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The explosive move in Rigetti Computing (RGTI) stock has its CEO warning investors that it will take time for the company to post sustainable sales and profit growth.
“Particularly given the hype in the quantum computing space and some misstatements, even by industry people, we have to lower some expectations,” Rigetti Computing CEO Subodh Kulkarni told me in the initial offering. from Yahoo Finance. podcast (video above; listen below).
Kulkarni spoke to Yahoo Finance after attending a conference in New York City at investment bank Needham on Tuesday.
“So I have to tell you [investors] that it is not yet the time to talk about sales and sales growth because we are still in the technological development mode. We have to perfect the technology before we can start seeing a real material difference in sales,” explained Kulkarni, an engineer by training.
The comments follow another series of otherwise crazy moves in quantum computing stocks, which have attracted momentum traders in recent months amid the AI hype.
On Tuesday, shares of Rigetti Computing (RGTI) gained 48% in one day, while D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) rose almost 23% and Quantum Computing (QUBT) jumped almost 14%.
Shares had fallen the day before after Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Joe Rogan’s podcast that “very useful” quantum computing is likely “more than a decade away.” Zuck’s comments echoed pessimistic ones made by Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang at CES last week.
Those big-name detractors haven’t reached Kulkarni, who has seen his company’s stock price rise by more than 777% in the last year. The company’s market capitalization now exceeds $2 billion and its listing page has been among the most active on Yahoo Finance in recent months.
The problem, however, is that Rigetti has never made a profit from his quantum chip manufacturing efforts. It lost $45 million on a net basis through the third quarter of last year. Additionally, Rigetti noted in a recent presentation that it may need more cash by the second quarter of 2026 to fund its chipmaking ambitions.
Read more: why Nvidia’s liquidation is overblown
Kulkarni rejected that the company needed to raise more cash.
“We will always look at what we could potentially do. That’s why we never want to say we won’t do something, because things could change. But as of today, we don’t need to raise any more money for the foreseeable future,” Kulkarni said.
