they might be available, and when you might begin to test them to see the impact on reducing your error rates? And second, the $100 million investment in the UK—are those people, infrastructure, offices? Will that be expensed or capitalized, and if expensed, when will we start to see it begin to increase OpEx?

Subodh Kulkarni: Thanks, Brian. NVIDIA did announce an open-source model to help with calibration and bring-up of quantum computers as well as error corrections. We continue to look at that as a possible means of accelerating our road map. We continue to talk to NVIDIA, and we also continue to talk to other partners in the industry such as Riverlane in the UK, where we are partnering to do error correction. They are not replacements for each other; they can work in a complementary fashion. So we are taking a close look and will take advantage of those tools that are available now. On the UK investment, the UK has announced a fairly ambitious program called Procure, which is a multistage program.

The first phase will kick off this July or August for a couple of years. The next phase, MegaCoOp, will kick off at that time for another year or two, and then GigaCoOp and so on—MegaCoOp means 1 million error-free quantum operations per second, Giga is 1 billion error-free quantum operations per second, and so on. It is a very well-structured program. Applications are being requested now, and we will be one of them. Assuming we are chosen for the preliminary phase, we plan to increase our headcount—so people costs—and we plan to increase the number of quantum computers we have in the UK.

Right now, if you visit the National Quantum Computing Centre outside Oxford in the UK, you will find our quantum computer in that center. For the next phase, we plan to include CPS-class systems like 108 qubits or higher-qubit-count quantum computers there over the next couple of years as we make them available. So there will be some capital costs involved, and also facilities. We have a relatively small office in London right now, and we plan to have a bigger facility in the UK as we go forward. The $100 million is over the next few years and captures those costs in the rough order of magnitude we have discussed.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of TD Cowen. Your line is now open.

Analyst: Thank you. On the integrated error mitigation, is this on-chip for the two-qubit gate, or is it a separate control chip? Is it ASIC or FPGA? And then a follow-up on the QPU pipeline—how is it looking and has it evolved, beyond the University of Saskatchewan—Is the funnel expanding or stable?

Subodh Kulkarni: In general, we do not do error correction on the quantum chip itself today. There are approaches being looked at to do that, but right now our quantum chip is not doing error correction at the chip level. Most of the error correction in our experiments is outside, in ambient conditions, in the control systems area. We send signals to the quantum computer and then get them back from the quantum computer.

On the QPU demand pipeline, interest in quantum computing continues to increase rapidly, and as we get closer to quantum advantage—which we define roughly as a 1,000-qubit system, 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity, less than 50-nanosecond gate speed, and some form of error mitigation or control—we think that is about three years from now. We are already seeing increased interest from not only academic and government or national lab customers, but also commercial customers who want to do quantum-computing-related R&D activities. We expect that interest to continue to increase rapidly as we approach those quantum advantage milestones. This is reflected in our disclosures and bookings, even though the market remains in R&D stages.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Needham & Company. Your line is now open.

Nathaniel Quinn Bolton: Thank you for taking the question. A follow-up on the adiabatic CZ process: you are already showing on prototypes getting to 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity with 28-nanosecond gate speeds. How long does it take to get that into production systems? It sounds like you are targeting 99.9% over a three-year period as part of the system that gets you to quantum advantage. Why does it take so long to get there, and what are the steps to bring that process from prototype into higher-volume production?

And a quick one for Jeff: of the $5.7 million of Nuvera QPU sales announced last year, it looks like about $3 million of hardware-based sales landed in Q1; should we expect roughly $2.7 million recognized in Q2?

Subodh Kulkarni: It is a good question, Quinn. We will push as fast as possible to get adiabatic CZ and fast gates into higher-scale systems. We are already using adiabatic CZ in our CPS-108Q, but it is not as fast as what we have achieved at the prototype stage. You are right—on prototypes, we have achieved 99.9% with gate speeds of 28 nanoseconds. CPS-108Q is still roughly 2x slower than our prototype system, and fidelity is not as high as the prototype. We take learnings from the prototype system and incorporate them into larger systems as soon as possible. These are extremely complex problems to solve at scale.

It is relatively easier to demonstrate on sub-10-qubit prototypes; when you get to 100 qubits or above—which only a few companies have done—the problems become significantly more challenging. We are proud to be one of those companies with the 108Q system available for anyone to use on the cloud. We have demonstrated very strong performance in adiabatic CZ at few-qubit scale, and we will push to bring that into 36-qubit and then 108-qubit and beyond as fast as we can. It will be part of the system that approaches quantum advantage in three years, and you will see adiabatic CZ and fast gates included before then in systems we deploy next year and the year after.

