If you’re staring at the Rigetti stock price today, you’re probably feeling that familiar mix of excitement and mild vertigo. It is Friday, January 16, 2026, and the ticker for Rigetti Computing (RGTI) is currently sitting at $25.57.
That is a 3.5% jump from yesterday’s close of $24.70.
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Honestly, the quantum sector is a bit of a rollercoaster. One day you’re up because of a research paper, the next you’re down because a director decided to liquidate some shares. Just a few weeks ago, the mood was different. Now, we’re seeing a bit of a rebound, but don't let the green candles fool you into thinking the path is linear.
The Reality of the Rigetti Stock Price Today
The markets opened this morning at $25.12. Throughout the day, we saw some decent volatility, hitting a high of $26.18 before settling back into the mid-25s. If you’ve been following RGTI for a while, you know this is actually quite a distance from its 52-week high of $58.15.
Why the massive gap?
Well, 2025 was the year of the "Quantum Bubble." Investors piled in, treating quantum like the next phase of the AI gold rush. But then reality hit. People realized that while a 1,000-qubit system sounds cool, we’re still fighting high error rates.
Recent News Moving the Needle
The big news this week—and part of the reason for the price action—is the update on the Cepheus-1-108Q system.
Rigetti recently pushed back the general availability of this 108-qubit system to the end of Q1 2026. Usually, a delay sends a stock into the basement. But the market seems to be pricing this as a "modest" setback rather than a disaster. Why? Because the fidelity they're promising is actually quite high.
- Novera Purchase Orders: They secured roughly $5.7 million in orders for their 9-qubit Novera systems.
- Needham Conference: CEO Subodh Kulkarni just finished a fireside chat at the Needham Growth Conference on January 13.
- The NVIDIA Connection: Rigetti is supporting NVIDIA’s NVQLink, which is basically the "glue" that connects AI supercomputers with quantum processors.
Why Everyone Is Obsessed With Qubits (And Why It's Misleading)
People love to talk about qubit counts. "Rigetti is going to 1,000 qubits by 2027!"
That sounds great on a slide deck. But the real metric is fidelity. If your qubits are "noisy"—meaning they make too many mistakes—it doesn't matter if you have ten or ten thousand. Rigetti’s 36-qubit system achieved a 99.5% fidelity. That’s the kind of detail that keeps institutional investors interested even when the revenue looks, frankly, a bit tiny.
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Rigetti only generated about $5.2 million in the first three quarters of 2025.
For an $8.5 billion company, that is a wild valuation. We're talking about a Price-to-Sales (P/S) ratio that makes NVIDIA look like a value stock. It’s speculative. It’s "picks and shovels" investing where the shovels are still being forged in a lab at temperatures colder than outer space.
The Insider Selling Factor
Let's address the elephant in the room. On January 2, 2026, Director Alissa Fitzgerald sold about 59,300 shares, totaling $1.33 million.
Earlier in December, Michael Clifton sold a significant chunk too.
When insiders sell, retail investors panic. "Do they know something we don't?" Maybe. Or maybe they just want to buy a house or diversify. But in a high-volatility stock like RGTI, these moves are magnified. It creates a "falling knife" sensation that can scare off the faint of heart.
Quantum Computing in 2026: The Strategic Shift
We are moving away from the "NISQ" era (Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum) and toward something more practical.
The trend for 2026 is Hybrid Computing.
Nobody thinks a quantum computer is going to replace your laptop. Instead, they’ll act as accelerators for specific math problems in finance, logistics, and drug discovery. Rigetti’s vertical integration—where they make their own chips and software—gives them a slight edge here. They can iterate faster than companies that outsource their hardware.
Is the Rigetti Stock Price Today a Buying Opportunity?
If you’re a value investor looking for dividends and steady P/E ratios, run away. Fast.
But if you’re looking at the long-term "mosaic" of computing, Rigetti is one of the few pure-play options on the NASDAQ. Analysts at Rosenblatt recently initiated coverage with a "Buy" and a $40 price target. Meanwhile, the folks over at The Motley Fool are warning that the stock could slide back to the $3-$7 range if the bubble fully bursts.
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.
Actionable Insights for Investors
If you're holding or considering the Rigetti stock price today, keep these three things in your notebook:
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- Watch the Q1 Deadline: If the 108-qubit system slips past March 2026, expect a sharp sell-off.
- Monitor the Cash Burn: Rigetti had about $600 million in cash as of late 2025. At their current burn rate, they have a runway, but they need to show revenue growth soon to avoid diluting shareholders with another offering.
- The Hybrid Alpha: Look for news regarding their integration with AWS or NVIDIA. The more "plug-and-play" their systems become for existing AI workflows, the more valuable they are.
Quantum is a game of patience. It’s less about "to the moon" and more about "to the lab." The current price of $25.57 reflects a market that is starting to ask for results instead of just promises.
Next Steps for You
To get a clearer picture of whether this price is sustainable, you should examine the Form 4 filings from the last 90 days on the SEC EDGAR database. This will show you if the recent insider selling was a coordinated exit or just individual financial planning. Additionally, compare the RGTI volatility index against competitors like IonQ (QBTS) and D-Wave (QBTS) to see if today's 3.5% move is company-specific or part of a broader sector rotation.