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New deal, same quantum hype machine
Rigetti Computing got a Monday pop after saying it’s expanding its collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The centerpiece: Rigetti will supply a 9-qubit Novera quantum system for the center’s TangleLab testbed, with the project funded by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant.
That may sound niche, but in quantum-land, “niche” is basically the business model right now. Investors are not just buying chips and servers — they’re buying the hope that someone, somewhere, can turn these lab experiments into actual revenue.
Why investors cared
The setup is a decent real-world validator for Rigetti:
- It plugs Rigetti into a research platform with institutional and enterprise-facing ambitions
- It adds a classical high-performance computing angle, which is the kind of hybrid story quantum bulls love
- It gives the company a named project with a public timeline: construction starts September 1, 2026, with full operations planned for 2027
And yes, the stock also got a little extra lift from the broader quantum trade. D-Wave’s separate commercial agreement with AT&T sent ripples through the group, because apparently one company’s good news is everyone’s excuse to party.
The bigger picture
Rigetti is still a long way from “show me the profits” territory, but deals like this matter because they make the story feel less like vapor and more like a pipeline. If quantum is ever going to graduate from PowerPoint to paycheck, it’ll probably start with exactly this kind of collaboration.
Big picture: the stock move is less about instant cash and more about momentum, credibility, and keeping the quantum narrative alive for another week.