Sometimes, the most beaten-down stocks present tomorrow's most compelling opportunities. Rigetti Computing (RGTI -3.12%) has seen its stock stumble in 2025 (down 26% as of June 10), while its closest competitors have crushed the broader markets. However, a deeper look at Rigetti's strategic progress reveals a potential high-growth opportunity hiding in plain sight for investors with a long-term time horizon.
The quantum computing revolution promises to solve problems currently impossible for even the most powerful supercomputers. The technology is projected to generate up to $1.3 trillion in value by 2035, according to a research report by McKinsey & Co., with finance, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing seeing profound impacts.
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For investors seeking direct exposure, a few pure-play companies lead the charge. IonQ (IONQ -2.28%) and D-Wave Quantum (QBTS -4.14%) are making progress with their respective technologies. Then there's Rigetti, which is quietly building what could become the essential hardware and infrastructure of the quantum future. Read on to find out more about this beaten-down quantum computing stock.
The infrastructure play everyone's missing
On the surface, Rigetti's first-quarter 2025 results looked catastrophic. Revenue fell to $1.5 million, and the operating loss came in at a hefty $21.6 million. For a pre-commercial, deep-tech company, these R&D-heavy financials can be alarming. After all, the market, in its infinite wisdom, often misunderstands that focusing on quarterly profits at this early development stage misses the entire point.
The real story lies in the foundation being built. After completing a $350 million at-the-market equity offering this week, Rigetti now has approximately $575 million in cash and investments, with zero debt.
This mountain of capital ensures Rigetti can fund its operations and hit critical milestones on its path to commercialization, a crucial advantage in a capital-intensive industry. Yes, shareholders got diluted by this offering. But in quantum's cash-burning race, having a multiyear runway beats running out of money.
Why modular beats monolithic in quantum's scaling race
While most competitors are focused on building large, monolithic quantum processors, Rigetti has taken a fundamentally different approach. Drawing inspiration from how classical supercomputers scaled, the company is pursuing a modular architecture built from smaller, linkable chiplets.
The challenge with monolithic design is manufacturing yield. A single defect in a large, complex chip can compromise the entire processor. As qubit counts grow, these risks multiply, making production slower and more expensive.
Rigetti's strategy avoids that bottleneck. By developing smaller, high-quality chiplets and connecting them into larger systems, the company improves yield, reliability, and scalability. This allows it to grow qubit count without compromising performance or cost structure.
This isn't just theoretical. Rigetti's 84-qubit Ankaa-2 system was built using this modular design and is already in use. It demonstrates that the architecture is viable and scalable, not just promising on paper.
Modularity is one of the key reasons why Rigetti has secured strategic partnerships and government support. Sophisticated technology evaluators are endorsing the company's roadmap toward commercial-scale quantum computing, not because it is the biggest, but because it is the most practical.
From laboratory curiosity to grid-scale impact
Rigetti is already moving beyond theoretical research and into practical application. Its quantum systems have been used in hybrid configurations with classical computers to solve real-world optimization problems more efficiently than classical methods alone.
This marks a key milestone. Demonstrating quantum utility, even in narrow domains, is essential for proving that the technology can create value outside the lab. It shows that Rigetti's architecture is not only scalable, but also functional in applied industrial settings.
The company's in-house fabrication capability adds to that edge. Owning the full production stack allows Rigetti to iterate faster, control quality, and innovate without relying on third-party constraints. As the industry transitions from experimentation to deployment, vertical integration may become one of the most valuable strategic advantages in the nascent quantum computing space.
Is the stock a buy?
The risks are real. Rigetti remains unprofitable, operates in a capital-intensive sector, and faces significant technical challenges. Like all quantum stocks, its valuation reflects long-term potential, not current performance.
For investors, the key question is which company has the right architecture, strategic focus, and financial resources to survive the next few years and emerge as a leader. Rigetti now has two essential advantages: a scalable modular design that avoids the pitfalls of monolithic systems, and a fully funded runway to reach its next milestones.
In past technology waves, infrastructure builders often captured the outsized gains. Cisco supplied the backbone for the Internet. Nvidia powered the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Rigetti is aiming to do the same for quantum computing.
At current levels, the market appears focused on short-term dilution and losses. But for investors willing to look through the volatility, Rigetti offers one of the more compelling long-term setups in the quantum space.
