RGTI Stock Rockets Higher: What’s Fueling Rigetti Computing’s Rally and Is It Time to Buy?

Rigetti Computing’s (Nasdaq: RGTI) share price continues its white-knuckle rally after the quantum-computing pioneer surprised Wall Street with a rare first-quarter profit and a fresh injection of strategic capital. RGTI Stock Hits New Highs After Swing to Profit On 12 May, Rigetti reported Q1 2025 net income of $42.6 million, reversing a $20.8 million loss a year earlier and marking its first quarterly profit as a public company. The jump stemmed largely from a $62 million non-cash gain tied to warrant revaluations, but investors also cheered the company’s expanding cash pile, which reached $237.7 million after Quanta Computer’s recent $35 million equity purchase at $11.59 per share. The upbeat print ignited another leg of momentum in a stock that is already up roughly 2,000 % over the past 12 months. Why the Quantum Narrative Still Resonates Rigetti’s 84-qubit Ankaa-3 system and its modular multi-chip architecture remain central to the bull case. Management highlighted new U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.K. Innovate UK grants aimed at advancing error-corrected, “utility-scale” quantum computers—projects that could bring in up to $6.5 million in milestone payments this year. The company also published research in Nature Physics demonstrating optical control of superconducting qubits, a breakthrough that could shrink hardware footprints and lower cooling costs. Technical Levels to Watch After exploding from $0.60 last summer to an intraday peak near $16 this week, RGTI now trades around $13 on heavy volume, pushing its market cap above $3.7 billion. Traders note psychological resistance at $16, the level short-term analysts have flagged as an initial profit-taking zone, while $10–$11 has emerged as the nearest support band. Valuation: Bubble or Beginning? Even after the Quanta deal, Rigetti’s balance sheet shows just over $200 million in cash against minimal debt, giving the company several years of runway to chase its 2026 goal of a 1,000-plus-qubit machine. Yet with trailing-12-month revenue below $10 million, the stock trades at more than 350 times sales—lofty even by frontier-tech standards. Bulls point to Amazon Braket and Nvidia CUDA analogies, arguing that an eventual “quantum cloud” platform could unlock exponential revenue once error-corrected qubits arrive. Bears counter that commercialization timelines remain uncertain and that derivative warrant accounting, not core operations, drove Q1’s profit. Catalysts on the Horizon • May 30: Closing date for the share transfer to Quanta appears on the Nasdaq tape, confirming final dilution numbers. • June 12: Management hosts its annual Quantum Investor Day in Berkeley, potentially outlining a higher-qubit roadmap. • H2 2025: DARPA Stage A results could validate (or refute) Rigetti’s error-correction strategy. • Any partnership announcements with hyperscale cloud providers could accelerate revenue inflection. Bottom Line “RGTI stock” has evolved into a high-beta proxy for the entire quantum-computing theme. The combination of a surprise profit, government validation, and a deep-pocketed manufacturing partner has turbocharged speculative interest, but valuation risk is rising in lockstep. Investors should brace for volatility as the market weighs near-term accounting wins against the long slog toward quantum utility.