Rigetti Shares Fall After Short Seller Critique: Retail Only Gets More Pumped Up

Shares of Rigetti Computing slipped over 3% in morning trade on Wednesday after short-seller Citron Research criticized the stock’s recent surge in value.

The spike in chatter around the stock rocketed the ticker to the top trending on Stocktwits. Rigetti is also the top most-watched stock on Stocktwits in the last 24 hours. 

According to a post by Citron on X (formerly known as Twitter), attributed Rigetti’s meteoric rise—from $2 to over $6 this month—to "misguided" enthusiasm among investors.

The short-seller argued that the rally was fueled by comparisons to Google’s quantum computing breakthrough, pointing to Rigetti’s $100 million share sale just weeks ago. 

Citron expressed skepticism about Rigetti's valuation, warning investors to tread carefully.

Citron Research's post on X (formerly known as Twitter). | Source: Twitter/@CitronResearch

Regetti’s stock hit a record high of $6.89 on Tuesday after the company announced it had successfully used AI to automate the calibration of a quantum computer. 

However, before that, it had already hit fresh highs in the last three trading sessions, pushed higher by Google’s announcement of Willow.

While Rigetti has not directly tied its advancements to Google's success, retail investors on Stocktwits have drawn parallels, fueling speculative interest.

In the last one month, the shares have rocketed over 280%, clocking in gains of over 542% year-to-date.

According to an ongoing poll on Stocktwits, most retail investors believe Regitti has the most long-term potential among quantum computing stocks, contrary to Citron’s bearish outlook.

Stocktwits Poll on Quantum Computing Stocks on Dec 11 as of 11:45 a.m. ET | Source: Stocktwits

According to reports, Rigetti is the first company to use AI to automate quantum computing calibration. 

 

The company’s automated calibration in collaboration with Quantum Machines achieved 99.9% single-qubit gate fidelity and 98.5% two-qubit gate fidelity, using AI tools developed by Quantum Elements and Qruise. 

 

The higher these accuracy percentages are, the better the quantum gates can do their jobs correctly.

Rigetti Computing Sentiment and Message Volume on Dec 11 as of 11:15 a.m. ET | Source: Stocktwits

Retail sentiment has pushed deeper in the ‘extremely bullish’ zone with chatter spiking to ‘extremely high,’ as users on the platform trolled short sellers. 

Rigetti has not yet responded to Citron’s comments. 

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Read also: Rigetti Computing Stock Soars To Record High After Quantum AI Breakthrough: Retail Bulls Eye ‘New Gold Rush’