Chad Rigetti is the founder at Rigetti Computing. He left the company back in 2022, though it has continued on with the same name.

Fortunes have changed for the company, which was threatened with Nasdaq delisting as recently as October.

For much of the year, shares of an East Bay computing company hovered just under the $1 per share that put it at risk from delisting by Nasdaq.

Now, the tide is shifting as quantum computing companies appear to be riding a new wave of optimism.

Berkeley-based Rigetti Computing (Nasdaq: RGTI) on Monday saw its shares pop as much as 24% before closing at $8.43 per share.

Quantum sector rallied this year, QUBT rocketing over 10 times YTD, RGTI and QBTS surging over 7 times.

In line with this, Morgan Stanley analysts observed the rise in the quantum computing sphere, emphasizing government support for the field, looking at a Dec. 3 U.S. legislative proposal seeking $2.7 billion in public financing for quantum technologies.

Rigetti's change of fortunes comes after the Berkeley company was notified in mid-September that it was facing delisting — the second time its stock had faced delisting since 2023.

This was also the case for Canada's D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS), whose U.S. headquarters is located in Palo Alto. In early October, D-Wave announced that it had received a notice from the NYSE stating that its stock price had fallen below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. But now, that quantum computing company saw its stock explode this month, rising almost 45% on Monday and closing at $7.23 per share.

For Rigetti, its Wall Street fortunes began to change in late November, around the same time as it announced that it had cash through an equity offering. Last month, Rigetti announced a direct stock offering of 50 million shares at $2 per share, and on Nov. 25, Rigetti announced it had successfully completed the offering and raised $100 million.

The capital was earmarked to support the company's strategic initiatives in superconducting quantum technology, including improving qubit gate fidelity and scaling system.

The company has operated quantum computers over the cloud since 2017 and serves global enterprise, government and research clients through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services platform. Rigetti, which has more than 150 patents awarded and pending, has also developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems, the company said. The company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1 in Fremont.

Rigetti Computing went public on Nasdaq via an SPAC on March 2, 2022 with ticker RGTI and an implied valuation of $1.5 billion.

Engineer Chad Rigetti founded Rigetti Computing in 2013 and left the company in 2022. He was later replaced as president and CEO by Subodh Kulkarni.

"We are very happy to see the significant appreciation in stock price and market caps for all quantum computing companies, including us," Kulkarni said in a statement. "We continue to believe quantum computing is an exciting disruptive technology with significant long-term potential, and we believe superconducting quantum computing is a leading modality. We will stay focused on our strategy to be a leader in superconducting quantum computing technology and are making good progress in achieving that."

Rigetti Computing employs more than 190 people with offices in the United States, U.K. and Australia.