Rigetti’s 679% Stock Surge: Could Quantum Computing be the Key to Agentic AI?

It’s hard to believe Rigetti Computing (RGTI) will see better days: In just three months, its share price rose by 679% — a spike that literally blew its tech peers out of the water.

This quickly followed Rigetti’s most recent quantum breakthrough, the Ankaa-3, which may be getting us closer to AI agents that can handle complex tasks on their own without the need for constant human input.

Unlike the desktops we use daily, quantum computers operate on entirely different principles, using qubits to process information in ways that traditional computers can’t.

With 84 qubits, Ankaa-3 delivers 99% iSWAP gate fidelity and 99.5% fSim fidelity, an impressive tool for solving quantum simulations, optimization problems, and machine learning.

Now available on Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud Services, Ankaa-3 is set to integrate with the Amazon Braket and Microsoft Azure platforms soon.

Next-gen quantum computing is on the verge of becoming accessible to businesses, researchers, and developers — possibly opening up a new world for B2B and B2C operations.

It’s a big moment for AI in the U.S.

Anywhere you look we’re watching as U.S. investors pour cash into quantum computing, data centers, and AI scaling efforts. Major tech companies — IBM, Amazon, Intel — are already planning to lay off thousands and redirect resources to invest in advanced, next-gen AI solutions.

President Trump recently announced a massive private-sector investment of up to $500 billion for AI infrastructure in the U.S., which is being raised through equity contributions from partners including OpenAI, Oracle, MGX, and SoftBank. The project, known as the Stargate Project, is what Trump refers to as “the largest AI infrastructure project in history.”

The venture is expected to create more than 100,000 jobs and inject $100 billion into the U.S. economy, a number some say is projected to grow five times over in the next four years. After the announcement, Oracle’s stock saw a nice bump of nearly 5%, while SoftBank’s rose more than 9%.

This may come as no surprise, of course: With the rise of ChatGPT in 2022, AI investments have increased eightfold, and these are just a few examples.

But the thing is, we’re not just looking at generative AI anymore. Rigetti’s advancements with Ankaa-3 show us that the advancements are ready, willing, and able to build the infrastructure to support the next generation of breakthroughs, possibly including agentic AI.

While generative AI has been in the spotlight, ask anyone in the tech space and they’ll tell you agentic AI is quickly moving in. One of those people is Andre Reitenbach, CEO of Gcore, a global provider of cloud, edge, and AI solutions.

“There are a lot of contenders for ‘the next big thing’ in AI, but agentic AI might just be the most disruptive breakthrough,” Reitenbach told us.

“Humans and AI systems are working more closely all the time, and the agentic revolution will produce a world in which there is no practical difference between instructing a human and an AI agent.” — Andre Reitenbach, CEO of Gcore

Agentic AI is drawing a ton of attention for its ability to “make autonomous decisions when performing tasks on behalf of a user,” Reitenbach explained. “Instead of responding to a series of ongoing prompts, the AI agent can handle reasoning and problem-solving from a single instruction.”

In fields like healthcare, agentic AI is already making waves. Tempus Labs’ Precision Oncology uses agentic AI to match clinical trials to personalized cancer treatments.

“The AI agent is practically indistinguishable from a human employee who relies on their own reasoning to deliver a brief. Humans and AI systems are working more closely all the time, and the agentic revolution will produce a world in which there is no practical difference between instructing a human and an AI agent. This will be a force multiplier in expanding the range of AI use cases across all sectors,” said Reitenbach.

Must all good things come to an end? Sometimes.

RGTI’s stock took a dip shortly after its 679% surge, unfortunately leaving some investors questioning whether it’s still worth investing.

This drop could just be part of the volatility that comes with the stock market, where prices can shift dramatically in both directions.

Another theory is tied to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who at CES 2025, weighed in on quantum computing’s future. While acknowledging its potential for advancing AI, he also suggested that commercialization isn’t as close as some may think.

“If you’re thinking 15 years for truly useful quantum computers, that’s probably early; 30 years would be late — but 20 years? That’s something a lot of us would bet on,” Huang said.

It’s hard to downplay the power of Huang’s statement. Just last week, on January 21, Nvidia became the most valuable company in the world, surpassing Apple once again.

Then there’s the issue of just how much computational power would be required to run quantum AI models capable of autonomous reasoning and problem-solving.

Reitenbach has a suggestion: “Businesses can avoid building their own infrastructure due to high capital costs and market volatility by renting GPUs instead,” he said. “Edge computing can also help lay the groundwork for AI agents, providing ultra-low latency connections that let AI make real-time decisions.”

Agentic AI is gaining traction right now as quantum computing is poised to become more accessible, which may mean Rigetti’s rise could mark the start of a larger trend. I suspect we’ll see other tech giants join the race, as we’re already seeing with the Stargate Project.

In any case, one thing is for certain — the quantum-AI era is just getting started.