Rigetti, D-Wave Jump as Uncle Sam Becomes a Shareholder

The federal government just became a part-owner of two quantum computing companies, and the stock market liked it. Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) climbed 6% to $16.13 and D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) rose 5% to $17.46 Tuesday after the Commerce Department finalized $100 million in CHIPS Act funding for each firm.

This isn't a grant with no strings attached. The government is taking minority, non-controlling equity stakes in both companies as part of the deal, according to 24/7 Wall St, which first reported the structure. That's a meaningfully different arrangement than a typical research subsidy, and it changes how investors should think about dilution risk going forward.

Rigetti's money is earmarked for three specific projects: miniaturized readout electronics, a new cryostat architecture to expand cryogenic capacity, and fabrication work on high-connectivity chip designs. D-Wave's award carries matching terms, and both build on letters of intent the Commerce Department first outlined in May, when it pledged more than $2 billion across nine quantum computing companies, including foundries and system developers.

Rigetti CEO Subodh Kulkarni said on the company's Q2 earnings call that the funding is meant to speed up execution, not change strategy. "The overall goal of this $100 million is to accelerate our roadmap," he told investors. Rigetti's roadmap targets roughly 1,000-qubit systems with 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity within about three years, while D-Wave is chasing 20,000 qubits by 2029 and 100,000 by 2031 using its annealing approach.

"The overall goal of this $100 million is to accelerate our roadmap." — Subodh Kulkarni, CEO, Rigetti Computing

Here's the thing worth noting before you chase the pop: the broader quantum sector barely moved. The Defiance Quantum ETF (NASDAQ: QTUM) was up just 1% on the news, while the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY) was down slightly. That gap tells you the market isn't pricing this as an industry-wide catalyst — it's rewarding the two specific recipients, not the sector as a whole.

That's an important distinction for anyone eyeing this trade. Rigetti is still down 26% year-to-date and D-Wave is down 33%, so Tuesday's gains recover only a sliver of what both stocks have lost since December. The government stake doesn't erase that overhang; if anything, it adds a new variable long-term holders haven't had to price in before.

Both companies do have real cash cushions to work with, which matters for how you read this news. Rigetti is sitting on roughly $541 million and D-Wave has about $546 million as of the end of Q2, so this isn't a lifeline for companies on the brink — it's fuel for firms that already had runway to execute on their roadmaps.

IonQ (NYSE: IONQ), which didn't receive Commerce funding in this round, had its own catalyst the same day and it's worth tracking alongside its funded peers. The company raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to a combined $450 million to $460 million, up from a prior standalone estimate of $280 million to $290 million, after closing its acquisition of SkyWater Technology. IonQ hosted an investor day at the New York Stock Exchange where it detailed the combined platform-and-foundry strategy behind that jump, along with progress on its Superion 256 system.

For investors already in these names, the milestone schedule attached to the funding disbursements is worth tracking closely. How fast the government capital converts into actual hardware progress — new qubit counts, fidelity improvements, working prototypes — will say more about the long-term investment thesis than today's headline percentage moves.

If you're considering a new position, treat this as a technology and execution story, not a one-day trading signal. The equity stakes add a layer of government oversight neither company has dealt with before, and that's a genuine unknown even as the near-term cash helps fund development.

There's also a broader read-through here for anyone tracking the sector. The Commerce Department's May pledge covered nine companies total, and Rigetti and D-Wave are simply the first two to finalize terms. Watch for similar announcements from the remaining recipients in the coming months — each one could trigger a similar single-stock pop without necessarily lifting the sector ETF.

Bottom line: the funding is real and the cash helps, but a 6% pop on stocks still down more than a quarter this year isn't a turnaround — it's a reason to keep watching, not a reason to chase.