Rigetti Bets on In-House Manufacturing to Accelerate Quantum Advantage

Rigetti Computing RGTI is sharpening its competitive focus through deep vertical integration. The company’s Fab-1 facility in Fremont now supports the full quantum chip lifecycle, from design and fabrication to cryo-microwave testing and packaging. In late 2022, Rigetti nearly doubled Fab-1's capacity by adding 5,000 square feet of clean-room space dedicated to wafer manufacturing and new cryo-microwave testing capabilities. This approach positions Rigetti to reduce iteration cycles, protect intellectual property, and potentially deliver faster improvements in fidelity and scale, key to staying relevant in a rapidly evolving industry. Unlike most of its peers, which rely on outsourced fabs or cloud-first models, Rigetti is making a long-term bet on hardware self-sufficiency.

This in-house manufacturing edge sets Rigetti apart in a landscape dominated by cloud-led or software-centric models. By controlling every layer of the hardware stack, Rigetti can rapidly prototype, test, and refine its quantum processors, aligning closely with the needs of research institutions, defense agencies, and enterprises seeking customized on-premise solutions. With competitors like IBM focusing on large-scale cloud deployments and QPU access via third-party platforms, Rigetti’s vertically integrated Fab-1 strategy positions it to win in use cases where performance consistency, system-level customization, and data sovereignty are mission-critical.

How Peers Are Positioned

International Business Machines IBM, a longtime leader in superconducting quantum computing, offers a robust full-stack quantum platform via its IBM Quantum systems and Qiskit software. However, IBM does not manufacture its quantum chips in-house; it utilizes external fabrication foundries for its superconducting qubit wafers. While IBM leads in coherence and cloud deployment scale, operating over 60 quantum systems globally, Rigetti’s control over its fab and packaging enables faster hardware iteration and tighter integration for system deployment, particularly for on-premise or specialized installations.

Quantum Computing Inc. QUBT takes an entirely different approach, focusing on software with its Qatalyst platform, which interfaces with multiple third-party QPUs. While this allows QUBT to remain asset-light and flexible, it limits performance tuning at the hardware level. In contrast, Rigetti’s vertically integrated Fab-1 strategy ensures end-to-end control of the quantum stack, enabling optimization from qubit architecture to system-level deployment.

Rigetti’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of RGTI have lost 27.2% in the year-to-date period against the industry’s growth of 14.1%.

From a valuation standpoint, Rigetti trades at a price-to-book ratio of 15.39, above the industry average. RGTI carries a Value Score of F.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Rigetti’s 2025 earnings implies a significant 86.1% rise from the year-ago period.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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