RGTI Triples Revenue in Q1, Loss Widens

Rigetti Computing's revenue tripled year-over-year to $4.4 million in the first quarter, but operating losses also expanded to $26 million. After the financial results were announced, the stock price fell as much as 1.5% in after-hours trading. The company's flagship system, Cepheus-1-108Q, has been integrated with platforms such as Amazon and Microsoft, and announced a $100 million investment in the United Kingdom, planning to deploy a system with over a thousand quantum bits, but the timetable still requires 3 to 4 years.

Despite tripling revenue, "Quantum NVIDIA" Rigetti's stock price fell in after-hours trading.

On May 11th, quantum computing company Rigetti Computing released its Q1 2026 financial results after the U.S. stock market closed.

In terms of revenue, Rigetti's Q1 revenue was $4.4 million, tripling year-over-year, exceeding the FactSet analyst's expectation of $4.09 million. Adjusted loss per share was 4 cents, in line with analyst expectations. At the same time, quarterly losses expanded. Operating losses for the first quarter reached $26 million, higher than last year's $22 million. Of this, research and development expenses approached $20 million, accounting for the vast majority of the operating losses.

After the release of the financial results, Rigetti's stock price fell as much as 1.5% in after-hours trading, but the decline subsequently narrowed to about 0.2%. Prior to this, the stock had already risen by 8.3% on the formal trading day, with quantum computing peers IonQ and D-Wave Quantum rising by 15% and 6.5% respectively, and the entire sector strengthened collectively on the eve of the earnings week.

The market reaction was relatively calm, with no significant selling off. Analysts believe that this stability may stem from the financial results themselves not containing many surprises and being in line with market expectations.

New system goes live, but "surprise" is limited

The core highlight of the financial report is the official launch of Rigetti's previously announced Cepheus-1-108Q quantum system.

According to CEO Subodh Kulkarni, the system has now been integrated with Amazon Braket, Microsoft Azure Quantum, and Rigetti's own cloud service platform. The system went live in April of this year, ending a period of uncertainty that had lasted for several months—Rigetti had delayed the original schedule in January of this year citing the need for further technical optimization.

In terms of performance, the company expects the system to achieve a median two-qubit gate fidelity of 99.5% within this year. Fidelity is a core indicator for measuring the accuracy and stability of quantum operations; the higher the value, the lower the error rate of the quantum computer.

However, as the news of the system going live had been publicly announced earlier, the market reaction was limited.

Losses expand, spending remains the main theme

Behind the increase in revenue, Rigetti's losses are also expanding.

Operating losses for the first quarter reached $26 million, higher than last year's $22 million. Of this, research and development expenses approached $20 million, accounting for the vast majority of the operating losses.

For a company that has not yet achieved annual profitability and whose revenue scale is still in the millions, cash reserves are crucial. As of the end of the first quarter, Rigetti held $5.69 million in cash, cash equivalents, and securities available for sale, accounting for 87% of total assets, which the company characterizes as "strong cash position," with no debt on the books. In comparison, this figure was $