Why Rigetti Computing Stock Gained 48.6% in October

Shares of Rigetti Computing (NASDAQ: RGTI) rose 48.6% in October 2025, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. It was a slowdown from September's 83.6% price jump, but still an impressive move. After all, Rigetti didn't have much news to share last month. Instead, most of the gains sprang from bullish analyst reports and technology breakthroughs by other quantum computing experts.

From analyst upgrades to trillion-dollar tech dreams

Rigetti's strong gains in the first week of October hinged on Benchmark analyst David Williams, who more than doubled his target price on the stock from $20 to $50 per share. Williams applauded Rigetti's $350 million stock sale over the summer. Which could set the company up to fund its cash-burning business for years to come.

Two weeks later, the whole quantum computing industry surged -- including a 25% Rigetti jump across that weekend. Megabank JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) provided the fuel for this industrywide rise, outlining a $1.5 trillion commitment to advanced technology investments over the next decade. The project specifically mentioned quantum computing as an area of interest.

More specifically, JPMorgan reserved $10 billion for direct tech investments, with the rest of the trillion-dollar plan involving financing deals for high-tech companies. The $1.5 trillion budget was also not entirely new, raising the ceiling of an earlier $1 trillion plan. Still, even a tiny slice of JPMorgan's funding would be a lot of cash for a small and unprofitable business like Rigetti.

Image source: Rigetti Computing.

Rigetti teams up with Nvidia, too

Rigetti ended October on a strong note. On Oct. 28, the company announced support for Nvidia's (NASDAQ: NVDA) NVQLink platform. NVQLink is a communications link for classic digital computers, sending massive amounts of data between different parts of a sprawling supercomputer system. Integrating quantum computers with this high-speed interconnection should help the new computing paradigm access the data it needs, and will also simplify the programming and control of quantum computing tools.

Rigetti's involvement is just a baby step, but definitely in the right direction. Remember, even a fully mature quantum computing system with millions of qubits will struggle with some of the tasks digital computers excel at. The future won't be all quantum, all the time, but a balanced mix of the two computing technologies for different purposes.

Now, Rigetti's stock has already lost the 20% price jump that resulted from unveiling the Nvidia partnership. The stock is still up 3,082% over the last year, though. I'm excited about quantum computing in the long run, but it's too early to pick durable winners. Rigetti looks incredibly overvalued right now, like quantum computing peers D-Wave Quantum (NYSE: QBTS) and IonQ (NYSE: IONQ). I don't recommend buying any of these risky specialists right now.

JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Anders Bylund has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends JPMorgan Chase and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends IonQ. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.