In a notable shift, shares of Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ:RGTI), a company specializing in quantum-classical computing, declined by 4% after a critical comment from Citron Research. The online investment newsletter, led by activist short seller Andrew Left, expressed skepticism regarding the recent surge in Rigetti's stock price, which had seen an increase of over 300% in the past 30 days and 550% year to date.
Citron's post on a social media platform compared the investment in Rigetti to an overhyped belief that any TikTok guitarist could become the next Taylor Swift. The commentary highlighted that Rigetti had recently sold equity at $2 and warned of potential further dilution rather than substantial advancements in quantum competitiveness. Citron maintained that while Rigetti was interesting at $1, its current valuation was unjustified.
This setback for Rigetti comes despite the stock's impressive performance, having risen 100% in the past five days. The dip follows a recent announcement earlier this week that Rigetti Computing and Quantum (NASDAQ:QMCO) Machines, a leading provider of quantum controllers, had successfully applied artificial intelligence to automate the calibration of a quantum computer. This development was part of the "AI for Quantum Calibration Challenge," a joint initiative by the two companies held at the Israeli Quantum Computing Center.
The broader quantum computing sector had gained investor interest following Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s announcement on Monday, where the tech giant claimed to have made a significant breakthrough with a new generation of quantum chip. Google reported solving a complex computing problem in mere minutes, a task that would ostensibly take a classical computer longer than the age of the universe to complete. Despite this sector-wide enthusiasm, Citron's comments have cast a shadow on Rigetti's recent market performance.
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