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The explosive move in Rigetti Computing’s (RGTI) stock has its CEO cautioning investors that it’ll take time for the corporate to post sustainable sales growth and profits.
“Particularly due to hype that is occurring within the quantum computing space and a few erroneous statements are being made, including by people within the industry, we’ve got to tamp down some expectations” Rigetti Computing CEO Subodh Kulkarni told me on Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid podcast (video above; listen in below).
Kulkarni talked to Yahoo Finance after attending a Latest York City conference at investment bank Needham on Tuesday.
“So I actually have to inform them [investors] that it’s still not the time to discuss sales and sales growth because we’re still very much within the technology development mode. We’ve to get the technology perfected before we are able to start seeing real material difference in sales,” explained Kulkarni, who’s an engineer by training.
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The comments follow one other otherwise insane series of movements in quantum computing stocks, which have attracted momentum traders in recent months amid AI hype.
On Tuesday, shares of Rigetti Computing (RGTI) gained 48% in a day, while D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) rose almost 23% and Quantum Computing (QUBT) jumped nearly 14%.
The stocks had fallen the day prior after Meta (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the Joe Rogan podcast that “very useful” quantum computing is probably going a “decade-plus out.” Zuck’s comments echoed bearish ones made by Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang at CES last week.
Those big name naysayers have not gotten to Kulkarni, who has witnessed his company’s stock price surge greater than 777% prior to now 12 months. The corporate’s market cap is now above $2 billion, and its ticker page has been among the many most lively on Yahoo Finance in recent months.
The issue, nonetheless, is that Rigetti has never been profitable from its quantum chipmaking efforts. It lost $45 million on a net basis through the third quarter of last 12 months. Furthermore, Rigetti noted in a recent filing it may have additional cash by the second quarter of 2026 to fund its chipmaking ambitions.
Read more: why the Nvidia sell-off is overdone
Kulkarni pushed back on the corporate needing to boost additional cash.
“We’ll at all times take a look at what we could potentially do. And so we never need to say we can’t do something, because things could change. But as of today, we needn’t raise extra money for the foreseeable future,” Kulkarni said.