Rigetti Computing (RGTI) stock finished Wednesday’s trading more than 40% lower for the day. Like all of the quantum computing stock, Rigetti shares were hit hard after comments from NVIDIA’s (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang.
Early Wednesday morning Huang made news after commenting “If you said 15 years for very useful quantum computers, that would probably be on the early side,”. Huang went on to comment “If you said 30, it’s probably on the late side. But if you picked 20, I think a whole bunch of us would believe it.”
NVIDIA’s CEO made the comments at NVIDIA’s analyst day.
Rigetti stock has seen a meteoric rise in its value over the last three months as investors have become aware of quantum computing’s potential for growth. Investors had their interest sparked after Google announced its newest quantum computing chip, Willow”.
Google's Willow chip was unveiled in December. The new chip marks a significant breakthrough in quantum computing. With 105 qubits, Willow achieved a computation in under five minutes that would take today's fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years.
Rigetti Computing's newest product is the 84-qubit Ankaa-3 system. The quantum computing product is highly accurate and uses improved hardware and advanced features. The company also offers the 9-qubit Novera QPU for on-site use.
In 2025, Rigetti plans to launch a 36-qubit system and a 100+ qubit system, both designed to be more reliable. These advancements aim to make quantum computing more practical and useful for real-world applications.
Investors were shaken by Jensen’s comments as shares dropped 45% near the end of trading. Wednesday’s drop was represented with strong volume, but notably not the stock’s highest volume day in the last month.
Rigetti shares traded more volume on two separate days in December, both on positive days for the stock as it rallied towards its recent highs of $20.
Rigetti’s rise and fall is a reminder to investors that newly discovered stocks or industries carry much more risk as speculation creates volatility.
From a technical perspective, Rigetti is positioned to potentially see buyers move back into the stock.
Just days ago, the stock was registering extremely overbought signals from its RSI Index. An RSI measure whether a stock has moved too high or too low in a short matter of time.
Overbought conditions historically precede a healthy correction for stocks or the market. In this case, the potential correction has landed Rigetti shares on potentially strong price support.
Wednesday’s close hovers just above the $10 price, a psychologically significant price for any stock. The next week should be considered a test of the market’s true appetite for risk with Rigetti shares.
A move higher from $10 and back above $12.50 will likely draw a new round of speculators interested in Rigetti’s long-term prospects.
Failure of the $10 level to hold will result in a short-term target of $7.50 followed by $5.00.
