What Happened With Rigetti Computing Stock Yesterday? Trefis Team Thu, November 12, 2026 at 12:50 PM EST 3 min read RGTI -5.63% ^GSPC -0.13% IONQ -8.97% QBTS -5.68% IBM -0.98% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
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Rigetti Computing (RGTI) stock fell 8.6% yesterday, November 11, 2026, the first session after its Q3 FY2026 report, while the S&P 500 gained 1.3%. Its quantum peers moved less: IonQ fell 2.7%, while D-Wave Quantum rose 1.6%. Third-quarter revenue came in below the previous year's mark, but management still forecast about $20 million of revenue for full year 2026. So how much of that forecast is left for the fourth quarter?
What Rigetti Computing Needs From Its Fourth Quarter
About $9.1 million. Management said Rigetti booked $10.9 million of revenue in the first nine months of 2026, leaving the balance of the full-year forecast to the final three months. That requires bringing in almost as much in the last quarter as the company did over the previous nine months. The third quarter itself generated $1.41 million, down 27.5% from a year earlier.
Management said the full-year forecast assumes the C-DAC system passes customer acceptance in the fourth quarter, with the revenue recognized in that period. Rigetti is bringing that system up at C-DAC, India's national lab. So Rigetti's forecast is tied to that one delivery.
Is Rigetti Computing's Revenue Drop A One-Quarter Dip?
The drop looks more like one of Rigetti's sales swings than a new direction. Quarterly revenue rose to $4.40 million in Q1 FY2026 and $5.14 million in Q2 FY2026 before falling back in the third quarter. Management said quarterly revenue can vary meaningfully because it is tied to a small number of system deliveries, pointing to year-to-date revenue as the more useful view.
Over the twelve months to September 2026, revenue was $12.8 million, up 71% from a year earlier. That is still below the $14.7 million Rigetti reported for the twelve months to September 2023, so its sales have not yet risen steadily from one year to the next.
Rigetti Computing's Management On Sales And Spending
Management said quantum computing is still very much in the research and development phase. They noted that sales are not the right measure to follow until quantum advantage, the point where quantum computers pay off against classical ones. They also said the technology must be perfected before commercial sales can really take off. Management puts quantum advantage roughly three years away. When analysts asked about orders and backlog on the November 10 call, management pointed to growing interest from national labs, universities and a few commercial customers, but gave no figure.
Meanwhile, Rigetti is spending more. Total operating expenses were $34 million in the third quarter, against about $21 million a year earlier. Management said the rise came from higher pay and stock compensation, mainly for research staff, and from more research and development work. Cash, cash equivalents and investments fell to $497.1 million at the end of September from $589.8 million at the end of 2025. Rigetti also signed for up to $100 million of Department of Commerce funding for specific research programs, paid monthly as costs are incurred. As part of the deal, Rigetti issued about 7.7 million shares to the Department, a minority stake.
Rigetti is expected to report in March 2027. The figure to watch then is full-year 2026 revenue measured against management's forecast, and with it whether the C-DAC system was accepted in the fourth quarter.
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