Rigetti Claims Quantum Leap in Speed
Quantum computing firm Rigetti is touting major performance gains, achieving 50-70 nanosecond gate speeds with 99.9% fidelity — reportedly 1,000x faster than competing systems. The company is betting its modular chiplet design will scale to solve problems classical computing can't, targeting an $850 billion market by 2040 across finance, defense, and pharma as Moore's Law hits its limits.
Rigetti's speed claims are rooted in its use of superconducting qubits, which inherently offer faster gate operations—the fundamental steps in a quantum computation—than competing technologies like trapped-ion systems. The company reports current system gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds and has even demonstrated a 28-nanosecond gate speed on a prototype platform using a new proprietary control method. The 99.9% two-qubit gate fidelity figure was achieved on a prototype system. On its deployed systems, Rigetti has reported median two-qubit fidelities of 99.7% for its 9-qubit machine, 99.6% on its 36-qubit system, and 99% on its 108-qubit "Cepheus" system. This performance aims to narrow the fidelity gap with slower, but traditionally higher-fidelity, modalities like trapped ions. Rigetti's strategy for scaling to larger processors hinges on its modular, chiplet-based architecture. This approach, common in classical semiconductor manufacturing, involves connecting multiple smaller quantum chips to form a larger, more powerful processor. Their 108-qubit system, for instance, is constructed by tiling twelve 9-qubit chiplets together. This modular design has demonstrated practical success, with a 36-qubit system built from four 9-qubit chiplets achieving a two-fold reduction in error rate compared to the company's previous single-chip 84-qubit system. The company plans to release a 150+ qubit system with 99.7% median fidelity in 2026 and is targeting a system with over 1,000 qubits by the end of 2027. For the financial sector, the primary advantage of such speed is in solving complex optimization and simulation problems far faster than classical computers. Applications relevant to low-latency trading include portfolio optimization, hyper-efficient market analysis, and more sophisticated risk modeling, where quantum algorithms could process vast datasets in near real-time. Rigetti is commercializing its technology by selling on-premises quantum computers to government and research institutions. Notable customers include India's Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), which purchased a 108-qubit system, and a Japanese research organization that acquired a 9-qubit Novera QPU.
