Rigetti Shares Fall After Q3 Revenue Miss as CEO Urges Patience on Sales
Key Takeaways
- •Rigetti's Q3 revenue of $1.41 million missed the $3.52 million analyst estimate, and its adjusted loss of $0.06 per share was wider than the expected $0.05, triggering a steep decline in the stock.
- •The company maintained its full-year 2026 revenue outlook of approximately $20 million, which hinges on recognizing fourth-quarter revenue from its $8.4 million C-DAC contract, its largest deal to date.
- •Rigetti ended the quarter with $497.1 million in cash and investments and no debt, while operating expenses of $34.0 million far exceeded quarterly revenue.
- •CEO Subodh Kulkarni said investors should focus on technical metrics rather than sales, noting that no company has yet built quantum systems that outperform classical computers on practical tasks.
- •CFO Jeffrey Bertelsen said capital expenditures in 2027 should remain relatively consistent with 2026 levels to support the 2028 technical milestone and the three-year goal of reaching 1,000 qubits.
Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) shares closed Tuesday at $12.15, down 6.39%, before falling another 6.83% in after-hours trading to $11.32, according to Benzinga Pro. The decline followed the company’s third-quarter results, which missed analysts’ expectations for both revenue and adjusted earnings.
Revenue fell to $1.41 million from $1.95 million a year earlier, below the $3.52 million analyst estimate. Rigetti reported an adjusted loss of $0.06 per share, compared with the expected loss of $0.05, while its GAAP loss was $0.08 per share. Operating expenses totaled $34.0 million, and the company reported an operating loss of $33.2 million and a non-GAAP net loss of $20.5 million. Quarterly revenue covered only a small fraction of operating expenses, a gap that reflects how early Rigetti’s commercial stage remains.
RIGETTI COMPUTING $RGTI Q3’26 EARNINGS HIGHLIGHTS 🔹 Revenue: $1.4M (Est. $3.5M) 🔴 🔹 Adj. EPS: -$0.06 (Est. -$0.05) 🔴 🔹 GAAP EPS: -$0.08 Other Q3 Metrics: 🔹 Operating Expenses: $34.0M 🔹 Cash + Investments: $497.1M; no debt FY26 Guide: 🔹 Revenue: ~$20M Announcements: 🔹… pic.twitter.com/h6GZLo4Zqs — Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) November 10, 2026
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Rigetti had $497.1 million in cash and investments and no debt at the end of the quarter. The company maintained its full-year 2026 revenue outlook of approximately $20 million, up from $7.1 million in 2025. That target depends on recognizing fourth-quarter revenue from a system sold to India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), making fourth-quarter revenue recognition a key checkpoint for the outlook.
The C-DAC contract is worth $8.4 million and is Rigetti’s largest deal to date. CEO Subodh Kulkarni said one large transaction can materially affect a quarter, and the company has no assurance that another sale of similar size will occur soon. IonQ and Quantinuum reported higher revenue than Rigetti last week, while D-Wave Quantum also released results on Tuesday. The clustered reports gave investors a set of side-by-side revenue comparisons across publicly traded quantum companies during the latest results season.
CEO Emphasizes Technical Progress
In comments to Barron’s, Kulkarni said investors should focus on technical metrics rather than sales. He said no company is currently building quantum systems that outperform classical computers on practical tasks — a threshold often described in the industry as quantum advantage.
“Sales are just for research applications,” Kulkarni said, describing early discussions about sales growth as “a little premature.”
The company released its Cepheus-1-108Q system in April following a three-month delay. The “108” refers to the system’s number of physical qubits, a term Rigetti continues to use. Kulkarni said the industry is adopting the term “logical qubits” too early. The term generally describes error-corrected units assembled from multiple physical qubits, a distinction that makes headline qubit counts difficult to compare across companies.
“We don’t use that word, Google doesn’t use that word, Amazon doesn’t use that word,” he said.
Rigetti plans to reach 1,000 qubits within three years. Kulkarni expects the first commercial use of quantum computing to emerge over roughly the same period. The company is also targeting an intermediate technical milestone in 2028.
Capital Spending Expected to Remain Elevated
During the earnings call, an analyst asked about the increase in capital expenditures. CFO Jeffrey Bertelsen attributed the spending to larger dilution refrigerators and equipment for the company’s Fab-1 facility.
Bertelsen did not provide a fourth-quarter capital expenditure figure, but said spending in 2027 should be “relatively consistent” with 2026 levels.
“In 2027, I don’t think you’ll see it go back to where we were in 2025 and 2024,” Bertelsen said.
The company’s spending plans are intended to support the 2028 milestone and its longer-term objective of reaching 1,000 qubits. Rigetti’s continued investment comes as management asks investors to evaluate the company primarily through its technical progress rather than near-term sales. The markers laid out this quarter — fourth-quarter C-DAC revenue recognition, 2027 spending held near 2026 levels, the 2028 milestone and the three-year path to 1,000 qubits — provide concrete checkpoints against which that stated roadmap can be tracked.
Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings show a negative trend for RGTI over the short, medium and long term. Its Momentum score is in the 4th percentile.
