Why Shares of Rigetti Computing Have Blasted 41% Higher This Week

Key Points

• The quantum computing company recently announced a big technological achievement.

• In a press release, Rigetti said its 36-qubit system had achieved a 99.5% median 2-qubit gate fidelity.

• 10 stocks we like better than Rigetti Computing ›

Since the close of trading last week, shares of the quantum computing company Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) had soared close to 41%, as of 9:31 a.m. ET Friday. The company earlier this week announced a new achievement on one of its quantum computing models.

Twofold reduction in median error rate

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Rigetti announced in a press release that it had achieved a 99.5% median 2-qubit gate fidelity on its modular 36-qubit system, and a 2 times lower median 2-qubit gate error rate from the company's previous best on its 84-qubit model.

Image source: Getty Images.

Quantum computers are the next innovation of the traditional computer, and are supposed to be faster than even the best super computers today. While computers are built on the foundation of bits, tiny pieces of digital data that can take the form of a zero or one, quantum computers are built with qubits, which can take on more complex forms like a zero or one simultaneously. The 2-qubit gate fidelity essentially refers to accuracy. Quantum computers want to achieve higher fidelity and lower error rates.

"We benefit from the many advantages of superconducting qubits, including gate speeds more than 1,000x faster than other modalities like ion trap and pure atoms, and scalability," Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni said in a statement. "By leveraging well-known techniques from the semiconductor industry, we've developed proprietary technology that we believe is critical to enable scaling to higher qubit count systems."

Technological progress is key

Most quantum computing companies like Rigetti aren't generating significant earnings or revenue yet because they are still working to perfect the technology. They are really more like start-ups, so progress on the tech is everything and can excite investors.

While Rigetti looks to have immense potential, the company already trades at a 5.5 billion market cap, so I'd caution investors from investing too heavily just yet. There's still a lot we don't know about quantum computing and the hurdles between the tech and actual commercialization. I'd keep positions smaller and more speculative for now.

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Bram Berkowitz 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.