Shares of quantum computing company Rigetti Computing (RGTI 18.29%) soared 11.5% through 10:15 a.m. ET on Thursday -- all on no obvious news today.
Rigetti did have some news earlier in the week, however. It may be one reason why Rigetti stock has been growing in strength for three days straight, despite investor uncertainty about the U.S. government shutdown this week.
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Introducing Rigetti Computing
Rigetti calls itself "a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing...selling on-premises quantum computing systems with qubit counts between 24 and 84 qubits, supporting national laboratories and quantum computing centers."
In that regard, on Tuesday Rigetti announced its latest sale, of two 9-qubit Novera quantum computing systems. Rigetti didn't name the buyers outright, but said one is "an Asian technology manufacturing company" and the other a "California-based applied physics and artificial intelligence start-up."
In total, Rigetti says it will make only $5.7 million off the two sales, which doesn't sound a lot for a company now valued at more than $10.9 billion. However, investors need to be aware that over the last 12 months, Rigetti's total sales amounted to barely $7.9 billion. This week's announcement represents about 72% of the company's annual revenue stream.
And Rigetti booked the sales in a single day.
Is Rigetti stock a buy?
Rigetti CEO Dr. Subodh Kulkarni commented: "We are excited to see the increased demand for on-premises quantum computing systems as the industry matures."
While it's hard to call the stock a buy at its present valuation of more than 1,300 times sales with no profits, both quantum computers are expected to deliver in H1 2026. This should secure a big chunk of Rigetti's revenue stream early in the year, and puts Rigetti in a good position to double its sales or better in 2026.
