Rigetti Computing (RGTI) reported second-quarter revenue of $5.14 million, edging past analyst estimates of $5.09 million and representing a sharp increase from the $1.8 million posted in the same quarter a year earlier. Despite the top-line beat, RGTI shares declined 4.4% in after-hours trading on Thursday.

The stock has fallen approximately 24.2% year-to-date, underperforming the S&P 500, which has gained 12.8% over the same period.

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Revenue Growth Driven by Quantum System Sales

The revenue beat was largely fueled by accelerating quantum system sales. Rigetti's on-premise quantum systems, which can command prices in the millions of dollars each, have become a key revenue driver. Quantum computing hardware remains a nascent commercial market, where individual system deployments to research institutions and government-backed supercomputing centers represent meaningful revenue contributions rather than high-volume product cycles.

The company said it is currently fulfilling orders for systems powered by its Novera processor, including a significant order for a research center in India. Rigetti also plans to deliver a quantum computer to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center under a National Science Foundation grant, building on an existing partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Losses Continue to Widen

Despite revenue growth, operating losses deepened. Rigetti reported a Q2 operating loss of $28.1 million, compared with $20.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Widening losses reflect the elevated R&D and infrastructure spending typical of quantum hardware developers, which are still working to demonstrate fault-tolerant computation at scale.

Adjusted EPS came in at a loss of $0.05, matching the prior-year figure but missing the Zacks consensus estimate of a $0.03 loss — representing an earnings surprise of negative 66.67%.

On a positive note, Rigetti ended the quarter debt-free, holding $541.3 million in cash, cash equivalents, and available-for-sale investments as of June 30.

For industry context, IonQ reported $80.1 million in revenue for its latest quarter — roughly 15 times Rigetti's Q2 total — underscoring the competitive gap among publicly traded quantum companies. In after-hours trading, D-Wave Quantum slipped 0.1%, while IonQ dipped 0.9%.

Federal Funding Agreement Still Pending

A notable pending development is a letter of intent with the U.S. Commerce Department, announced in May. Under the proposed terms, Rigetti would receive $100 million in federal funding in exchange for an equity stake. The company confirmed Thursday that the agreement has not yet been finalized. The contemplated funding aligns with broader U.S. government efforts under the National Quantum Initiative Act and related programs to strengthen domestic quantum hardware capabilities.

Rigetti employs a superconducting quantum architecture and is pursuing a chiplet-based approach, which it expects will facilitate the construction of larger systems without increasing error rates. Earlier this year, the company delayed the release of its Cepheus-1-108Q system while working to achieve certain technical milestones.

Outlook

Looking ahead, the current consensus EPS estimate stands at a loss of $0.05 on $3.92 million in revenue for the coming quarter — a sequential decline from Q2's $5.14 million, reflecting the lumpy nature of quantum hardware sales. For the full fiscal year, analysts project a loss of $0.18 on $25.33 million in revenue.

Zacks currently rates RGTI a Hold (Rank 3), indicating expectations that the stock will perform roughly in line with the broader market in the near term.