Rigetti Computing, one of the companies trying to build a practical quantum computer, discloses that it has raised a $50M round in late 2017
Few corners of the tech industry are as tantalizing or complex as quantum computing. For years evangelists have promised machines capable of breaking …
Context & Ripple Effects
By late 2017, Rigetti had already banked a $24M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $40M Series B led by Vy Capital, so this $50M round is the third private tranche in under two years — capital raised while the company was still pre-product and pre-revenue in any commercial sense. The bet paid into a specific plan: within months Rigetti would announce Quantum Cloud Services, running hybrid quantum-and-classical algorithms in the cloud as its first real commercial interface.
The longer arc matters for reading this round. The same company later took $71M at a significant valuation cut because commercial applications remained few, then went public via SPAC at a $1.5B valuation — and by 2025 its shares had surged more than 1,900% alongside D-Wave's as investor enthusiasm for quantum reignited. The 2017 raise sits at the start of that boom-bust-boom capital cycle.
First-order effects
- Rigetti gains an extended runway to finish hardware and ship Quantum Cloud Services, converting fundraising momentum into its first customer-facing product within a year.
Second-order effects
- Rival quantum builders face a rising capital bar: PsiQuantum's later $215M raise from Microsoft and Playground Global shows competitors answering with far larger war chests aimed at bigger qubit targets.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, quantum computing becomes a sector defined by long private-capital bridges to sparse revenue — down rounds, SPAC exits, and retail-driven surges replacing conventional software-style growth paths.
The trend: Quantum computing is consolidating into a frontier-capital market where multi-year private raises fund hardware bets whose commercial payoff arrives, if at all, through public-market enthusiasm rather than near-term revenue.