Washington bought a stake in Rigetti. Its CEO sold shares the next morning.

The morning after the signature

Rigetti Computing signed a $100 million CHIPS Act agreement↗ with the U.S. Department of Commerce on 8 September 2026 ¹. Shares jumped 7.2 percent that session ².

The next morning, CEO Subodh Kulkarni sold 120,000 shares for $1.88 million, cutting his direct stake to 140,411 shares ². CFO Jeffrey Bertelsen had banked $375,010 on 3 September, days before the signing ². Both exercised options at a fraction of the market price first, standard compensation mechanics ².

This subsidy is an investment

The equity is a condition of the money. Rigetti hands Commerce roughly 7.74 million shares, about $12.92 each, with an initial $43.9 million tranche and the remainder tied to milestones that can be clawed back ³. The company's own release says the stake exists "to enhance the return for the U.S. taxpayer" ¹. That return starts in the money: the $12.92 issue price sits below the $16.01 close of 23 September ³².

D-Wave and Quantinuum finalized $100 million deals with the same equity condition↗ the same day ⁴. The trio's awards grew out of May letters of intent inside a $2.01 billion CHIPS program spanning nine companies ³⁸.

$21 million of sales, $175 million of losses

Rigetti booked $5.14 million of revenue against a $28.06 million operating loss in the June quarter↗ ⁵. Over eight quarters the tally is $21.3 million of revenue against $174.5 million of operating losses ⁵.

The stock is down 49 percent over the past year; measured from its November 2025 peak near $77, the slide to $16.01 is roughly 79 percent ². The Street's mean target, $28.81, sits 80 percent above that close↗, on eight buys, four holds and zero sells ². Zacks rates the same stock a Strong Sell ⁶.

IBM owns the floor underneath

The larger structure sits below the full-stack firms. Anderon, an IBM company, finalized a $1 billion award on 16 September↗ for a 300-millimeter pure-play quantum wafer foundry in Albany, New York, backed by another $1 billion of IBM cash; the first wafers are already running ⁷⁸. D-Wave, one of the equity recipients, is interested as a foundry customer ⁹. Washington holds minority stakes in three rivals while one company consolidates the layer they print their chips on.

What decides it

Revenue nearly tripled year over year in the June quarter, the trend B. Riley's $35 target leans on ⁵⁶. The $43.9 million tranche exceeds Rigetti's $27.8 million cash balance↗ ³⁵, and the rest must be earned against milestones. Whether the executives who signed this deal keep selling the stock their government just bought is the filing to watch.