U.S. Department of Commerce Considers Up to $100 Million Support for Quantum Computing R&D

Rigetti Computing, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGTI) has signed a non-binding letter of intent with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CHIPS Act R&D Office Program to secure up to $100 million—approximately KRW 130 billion—in research and development funding over the next three years. Once finalized, the Department of Commerce will acquire an equity stake commensurate with its investment, and the proceeds will be dedicated to overcoming scaling challenges in Rigetti’s superconducting quantum computer systems.

In its Q1 2026 results, Rigetti reported revenue of $4.4 million, marking substantial year-over-year growth. The company also opened its 108-qubit modular system, Cepheus-1-108Q, for general use on Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud Services (QCS), Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure. On the hardware side, Rigetti secured an order worth about $8.4 million (roughly KRW 11 billion) to supply a 108-qubit system to India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), further expanding its on-premise quantum system sales.

Founded in 2013 and based in Berkeley, California, Rigetti develops superconducting qubit–based quantum processors along with the software needed to run them, offering both via the cloud. After going public on Nasdaq in 2022 through a SPAC merger, Rigetti now competes alongside Google, IBM, IonQ and D-Wave in the market for superconducting quantum computers and related services.