Regarding whether the quantum advantage system will run quantum error correction: there is still some TBD. Our view right now is that the quantum advantage system—roughly 1,000 qubits at 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity—will use some form of error mitigation, not necessarily full-fledged quantum error correction. Full QEC for fault-tolerant quantum computing—such as with QLDPC codes—will likely require hundreds of thousands of physical qubits and is in the five- to seven-year timeline. So for quantum advantage, expect error mitigation and some limited error correction; for full fault tolerance, that is further out.

Jeffrey A. Bertelsen: Yes, of the $5.7 million, we recognized a little bit less than half in Q1, and we expect the remainder to be recognized in Q2.

Operator: Next question or comment comes from the line of B. Riley Securities. Your line is now open.

Craig Andrew Ellis: Thanks for taking the questions. First, with CPS-108Q’s availability on Rigetti Computing, Inc. QCS, Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and KubeRay—what are you seeing in terms of engagement across these platforms, and what feedback are you getting on workload tests? Second, regarding your Quanta partnership established in 2025—what are the top two or three things going well that help you scale qubit count and system capabilities, and what would you hope that partnership accomplishes this year?

Subodh Kulkarni: It is still relatively early to talk about detailed usage patterns since we deployed the system just over a month ago. Interest is high, and we are seeing strong early usage, but it is too early to draw conclusions. We expect robust usage to build over the next few months as word gets around, and we will continue to improve fidelity and performance, including deploying a higher-fidelity 108Q system later this year. On the Quanta partnership, they invested approximately $40 million and, more importantly, committed to co-develop hardware elements of the stack. A key accomplishment has been their design of a new control system that we have started including in recent offerings.

Quanta has strong capabilities in server and control electronics, and they have a dedicated team working on control systems that interface with our devices. Going forward, we expect to use Quanta-made control systems as part of our stack. It is not an exclusive arrangement, but we are clearly benefiting from their expertise. Over the next year or two, we expect them to continue improving control systems to meet our requirements and to contribute to other parts of the hardware stack.

Operator: Next question or comment comes from the line of Mizuho. Your line is now open.

Analyst: Hi, Subodh and Jeff. As you look at the 108-qubit CPS system, any thoughts on the price uplift versus the 36-qubit system, and how has customer response been with availability on Azure and Braket? And on the CDAC $8.4 million order, when do you start to see that layer into results, and when do shipments start?

Subodh Kulkarni: It is still early—deployment was a little over a month ago—so it is early to quantify uplift versus 36Q in terms of usage. Customer interest is high, and we are seeing a lot of experimentation, but most usage today is research-oriented—jobs of seconds to minutes for algorithm development and foundational studies. We do not expect data-center-scale commercial workloads on cloud quantum systems until we approach quantum advantage in about three years. CPS-108Q is one of the most powerful generally available quantum computers on the cloud today, and we expect usage to grow as we increase qubit count and fidelity. On CDAC, our plan is to fulfill the order in the fourth quarter.

A quantum computer comprises various parts—including the dilution refrigerator, internal components, cables, and more. Our plan is to get the system up and running before the end of this year, and we expect most of the revenue to be recognized upon installation and acceptance testing in 2026.

Operator: Thank you. Next question or comment comes from the line of Wedbush Securities. Your line is now open.

Analyst: Thanks for taking my question. Subodh, could you remind us how confident you are in the architectural fix you recently achieved with tunable couplers? How durable is that as you scale beyond 108 qubits to a few hundreds and eventually over a thousand?

Subodh Kulkarni: We track this closely as we update our road map. Our fundamental architecture continues to be a square grid with tunable couplers. We see other large companies converging there as well—Google’s architecture is similar, and IBM recently moved from fixed couplers to tunable coupler technology. We like tunable couplers because they provide flexibility to adjust coupling between qubits, which helps with frequency parking for both qubits and couplers. Where we differ is our view that scaling qubit count benefits from chiplets. We have not seen public data from IBM or Google on chiplets yet. It is fundamentally easier to build smaller-dimension chiplets than large monolithic chips.

We are not seeing concerns with tunable couplers and square grid architecture because of using chiplets. We feel confident that our road map—from the current 108 qubits to higher fidelity and higher qubit counts using chiplets—is solid and executable toward quantum advantage in roughly three years.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is now open.

