Needham analyst Quinn Bolton raised his price targets on quantum computing stocks, D-Wave Quantum (QBTS) and Rigetti Computing (RGTI), as part of Needham’s Quantum Quarterly, Volume 2. He maintained his “Buy” rating on both stocks, highlighting accelerating real-world applications and growing scalability catalysts in the quantum computing sector.
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Bolton lifted his price target on QBTS stock from $20 to $48, implying 29.5% upside potential. Meanwhile, he raised his RGTI price target from $18 to a new Street-high of $51, implying 15.2% upside potential.
Bolton is a five-star analyst on TipRanks, ranking #45 out of 10,109 analysts tracked. He has a 59% success rate and an impressive average return per rating of 37%.
QBTS Drives Successful Proof-of-Technology
Bolton is impressed by D-Wave’s successful proof-of-technology through various partnerships. The company partnered with North Wales Police using its hybrid-quantum applications, which showcased tangible benefits like reduced planning time and cutting incident response time by approximately 50%.
Other partnerships like the one with Comcast (CMCSA) focused on broadband network optimization and predictive issue resolution, as well as the Q-Alliance initiative in Italy to build a quantum ecosystem, further validate D-Wave’s market traction.
He also highlighted government initiatives like the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Quantum Leadership Act of 2025 and DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, which are expected to unlock substantial federal investment and accelerate quantum computing development.
Rigetti Unlocks Strong Growth and Innovation Potential
Bolton is encouraged by Rigetti’s $5.8 million three-year contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to advance superconducting quantum networking, which addresses a key challenge of converting microwave qubit signals to optical photons for scalable quantum systems and quantum internet development. This collaboration with QphoX leverages Rigetti’s superconducting qubits and QphoX’s microwave-to-optical transducers, aiming to preserve quantum states during photon conversion.
Furthermore, Rigetti sold two 9-qubit Novera systems for $5.7 million, targeted for benchmarking and error correction to a tech firm in Asia. It also signed a MOU with India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) for hybrid quantum computing development. These partnerships strengthen Rigetti’s commercial and strategic positioning in the quantum computing ecosystem, reinforcing confidence in its growth and innovation potential.
QBTS and RGTI Enjoy Exceptional Share Price Gains
Using TipRanks’ Stock Comparison Tool, we can see that both QBTS and RGTI have delivered the strongest share price gains within the quantum sector, outpacing players like IonQ Inc. (IONQ) and Quantum Computing Inc. (QUBT), showcasing investor confidence aligned with their accelerating growth stories.
