---
title: "Rigetti gets none of Nvidia's $1 billion or the Pentagon's $350 million; its win comes with an equity stake"
description: "Washington lined up roughly $1.35 billion for science and quantum in one week: Nvidia's $1 billion pledge and the Pentagon's $350 million. The defense money goes to DARPA's final-stage six and a PsiQuantum loan; Rigetti's named win is $100 million of R&D funding that hands the Commerce Department an equity stake."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Policy"
published: 2026-10-11T19:10:50.502Z
modified: 2026-10-11T19:10:50.502Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/rigetti-gets-none-of-nvidia-s-1-billion-or-the-pentagon-s-350-million-its-win-comes-with-an-equity-stake
language: en
keywords: "Quantum Computing, Rigetti Computing, Nvidia, IonQ, DARPA, Government Funding"
---

# Rigetti gets none of Nvidia's $1 billion or the Pentagon's $350 million; its win comes with an equity stake

> Washington lined up roughly $1.35 billion for science and quantum in one week: Nvidia's $1 billion pledge and the Pentagon's $350 million. The defense money goes to DARPA's final-stage six and a PsiQuantum loan; Rigetti's named win is $100 million of R&D funding that hands the Commerce Department an equity stake.

## The billion arrives as credits, not contracts

[Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia) opened the week on October 8 at the "Science: A New Golden Age" event in Washington, announcing [commitments "valued at" $1 billion over five years to advance United States science](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-commits-1-billion-to-advance-us-science-over-the-next-five-years/), quantum computing among the named fields [1]. The company did not specify what shape the money takes [2].

The White House's accounting books Nvidia's billion inside [$2.4 billion of tools and compute credits pledged to the Genesis Mission Consortium](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/10/fact-sheet-trump-administration-announces-the-most-ambitious-set-of-science-initiatives-this-century/) by eleven industry partners, [AMD](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/amd) at $500 million among them [3]. The Pentagon added about $350 million: roughly $200 million in new DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative funding and a $150 million conditional loan to PsiQuantum [4]. That is roughly $1.35 billion in a week, and none of it carries [Rigetti's](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/rigetti) name [1][4].

*Chart: **None of the week's $1.35 billion carries Rigetti's name** Column chart of announced US science and quantum funding: Nvidia's $1 billion pledge, $200 million in new DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative funding, a $150 million conditional loan to PsiQuantum, and Rigetti's $100 million Commerce award.*

*Announced amounts, USD millions. Nvidia's five-year science pledge, “valued at” $1 billion (October 8); the Pentagon's new $200 million DARPA Quantum Benchmarking Initiative funding and its conditional $150 million loan to PsiQuantum (October 8-9); and Rigetti's $100 million Commerce award, signed September 8, shown for contrast. Sources: NVIDIA Newsroom; Military & Aerospace Electronics; Rigetti via GlobeNewswire. [1][4][9]*

## DARPA's final stage cut Rigetti out

The downselect did the separating. DARPA advanced Atom Computing, Diraq, [IBM](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/ibm) and [IonQ](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/ionq) to QBI's final Stage C, joining [Microsoft](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/microsoft) and PsiQuantum, and IonQ says its Stage C agreement is worth up to $300 million through 2029 [5]. Rigetti is not on that list.

On August 6, chief executive Subodh Kulkarni [told analysts the company is "optimistic that we will get into DARPA Phase B relatively soon"](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RGTI/earnings/RGTI-Q2-2026-earnings_call-666028.html) [6]. The screener math frames the gap: IonQ books about $246 million of revenue on a $15.67 billion market cap; Rigetti books about $13 million, $7 million of it from the United States, on $4.7 billion [7].

*Chart: **Revenue nearly tripled in 2026; the quarterly burn held near $13 million to $16 million** Line chart of Rigetti's quarterly revenue and operating cash flow from Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, showing revenue inflecting upward in 2026 while the cash outflow stays in the mid-teens millions per quarter.*

*Rigetti quarterly revenue and operating cash flow, USD millions, Q3 2023 to Q2 2026, from its SEC filings. [6][8]*

## The $100 million funds the roadmap, not the sales line

Rigetti's tangible federal win predates the week: [a definitive $100 million award from the Commerce Department, signed September 8 under the CHIPS research program](https://markets.financialcontent.com/prnews.pressrelease/article/gnwcq-2026-9-8-rigetti-signs-definitive-agreement-for-100m-with-us-government-to-accelerate-r-and-d-for-superconducting-quantum-computing), funding readout electronics, cryostat capacity and chip fabrication over three years [6], with Commerce taking a minority, non-controlling equity stake [9]. It is research money that arrives with dilution attached, not demand.

