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Rigetti Computing’s shares soared as investors became more optimistic about the potential market for quantum computing.
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Rigetti is taking a comprehensive approach to the industry, designing and building its own quantum processing units, and creating a programming language.
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The company has a long way to go before it could turn a profit.
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With shares up by a jaw-dropping 5,100% over the last 12 months, Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) exemplifies the life-changing potential of stock investing. If you bought $10,000 worth of shares of this speculative tech company last October, your position would now be worth over half a million dollars.
After a rise of that magnitude, potential new investors must be left wondering if they should jump on Rigetti’s hype train or wait for a dip. Let’s dig into the company’s fundamentals to decide what the near future might bring.
Quantum computing promises to radically expand the reach of digital technology. When it works accurately, it can solve certain types of unusual, but extraordinarily difficult, problems that would take even a classical supercomputer an impossible amount of time. And while the technology has seemed “just around the corner” for decades, some recent breakthroughs have ignited optimism.
For example, one of the chief challenges in developing a useful quantum computer is that they are vastly more prone to errors than classical machines. But late last year, Alphabet subsidiary Google revealed its Willow chip, a state-of-the-art quantum computing chip that does a progressively better job of correcting its own mistakes the more computing power it uses. Perhaps more remarkably, on one of the benchmark computational problems that is used to test the abilities of quantum machines, Willow delivered the answer in about five minutes. For a traditional supercomputer to solve it would have taken 10 septillion years.
If they can be made reliable and cost effective enough to commercialize, such machines could drive revolutionary advances in areas ranging from drug discovery to material science. Quantum computers could also play a role in artificial intelligence by assisting with model training and optimization, which involves finding the most efficient use of resources to achieve a task.
While Google looks like the leader in quantum computing technology, a rising tide lifts all boats, and investors are pouring capital into the entire industry. Rigetti’s compelling business model has also likely played a role in its explosive rally.
