Rigetti Computing (RGTI) shares plunged 5.01% in after-hours trading on Wednesday, giving back a portion of the stock's gains from the regular session. The sell-off came after short-seller Citron Research criticized RGTI's rally as being "misguided" and "ridiculous" at current levels.
Earlier in the day, RGTI and other quantum computing stocks had surged on excitement over Alphabet's (GOOGL) announcement of a potentially groundbreaking quantum chip called "Willow". RGTI shares rose as much as 13% in pre-market trading on the Willow news.
However, Citron poured cold water on the quantum computing rally, tweeting that "Buying $RGTI based on Google's quantum success is as misguided as believing every TikTok guitarist..." The negative comments from the influential short-seller appeared to spark profit-taking in RGTI after its big intraday run-up.