Rigetti slips ahead of May 11 earnings call after 108-qubit system rollout

Rigetti Computing shares are lower in Friday trading, with the move appearing tied to positioning ahead of the company’s next catalyst: its first-quarter 2026 financial results and conference call scheduled for May 11, 2026. With no fresh same-day corporate filing identified, the decline looks consistent with event-risk de-risking in a volatile, pre-profit quantum-computing name as investors wait for updates on revenue timing, cash burn, and commercial traction.

The stock is also continuing to digest Rigetti’s recent technology milestone and related disclosure: on April 7, 2026, the company filed an 8-K around the general availability of its 108-qubit Cepheus-1-108Q system, delivered through Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services and Amazon Braket. The company highlighted current performance metrics including a 99.1% median two-qubit gate fidelity, ~60 ns gate speed, and 99.9% median single-gate fidelity—progress that can lift long-term expectations but also intensifies near-term scrutiny around monetization.

Investors are likely to focus on whether the May 11, 2026 update connects the 108-qubit deployment to concrete demand signals—such as paid utilization trends on cloud access, customer conversions, or contract pipeline—versus primarily technical progress. Any commentary on execution pace, roadmap targets (including higher two-qubit gate fidelity goals later in 2026), and expense discipline could determine whether the current pullback extends or reverses into the event.