Rigetti's Expanding Commercial Base Strengthens Growth Prospects

Rigetti Computing’s RGTI second-quarter 2026 results highlighted a potentially important shift in the quantum computing market, with commercial traction emerging alongside government and academic demand. While government-backed programs and research institutions remain important sources of opportunity, management noted that the company is increasingly seeing commercial organizations purchase on-premises quantum systems.

Rigetti said that its first two 9-qubit systems delivered in 2026 went to commercial customers, which purchased the systems primarily for research and experimentation rather than practical workloads. This marks a notable change from a year or two ago, when commercial demand was largely absent. The trend also contributed to the company’s first-half revenue growth, with management specifically attributing a significant portion of sales growth to commercial organizations purchasing on-premises quantum systems.

The broader customer pipeline appears to be expanding across commercial enterprises, universities and governments, giving Rigetti multiple avenues for future system deployments. The company reported additional Novera demand from national laboratories and universities, including the University of Saskatchewan and a research arm of a large Japanese conglomerate.

Meanwhile, its $8.4 million C-DAC order for a 108-qubit system remains on track for revenue recognition in the fourth quarter, while the HPE-Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center collaboration is expected to place a full 9-qubit Rigetti system into an HPC environment in 2027. The latter could be particularly meaningful as it moves Rigetti beyond standalone quantum computing toward hybrid quantum-classical computing, potentially demonstrating how superconducting quantum systems can complement conventional CPUs and GPUs.

Peers Updates

D-Wave Quantum QBTS posted $3.1 million in revenues in the second quarter of 2026, essentially flat year over year. The company recognized revenues from approximately 100 customers, with commercial enterprises accounting for roughly 62.4% of revenues, up from 45.1% a year earlier.

D-Wave’s QCaaS subscription revenues jumped 50% year over year to $1.9 million, while professional services revenues grew more than 18% to roughly $900,000. Systems and other revenues were $300,000, largely from installation and site preparation related to the $20 million Florida Atlantic University sale.

IonQ IONQ continues to strengthen its position in quantum computing by expanding its vertically integrated, full-stack platform. The company recently completed the acquisition of SkyWater Technology, creating a U.S.-based quantum foundry and strengthening its control over semiconductor manufacturing, advanced packaging and supply-chain capabilities. The transaction is expected to accelerate IonQ’s fault-tolerant quantum computing roadmap while supporting secure, end-to-end development of its quantum computing, networking, sensing and security technologies.

Rigetti’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of RGTI have lost 15.1% in the year-to-date period compared with the industry’s decline of 1.1%.

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From a valuation standpoint, Rigetti trades at a price-to-book ratio of 11.69, above the industry average. RGTI carries a Value Score of F.

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Rigetti’s 2026 earnings implies a significant 71.9% improvement from the year-ago period.

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The company currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. 

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