Tech Firms Dominate Monday’s 10 Worst Performers

8. Rigetti Computing Inc. (NASDAQ:RGTI)

Rigetti Computing dropped its share prices by 2.64 percent on Monday to end at $8.86 apiece as investors sold off positions in quantum computing companies following China’s move to ban the exports of rare earth minerals.

The move was a devastating blow to various industries given the rare earth minerals critical role in the production of semiconductors, among others. Semiconductors, on the other hand, are a vital component in the creation of quantum computers.

Further dampening sentiment was news of China setting its sights on quantum computing advancements.

Earlier last week, Chinese researchers in Hefei announced a huge breakthrough by using a real quantum computer, called Origin Wukong, to improve a huge artificial intelligence model with 1 billion parameters.

The project was said to be the first in the world that had done such with a real quantum machine.

Origin Wukong is a powerful computer with 72 qubits and is used to improve AI performance by 8.4 percent.

Meanwhile, RGTI is expected to release a 36-qubit system based on four 9-qubit chips by mid-2025.

By the end of the year, it expects to release a system with over 100 qubits with a targeted 2x reduction in error rates from the current level.