![A Rigetti superconducting quantum processing unit in its gold package, the quantum integrated circuit visible at the centre.](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/2ceb2e3f75ff4f12.jpg)

*The superconducting QPU package: the $100 million Commerce award funds readout electronics, cryostat capacity and chip fabrication over three years. (Courtesy of Rigetti)*

The next dollar with a date on it is an $8.4 million, 108-qubit system for India's C-DAC, expected to be recognized in the fourth quarter [6]; the largest named United States defense item is a $5.8 million, three-year Air Force Research Laboratory contract [7].

[GuruFocus](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9114414/rigetti-computing-inc-rgti-stock-down-38-but-still-overvalued-gf-score-36100) counts $32.9 million of insider selling over twelve months and zero buys, and values the stock at $8.79 against the October 7 close of $14.59, inside a 52-week range of $12.53 to $58.15 [10].

## The dated tests: fidelity, India, Stage B

The dip still has a camp. A [Seeking Alpha](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4651914-sa-asks-is-now-the-time-to-buy-quantum-stocks-if-so-which-ones) roundtable splits between one analyst calling RGTI a speculative play that rallies when sentiment turns and another backing selective accumulation over any sector-wide buy signal [11].

The company's own calendar now carries the verdict. It must lift Cepheus-1-108Q's median two-qubit gate fidelity from roughly 99.1 percent toward about 99.5 percent later this year, book the C-DAC order in the fourth quarter, and reach DARPA Stage B, [a door the agency says stays open as earlier-stage performers progress](https://www.govconwire.com/articles/darpa-quantum-benchmarking-initiative-stage-c) [5][6]. Until one of those clears, the week's billions do not touch Rigetti's income statement.

## Takeaway

The week's $1.35 billion in science and quantum money went to DARPA's final-stage six, PsiQuantum and a broad consortium, none of it to Rigetti, whose federal win remains the $100 million Commerce award that buys R&D at the price of dilution. Gate fidelity, the C-DAC order and DARPA Stage B are the dated tests.

## Sources

1. [NVIDIA Newsroom, "NVIDIA Commits $1 Billion to Advance US Science Over the Next Five Years", 8 October 2026](https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-commits-1-billion-to-advance-us-science-over-the-next-five-years/)
2. [The Verge, "Nvidia 'commits' $1 billion to US science research", 8 October 2026](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1008010/nvidia-commits-1-billion-to-us-science-research)
3. [The White House, "Fact Sheet: Trump Administration Announces the Most Ambitious Set of Science Initiatives This Century", 8 October 2026](https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/10/fact-sheet-trump-administration-announces-the-most-ambitious-set-of-science-initiatives-this-century/)
4. [Military & Aerospace Electronics, "DoD announces $350 million in quantum computing initiatives", 9 October 2026](https://www.militaryaerospace.com/computers/article/55410692/dod-announces-350-million-in-quantum-computing-initiatives)
5. [GovCon Wire, "DARPA Adds 4 Companies to Quantum Benchmarking Initiative's Final Stage", 8 October 2026](https://www.govconwire.com/articles/darpa-quantum-benchmarking-initiative-stage-c)
6. [Yahoo Finance, "Rigetti Computing, Inc. (RGTI) Q2 FY2026 earnings call transcript", 6 August 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RGTI/earnings/RGTI-Q2-2026-earnings_call-666028.html)
7. [Simply Wall St via Yahoo Finance Australia, "Nvidia Funding Puts IonQ Stock And US Quantum Computing Shares On Watch", 10 October 2026](https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-funding-puts-ionq-stock-081200610.html)
8. [Rigetti Computing, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 11 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001838359)
9. [Rigetti Computing via GlobeNewswire, "Rigetti Signs Definitive Agreement for $100M with U.S. Government to Accelerate R&D for Superconducting Quantum Computing", 8 September 2026](https://markets.financialcontent.com/prnews.pressrelease/article/gnwcq-2026-9-8-rigetti-signs-definitive-agreement-for-100m-with-us-government-to-accelerate-r-and-d-for-superconducting-quantum-computing)
10. [GuruFocus, "Rigetti Computing Inc (RGTI) Stock Down 3.8% but Still Overvalued -- GF Score: 36/100", 7 October 2026](https://www.gurufocus.com/news/9114414/rigetti-computing-inc-rgti-stock-down-38-but-still-overvalued-gf-score-36100)
11. [Seeking Alpha, "SA Asks: Is now the time to buy quantum stocks? If so, which ones?", October 2026](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4651914-sa-asks-is-now-the-time-to-buy-quantum-stocks-if-so-which-ones)


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Rigetti gets none of Nvidia's $1 billion or the Pentagon's $350 million; its win comes with an equity stake — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/rigetti-gets-none-of-nvidia-s-1-billion-or-the-pentagon-s-350-million-its-win-comes-with-an-equity-stake