Rigetti Computing (RGTI) 28th Annual Needham Growth Conference Virtual summary

Technology and product differentiation

• Focuses on superconducting gate-based quantum computing for scalability and fast gate speeds, leveraging decades of semiconductor industry experience.

• Superconducting qubits achieve gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds, about 1,000 times faster than ion trap or neutral atom modalities.

• Industry-wide shift toward superconducting technology, with major investments from global tech leaders and governments.

• Recent advances have brought superconducting fidelity to 99.5%-99.7%, matching or surpassing other modalities.

• Developed the first multi-chip quantum processor and manufactures QPUs in-house at a dedicated facility.

Go-to-market strategy and customer flexibility

• Offers both full quantum systems and standalone QPUs, adapting to customer needs and existing infrastructure.

• Customers with existing dilution refrigerators can purchase just the QPU, while others can acquire complete systems.

• Main customers include national labs, universities, and research-focused commercial entities.

• Most current deployments are for research, not practical workloads, as quantum advantage has not yet been reached.

Roadmap, milestones, and technical challenges

• Immediate goal is to deploy a 108-qubit system at 99.5% fidelity and 60-nanosecond gate speed by end of Q1.

• Plans to exceed 150 qubits at 99.7% fidelity this year, with a target of 1,000 qubits at 99.8% next year using chiplet technology.

• Quantum advantage expected in about three years, requiring 1,000 qubits, 99.9% fidelity, sub-50 nanosecond gate speed, and error correction.

• Recent delay in 108-qubit system due to coupler interference, addressed by redesigning chip architecture.

• Chiplet strategy validated at lower qubit counts and seen as key to scaling.