Troy Donavon Jensen: Thanks for taking my questions. If quantum advantage is three years away, is it safe to say that is two chip cycles away? And can you talk about chip cycles—previously it was about nine months; will it be slower going forward, like 12 to 18 months? And as a follow-up, dilution refrigeration is often cited as a disadvantage versus other modalities—what needs to happen there, and at quantum advantage scale, what does dilution refrigeration cost look like?

Subodh Kulkarni: We own and operate our fab in California. Chip cycle time depends on how many changes we introduce. We typically launch a major chip revision once a year, but because we control the fab, we can turn designs faster when focusing on specific aspects—potentially twice a year. Three years gives us plenty of chip turns for major revisions. Getting to quantum advantage is not only about the chip; other stack components—dilution refrigeration, cabling, control systems, error mitigation/correction, and software—are equally important. We believe three years is a realistic timeline to get all metrics aligned for quantum advantage. On dilution refrigeration, in superconducting quantum computing we need to cool chips to ~10 millikelvin to achieve superconductivity.

Dilution refrigeration has existed for decades in select applications and is now being productized for quantum computing. Several commercial vendors provide systems today. A dilution refrigerator is roughly the size of a large household refrigerator. Our chiplets are small—six millimeters by six millimeters for nine-qubit chiplets—so even at several hundred to a thousand qubits, overall chip dimensions are modest. Vendor road maps from companies like Bluefors, Oxford Instruments, and others support housing thousands to tens of thousands of qubits over time. We track their developments closely and leverage improvements as they become available. We do not see dilution refrigeration as a bottleneck to quantum advantage and beyond in superconducting systems.

While room-temperature modalities avoid refrigeration, our speed and scalability advantages—gate speeds 1,000 to 10,000 times faster than some alternatives and semiconductor-like scalability—are significant benefits that outweigh the refrigeration requirement.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Rosenblatt Securities. Your line is now open.

John McPeake: Congrats on getting CPS-108Q out on the cloud. A couple of questions: you said later this year you are targeting 99.5% from 99.1%—what needs to happen to get there? Also, the lab machine at 99.9%—how many physical qubits was that on? And any update on DARPA? Lastly, by the end of the year, should we still think about a 150-qubit machine?

Subodh Kulkarni: As we disclosed, the current limiter for two-qubit gate fidelity on CPS-108Q is coherence time—the amount of time we can maintain quantum states. Right now, it is in the 25 to 30 microsecond range. We need to roughly double, ideally triple, that to reach approximately 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity. We know where fidelity is being lost and are running targeted experiments. We feel good about improving coherence time and, therefore, fidelity through the year. On the lab 99.9% results, the earliest prototype was smaller than nine qubits; more recently, we have reached nine qubits at very high fidelity with the fast adiabatic CZ scheme.

Next steps are scaling that to 36 qubits and then to 108 qubits as quickly as possible. Regarding DARPA, we remain engaged as part of the QPR program. We received feedback toward the end of last year—focused on error correction and scaling challenges—and we are actively working through those. It is a multi-phase, seven- to eight-year program with milestone-based progression into subsequent phases; we expect to advance as we meet performance milestones. On a potential 150-qubit machine this year, our most important milestone is quantum advantage in roughly three years—about 10x the current qubit count and moving from low 99s to high 99s in fidelity.

Progress will be a staircase: sometimes increasing qubit count without increasing fidelity, and sometimes increasing fidelity without increasing qubit count. This year, expect us to introduce a higher-fidelity 108-qubit system, and we will be talking about 150 qubits or higher. It is not yet certain whether the higher fidelity will be achieved at the 150-qubit level within the year, but our goal is to improve both qubit count and fidelity as rapidly as possible.

Operator: Our next question or comment comes from the line of Craig-Hallum Capital Group. I am unable to promote the caller’s line. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Subodh Kulkarni for any closing remarks.

Subodh Kulkarni: Thank you for your interest in Rigetti Computing, Inc. and for the thoughtful questions and discussion today. We are encouraged by the progress we are making on our technology road map, the growing engagement we are seeing from customers across cloud and on-premises channels, and the strength of our balance sheet to support disciplined execution. We remain focused on delivering against the milestones we have laid out and on building a business that can create durable, long-term value as quantum computing matures. On behalf of the entire Rigetti Computing, Inc. team, thank you for your continued interest and support. We look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for participating in today’s conference. This concludes the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day. Speakers, standby.