Rigetti Computing, Inc.

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Somewhat Bullish +45

D-Wave Quantum Rises 7% on Expanded AT&T Deal, Lifting IonQ, Rigetti, Quantum Computing Inc.

📈 D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) surged 7% to $19.29 after announcing an expanded deal with AT&T for network operations.

⚡ The AT&T agreement achieves a 240x speedup, cutting a network optimization task from one hour to under 15 seconds.

🤝 Rigetti Computing (RGTI) rose 12% to $15.88 on news of an expanded collaboration with HPE and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center.

💰 Rigetti's new 'TangleLab' hybrid testbed is funded by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant.

🏗️ Construction for Rigetti's TangleLab begins September 1, with full operations expected in 2027.

📊 Benchmark initiated D-Wave Quantum with a Buy rating and a $30 price target following the AT&T news.

💸 D-Wave holds $588.4 million in cash and reported $33.4 million in bookings for Q1 FY2026.

📉 Despite today's gains, Rigetti Computing shares are down 29% year-to-date within the sector.

📉 D-Wave Quantum trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 483 against just $12 million in trailing revenue.

🔮 Prediction markets currently price only a 25.5% probability that the U.S. federal government takes an equity stake in IonQ by year-end 2026.

Bullish Signals
  • D-Wave secured a concrete enterprise deployment with AT&T, demonstrating annealing technology moving from proof-of-concept to production workloads.
  • Benchmark initiated D-Wave Quantum stock with a Buy rating and set a $30 price target, providing sell-side validation.
  • Rigetti Computing is building a hybrid quantum-classical supercomputing testbed funded by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant.
  • D-Wave maintains a strong balance sheet with $588.4 million in cash and $33.4 million in bookings for Q1 FY2026 supporting its runway.
  • The sector rally indicates growing investor confidence as the quantum computing trade shifts from speculation to an identifiable theme.
Risk Factors
  • D-Wave Quantum trades at a very high price-to-sales ratio of 483 against only $12 million in trailing revenue, creating a core bear case.
  • Rigetti Computing's new TangleLab project will not reach full operations until 2027, highlighting a long wait for commercial returns.
  • Pure-play quantum names remain significantly down year-to-date, with Rigetti down 29% and D-Wave down 27%, indicating lingering sector weakness.
  • Prediction markets assign only a 25.5% probability to the U.S. federal government taking an equity stake in IonQ by year-end 2026.
Full Analysis
D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) shares rose 7% to $19.29 following an expanded agreement with AT&T to deploy annealing quantum systems for network operations. The deal delivers a 240x speedup, reducing a specific optimization workload from one hour to under 15 seconds. AT&T plans to extend this work to outage detection and traffic management while evaluating D-Wave's future gate-model systems for security applications. The rally lifted the broader quantum computing sector, with IonQ (IONQ) up 12%, Rigetti Computing (RGTI) up 12% to $15.88, and Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT) up 8%. Rigetti is expanding a collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to build a hybrid testbed funded by a $5 million NSF grant, with full operations expected in 2027. Analyst sentiment remains mixed but supportive of the sector's momentum. Benchmark initiated D-Wave at a Buy rating with a $30 price target, citing real customer traction. However, bearish concerns persist regarding high valuations, such as D-Wave's price-to-sales ratio of 483 against only $12 million in trailing revenue, and long timelines for commercialization like Rigetti's 2027 operational start date. Despite the sector-wide bounce, pure-play quantum names remain down significantly year-to-date compared to broader compute ETFs. D-Wave is down 27% YTD, while Rigetti is down 29%. Investors are advised to keep positions modest given high betas and thematic concentration, watching for follow-up announcements from other carriers to validate the commercial adoption thesis.