Rigetti Computing jumps on $5.8 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory to advance quantum networking

Shares of Rigetti Computing are rallying in premarket trading after the company announced that it won a three-year, $5.8 million contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) “to advance superconducting quantum networking.”

The quantum computing company plans to collaborate with Dutch startup QphoX on this endeavor.

“This project aims to deliver systems providing entanglement between superconducting qubits and optical photons, the essential building block of quantum networking,” per Rigetti’s press release.

This less than $6 million contract has seen Rigetti’s market cap swell by about $250 million.

“We are very pleased that AFRL is supporting this technology, which is important for the US to maintain its global leadership in quantum information science,” Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, CEO of Rigetti, said.

As gate-model quantum computers have not yet demonstrated much aptitude for commercial applications, governments and research organizations are key ways these companies make money.

Peer IonQ is also continuing its romp higher on news that it signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Energy “to advance the development and deployment of quantum technologies in space.”