Shares of Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) are soaring on Thursday. The company’s stock has jumped 28.9% as of 1:38 p.m. ET. The spike comes as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are mostly flat.<\/p>\n
The quantum computing pioneer announced it has achieved a significant milestone in its development of commercially viable quantum computing.<\/p>\n
The company announced that it ha achieved “99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity on its modular 36-qubit system,” which it says means it has cut its error rate in half compared to its previous record. Gate error is a major barrier to quantum computing achieving viability outside the lab. While 99.5% accuracy seems high, a classical computer has an error rate many, many orders of magnitude lower.<\/p>\n
Image source: Getty Images. <\/p>\n
While this is a step forward, I think investors are getting ahead of themselves. Rigetti and other quantum companies are working to develop a breakthrough technology on the bleeding edge of science, and there is ample reason to believe — despite what the leaders of these companies say — that we are a decade or so out from true commercial application of these technologies on the scale that would justify the investment.<\/p>\n
If you are an investor with a particularly high risk tolerance and the ability to wait a decade or more for your investment to pay off, Rigetti is one of the better quantum computing stocks<\/a> on the market. However, I would strongly suggest spreading your investment among many quantum stocks. The technology’s maturation is just too far off for us to be able to tell which company’s approach will work, and there is always the chance that the technology never matures to the point of viability.<\/p>\n For my money, Rigetti and other quantum stocks are too pricey for where the technology is in its development.<\/p>\n Before you buy stock in Rigetti Computing, consider this:<\/p>\n The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the\u00a010 best stocks<\/a> for investors to buy now\u2026 and Rigetti Computing wasn\u2019t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.<\/p>\n Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation,\u00a0you\u2019d have $679,653!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you\u2019d have $1,046,308!*<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s worth noting\u00a0Stock Advisor\u2019s total average return is 1,060% \u2014 a market-crushing outperformance compared to 179% for the S&P 500. Don\u2019t miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor.<\/p>\n See the 10 stocks \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n *Stock Advisor returns as of July 15, 2025<\/p>\n Johnny Rice<\/a> has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n