Who buys quantum computers?
Most quantum computers are bought by public institutions: national supercomputing centers, government research agencies, defense laboratories, and universities. They account for about 85 percent of tracked deals. Private buyers are a minority and mostly reach systems through cloud access or leases. Europe buys the most systems by count and by value, ahead of the Americas and Asia-Pacific. As of Q3 2026.
Customer types
| Customer type | Deals |
|---|---|
| Government research | 74 |
| Education and research | 26 |
| Government aerospace | 25 |
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Open the Quantum Computing Sales Dataset →Public institutions account for roughly 85 percent of tracked deals. Private buyers make up about one deal in eight, and several of those are hosting providers who resell access rather than end users.
Public money, public buyers
The pattern follows the funding. Governments have confirmed $40.9 billion of quantum spending, and a large share of it flows into national laboratories and supercomputing centers whose mandate is to give many users access to scarce hardware. Those institutions have the buildings, the power, the cryogenic expertise, and the staff, so the economics work for them in a way they do not yet work for a single enterprise.
Systems next to supercomputers
Of the deals where integration status is disclosed, 53 systems are installed alongside a classical high-performance computing facility against 81 that stand alone. Co-location is now the default for large public purchases. The reason is practical: useful quantum workloads today are hybrid, with a classical machine doing most of the work and calling the quantum processor for the part it handles well.
Buyers by region
Europe accounts for 118 tracked deals worth $1.96 billion, against 44 worth $0.59 billion in the Americas and 30 worth $0.69 billion in Asia-Pacific.
Europe leads on both count and value, and by a wide margin on count. EuroHPC and national supercomputing programs have made system procurement a standard part of European public computing policy. The Americas buy fewer systems at higher average value. Asia-Pacific sits between the two, with Japan and South Korea the most active buyers.
What enterprises buy instead
Enterprises in finance, automotive, energy, and pharmaceuticals overwhelmingly reach quantum computers through cloud access, pilot programs with vendors, or consortium membership. Only a handful have bought hardware, usually where a specific workload or a data residency requirement makes cloud access unworkable. If you are sizing the enterprise opportunity, count cloud contracts and pilots, not systems sold.
Frequently asked
A few do, usually in finance, automotive, and energy, and often as leases or hosted systems. Most enterprise access is through the cloud.
They have the facilities, the staff, and public funding mandates, and they can offer the system to many users, which makes the economics work.
Europe leads on both count and value in the counted deals, with 118 deals worth about $1.96 billion, ahead of the Americas at 44 deals and Asia-Pacific at 30. EuroHPC and national supercomputing programs are the reason.
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