Quantum computer pricing sorts into three tiers, from Rigetti's $2.85M Novera to $40M+ national deals
What's the story? In October 2026, Zeynep KorutürkDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, founding and managing partner of quantum-focused VC Firgun VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, plotted publicly disclosed quantum computer deals on one chart and found they sort into three purchasing tiers. She opens with a historical parallel: in 1953 IBM rented out its first commercial scientific computer for around $15,000 a month. With no agreed measure yet of what a unit of useful quantum computation is worth, she argues the market is pricing itself by who is buying and what they want the machine for.
Tier 1, small research systems (under €1M to about $3M): universities and labs buying outright. IQM launched its 5-qubit IQM Spark in August 2023 at under €1M, aimed at teaching and basic experiments; Jülich Supercomputing Centre bought one in March 2024. At the top of the tier sits Rigetti Computing: in September 2025 it announced purchase orders totalling about $5.7M for two upgradeable 9-qubit Novera systems, roughly $2.85M each. One buyer is an Asian technology manufacturer using it as an in-house testbed; the other is a California applied physics and AI startup researching error correction. A Novera system bundles the 9-qubit Ankaa-class processor, a dilution refrigerator and Rigetti's control stack, with chips made in its own Fab-1; delivery was scheduled for the first half of 2026.
Tier 2, institutional infrastructure (about $5M to $30M): supercomputing centres and large institutions, through EuroHPC Joint Undertaking procurements or direct vendor deals. EuroHPC's contracts include LUMI-Q in Czechia from IQM (€5M, September 2024), MareNostrum Ona in Spain from Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech (€8.5M, January 2025), EuroQCS-Italy from Pasqal (€13M, March 2025) and two Euro-Q-Exa systems in Germany from IQM (€25M combined, October 2024). Direct deals include D-Wave Quantum's €10M Advantage2 agreement with Swiss Quantum Technology (October 2025) and its $20M sale to Florida Atlantic University (January 2026), plus IonQ's $22M Forte Enterprise deal with Chattanooga utility EPB (April 2025; the system went live in September 2026). Korutürk also places Quantinuum in this band, though it has not published a price for a specific system.
Tier 3, bespoke national projects ($40M+): governments buying a national capability built around the machine, with services and access bundled in. QuEra Computing won a ¥6.5B (about $41M) contract in April 2024 from Japan's AIST for a neutral-atom system installed alongside the ABCI-Q supercomputer. IBM's Basque Country partnership, agreed in March 2023, put Europe's first IBM Quantum System Two (a 156-qubit Heron processor) into service in San Sebastián in October 2025; Korutürk values the agreement at €50.8M (about $57M), while local press describes a joint investment of more than €50M over five years.
Why it matters: prices across the tiers are not like-for-like, since each bundles a different mix of hardware, services and access, but together they give a rare public price ladder for a market where most system sales are undisclosed. For Rigetti, the Novera orders set a disclosed entry-level price for on-premises superconducting systems and show demand from corporate R&D buyers as well as national labs.
Read more: Zeynep Korutürk (LinkedIn) · Rigetti · IQM · EuroHPC JU · D-Wave · IonQ · QuEra · IBM
