Rigetti Shares Gain 4% on $100M U.S. Government Funding Agreement

Shares of Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI) rose 4% in Tuesday trading following news that the firm had finalized a $100 million pact with the U.S. Department of Commerce to boost research and development in superconducting quantum computing.

The funds, distributed under the CHIPS Research and Development Office Broad Agency Announcement and authorized by the CHIPS Act, are designated for three R&D efforts focused on solving technical obstacles related to scaling superconducting quantum computers.

Rigetti's wholly owned subsidiary, Rigetti & Co, LLC, will apply the funding to projects involving the miniaturization and integration of readout electronics, a cryostat architecture intended to increase cryogenic capacity by orders of magnitude, and manufacturing processes for chip designs with high connectivity.

These efforts are meant to speed the company's path toward utility-scale quantum computing. Potential uses for the technology include cryptography, chemistry, materials science, mathematical optimization and artificial intelligence.

Rigetti CEO Dr. Subodh Kulkarni said the company is honored to be selected by the U.S. government to accelerate R&D and make progress on its roadmap to commercially viable quantum computing. Overcoming critical scaling challenges, he explained, could reshape the industry by bringing large-scale quantum machines to American researchers faster.

Kulkarni added that reducing both the time and cost associated with building quantum systems at scale would lead to broader adoption and help strengthen the domestic quantum computing sector.

The company also pointed out that governments worldwide are making significant investments in quantum technology because quantum advantage carries important national security and economic implications.

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