The CEO of Rigetti Computing (RGTI), a quantum computing company, joined Market On Close to discuss his company, its financials, and the future of the field. Before we get into the company, let’s break down the basics if you – like me – are still wrapping your head around how it all works.

What is quantum computing?

The easy explanation is right out of science fiction: quantum computing uses quantum mechanics to solve problems that MIT’s Sloan calls “too difficult for the current genre of classical computers.” Some examples they give include “simulating the behavior of matter, analyzing compounds to create new drugs…and identifying fraud and risk patterns in financial transactions.”

While the world is obsessing over AI chips, quantum-capable chips and parts are coming down the pipeline. McKinsey estimates there will be 5,000 quantum computers running by 2030 but doesn’t expect the needed hardware or software to be available until 2035 or longer.

Ok, but what is quantum mechanics?

Quantum mechanics is a subfield of physics that is interested in the behavior of matter and light. It looks at subatomic particles and wave-particle duality – the idea that “physical entities (such as light and electrons)” possess “wavelike and particle-like characteristics” (Britannica). Or: if we measure light as it travels, it forms a wave. If we measure light when it’s “still” – in a single moment of time – it is a particle.

Albert Einstein first demonstrated this duality in 1905: light, obviously, moves across the universe (thus, the speed of light). Taking the sun as an example: sunlight moves in wave motions from the sun down to Earth and across outer space. Anyone who, on a particularly hot summer day, felt the heat beating down on their skin in a pulsing pattern, can recognize the broad strokes of this phenomena.

However, when trying to measure light, Arthur Holly Compton discovered in 1922 that it also behaved like a particle – a discrete unit, a little sphere unto itself, capable of colliding with electrons and bouncing away. The Compton effect describes how energy is absorbed into matter.

Well, you might say, that just means it’s a particle moving in a wave shape – but that’s not what the physics says. The physics says that it exists as both at the same time. That bakes in an amount of uncertainty that makes this field so confusing to understand. However, we hold in our minds the duality and then work to find the patterns in it (mathematics), which we can then apply to our own inventive technology.

So, quantum mechanics is trying to deal with this complex duality, digging into the building blocks of the building blocks of the universe. It’s mind-blowing stuff.

How does that translate to computers?

Computers understand data in terms of binary code: ones and zeros. Everything we see on a computer has been translated into computer-language, and then back into what we recognize on our screens. They use electrical signals to represent these ones and zeros. You’ve heard of a “bit rate” for computers: a bit is the smallest, most basic unit of information computers use. A bit represents a 1, or a 0.

For the non-tech savvy, like me, a group of 8 bits is called a byte. Computer storage and capacity are both a representation of how many bits it can handle – how much information it can process or store in this language of ones and zeros.

Quantum computing instead uses subatomic particles – qubits (quantum bits) – to communicate binary code. MIT’s Sloan writes that “managed properly, qubits can represent combinations of both ones and zeros simultaneously.” This is difficult to explain but stay with me. If you’re familiar with the concept of water’s different forms, it can exist as liquid (water), gas (steam), and solid (ice), while still being H2O at the same time.

This efficiency in computer language creates greater processing power – quantum computers are good at looking at large, complex datasets and “exponential algorithmic gains.” In the paper, “The Quantum Tortoise and the Classical Hare” by Sukwoong Choi, William S. Moses, and Neil Thompson, the researchers discuss how quantum computers are actually slower than classical computers – but they can run algorithms classical computers can’t.

This means that quantum computing only outperforms classical computers when the project is sufficiently large. Thus, the whole world is not about to turn over to using quantum computing for everything, the way companies across the board have scrambled to integrate AI.

Think about it this way: you’re playing Minecraft. If you’re digging out a tunnel, you’re doing it one block at a time, in a linear fashion. That’s the way a regular computer deals with information, both in processing and storing it: one block at a time. Quantum is as if you were able to just pass through the blocks, without digging, to your destination: a ghost in the machine.

Another example is the tesseract from A Wrinkle in Time – quantum jumps from point A to Z without having to pass through B-Y.

Back to Rigetti

Rigetti Computing (RGTI) provides quantum computing services, designing quantum chips and processors. Their clients include NASA, MIT, and Oxford Instruments, and their distribution channels include AWS, Microsoft, and more. The industry use cases they cite include drug discovery, training better AI, optimizing risks & returns for large financial portfolios, and creating enzymes: all tasks that require enormous data computing power.

The CEO of Rigetti Computing (RGTI), Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, explained on Market On Close what sets it apart from its competitors both mechanically and strategically. “We do it with superconducting materials,” rather than using trapped ions, he says – both ways of working with quantum particles, with pros and cons to each. Superconducting materials for quantum computing have to be kept at extremely low temperatures, for example.

“We are looking at 3-5 years before we see quantum computing in data centers,” Dr. Kulkarni predicts. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia (NVDA), has projected a longer timeline (15-30), though he has since backtracked a bit.

RGTI is down 21% this year – but up over 888% over the last year. In their last earnings report, for 1Q25, they missed revenue estimates with sales of $1.47 million. EPS was $0.13, beating the Street’s estimates of a loss of 6 cents. Dr. Kulkarni argues that, right now, revenue is not the way to judge quantum computing companies, because the technology is still under development. Much of their funding currently comes from academic research institutions and the U.S. government.

Investors who understand the capabilities of quantum computing will have an advantage when it comes to gauging opportunities in the space. Quantum computing saw a burst of interest earlier this year during the AI rush – despite cooling off somewhat (tickers like QUBT and IONQ are down double-digits year-to-date, though QBTS is up over 45%), this emerging technology still has a bright and broad pathway.

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