Will Rigetti Computing, Run by CEO Subodh Kulkarni, Gain from the Momentum for Quantum Computer Stocks
Rigetti Computing's market value has risen 26-fold to $6 billion, over the past year, on speculation about the promise of quantum computing
(Photo: Subodh Kulkarni, CEO, Rigetti Computing.)
August 13, 2025
This week, Rigetti Computing offered its latest quantum processor, Cepheus-1-36Q, on its cloud computing platform as well as on Microsoft’s Azure. The multi-chip processor, comprised of four chiplets, “halved our error rates” to an accuracy of 99.5%, Subodh Kulkarni, Chief Executive of the Berkeley, California, based company said in a statement.
Since 2017, Rigetti has operated quantum computers over the cloud. In 2021, it introduced a multi-chip quantum processor, which it began selling to clients for on-premise use. The company’s customers include large corporations, government, research laboratories, and quantum computing centers. It reportedly has more than 160 employees.
Rigetti’s revenues are small, $3.2 million in the first half of this year. However, it has a market value of $5.6 billion, with the stock rocketing up 2,600%, from its low price during the past year. Speculators believe that the promise of immense and cheaper processing power, especially for artificial intelligence applications, likely to be offered by Rigetti and some other quantum computing companies, will far exceed that of the supercomputers currently being powered by Nvidia’s chips. Some forecasters state that, within a decade, the demand for quantum computers will total hundreds of billions of dollars, even more than a trillion dollars.
Quantum computing is an emerging field which harnesses quantum mechanics, the study of physics at very small scales. Using a range of disciplines, including quantum hardware and quantum algorithms, it seeks to solve complex problems in a matter of minutes or hours, which might take a classical supercomputer thousands of years to tackle, according to an IBM note.
While classical computers rely on bits (zeros and ones) to store and process data, quantum computers process data differently by using quantum bits (qubits) in superposition. A qubit can behave like a bit and store either a zero or a one, but it can also be a weighted combination of zero and one at the same time, according to an IBM note. When qubits are combined, their superpositions can grow exponentially in complexity: two qubits can be in a superposition of the four possible 2-bit strings, three qubits can be in a superposition of the eight possible 3-bit strings, and so on. With 100 qubits, the range of possibilities is astronomical.
Quantum computers are expected to have a million - even a billion - times better computing power than classical computers, Kulkarni told CNBC today. They will also be far cheaper to run since they use a fraction of the electrical power used by supercomputers.
Quantum computers are expected to be useful for modeling the behavior of physical systems and identifying patterns and structures in information. In addition to AI, they are expected to be used for weather forecasting, drug discovery, security encryption, and several other applications.
Besides Rigetti, companies working on quantum computers include IonQ and other startups as well as giants like IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google parent Alphabet.
Subodh Kulkarni, 60-years-old, has served as Rigetti’s CEO since December 2022. Earlier, from 2014 to 2022, he was the CEO of CyberOptics Corp., a Minnesota developer and manufacturer of high precision sensors and inspection systems for the semiconductor and electronics industry; it was acquired by Nordson in November 2022. Prior to CyberOptics, from 2009 to 2022, Kulkarni was at Prism Computational Sciences, a Madison, Wisconsin, developer of software tools for scientific and commercial applications in the semiconductor industry. He was CEO from 2014 to 2022; he currently serves as Chairman of Prism’s Board.
Kulkarni worked at Imation, Minnesota, 1996 to 2012, including as chief technology officer. He was a senior engineer at 3M, in Minnesota, 1992 to1996. He began his career as a senior engineer, semiconductor chips, at IBM, 1990-1992, in Hopewell Junction, New York.
Kulkarni earned a M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT, 1989, and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, 1985.
In 2024, as Rigetti CEO, Kulkarni earned $2.3 million in salary and stock options. He owns shares in the company worth around $38 million.
Speaking of Rigetti’s future prospects, Kulkarni told CNBC, “There are siginificant challenges when you’re doing complex technologies.” Raising accuracy “from 99.5% to 99.9% is probably the biggest challenge we have ahead of us…We are still very much in the R&D stage.”
Rigetti had an operating loss of $42 million in the first half of 2025. It is expected to lose money till its quantum computers are adopted for commercial use, perhaps in about five years. At the end of June, Rigetti had no debt and about $570 million in cash, which may be sufficient till the company reaches profitability. But expenses for research and development, manufacturing facilities, and hring additional engineers ought to keep rising. Given its high valuation, it is possible that the company could raise more cash by issuing stock.
Kulkarni expects Rigetti to continue its momentum “with our 100+ qubit system planned for the end” of 2025. The company’s “superconducting qubits leverage technologies, like chiplets, that have been maturing in the semiconductor industry for decades, enabling the company to use well-established methods to scale to higher performance and qubit counts,” he added, in a statement.
Over the next three to four years, Rigetti plans to invest in research and development to build quantum computers with 1,000 qubits and 99.9% accuracy, which are both needed to compete against supercomputers for commercial sales.
Will Kulkarni guide Rigetti to emerge as a winner in the intensely competitive quantum computing field? Or will the company’s technological advances make it an attractive acquisition target for a rival, especially a major one with sizeable funding?