Should You Invest $500 in Rigetti Computing Right Now? - The Motley Fool

After impressive gains in 2025, quantum computing stocks have been less successful in 2026. One of the most popular, Rigetti Computing (RGTI 0.29%), has declined 27% on the year through the week ending Feb. 13. The question for potential investors with $500 to spare is whether this is an opportunity to buy the dip or just the beginning of a larger correction. Image source: Getty Images. I lean toward the latter. Pure-play quantum computing companies, including Rigetti, IonQ, D-Wave Quantum, and Quantum Computing, took off last year, but they're largely speculative investments. They don't generate much revenue. Rigetti made just $1.9 million in sales in the third quarter of 2025, a small figure for a company worth $5 billion. And they're all likely several years away, at a minimum, from developing commercially viable quantum computers. To its credit, Rigetti's quantum computing systems are ultra-fast, currently achieving gate speeds of 50 nanoseconds, about 1,000 times faster than other systems, such as the trapped ion systems favored by IonQ. A faster gate speed means a quantum computer can perform more operations within a given time period. What Rigetti's systems lack is accuracy. Its 108-qubit system, which is its largest, has achieved a median two-qubit gate fidelity of 99%. Gate fidelity is an accuracy measurement for quantum computing systems. For quantum systems to become widely used, they'll likely need gate fidelity of at least 99.99%, a mark that IonQ has achieved but that Rigetti hasn't. Rigetti has hit 99.7% on its 9-qubit system, but the final hundredths of a percent are exponentially more difficult to achieve. Will AI create the world's first trillionaire? One little-known company, called an "Indispensable Monopoly" owns the technology Nvidia, AMD, and Intel cannot function without. And it is still just a fraction of Nvidia’s size. We just released a brand-new report with the full story and the company’s name. Continue › CollapseRGTINASDAQ: RGTIRigetti ComputingToday's Change(-0.29%) $-0.05Current Price$16.94RGTIYTD1w1m3m6m1y5yPriceVS S&PKey Data PointsMarket Cap$5.6BDay's Range$16.57 - $17.4852wk Range$6.86 - $58.15Volume461KAvg Vol31MGross Margin-8613.15% I'm not sold that quantum computing companies are that close to commercial viability. In a January 2026 investor presentation, Rigetti management projected that it would have a 1,000-qubit system with over 99.9% fidelity in three to five years. There are plenty of quality tech stocks with present-day commercial applications and fair valuations. You may want to consider one of them instead of risking $500 on Rigetti.