The $70B Quantum Boom Is Building A New Real Estate Sector

An emerging technology drawing billions of dollars of investment from the likes of Amazon, Google and Microsoft is spurring a new real estate sector — and it isn’t AI. 

Quantum computing, once seen as a moon shot, is now hurtling toward commercial viability. It is generating new research, computing and manufacturing hubs in markets that have sat out the artificial intelligence boom, and it is ultimately expected to become a significant part of the data center sector. 

Quantum computing uses the principles of quantum mechanics to solve problems far beyond the capabilities of today’s most powerful supercomputers. It could be transformative for industries that depend on modeling extraordinarily complex systems, from drug discovery to cybersecurity to financial services and climate science.

After decades of research, within the past 24 months, the idea of commercially available quantum computing has gone from pipe dream to probable.

Industry leaders broadly agree the technology is approaching “quantum advantage,” the point at which a quantum computer solves a specific, real-world problem faster, more cheaply and more accurately than the most powerful conventional supercomputers. 

JLL, which released a report last week on the quantum real estate sector, expects quantum advantage for commercial applications to emerge between 2030 and 2032. S&P Global anticipates a similar timeline.

“Quantum computing is hovering on the brink of its breakout moment, with paradigm-shifting implications for every industry that relies on compute,” S&P Global analysts Ellie Brown and Kelly Morgan wrote in a recent report. 

Quantum may still be experimental, but a $70B global wave of investment in this burgeoning technology is already driving the emergence of what JLL analysts call “quantum real estate” as a distinct subsector.

This emerging real estate sector includes research labs, data centers and fabrication sites — all of the infrastructure needed to support quantum computing. There are already more than 240 such facilities worldwide, and there are more on the way, with a $4B construction pipeline.

“Realizing the potential of quantum computers will require deployment at scale in quantum data centers around the world,” the S&P Global report says of the technology's long-term adoption.  

Eventually, JLL Global Head of Data Center Research Andrew Batson projects, the market of quantum computing facilities will reach around 5% of the size of the total data center market.

The geography of this emerging subsector looks different from that of today’s data center market.

Quantum's early stages mean access to researchers is more valuable than access to cheap electricity. For now, the geography of the emerging quantum real estate market bears a closer resemblance to life sciences than to data centers.

That means quantum facilities aren’t coming to West Texas — at least not anytime soon.

They are being built in educational hubs like Chicago and San Francisco, which have established data center markets, but also in Boston and Los Angeles, which have seen little AI data center development.

Developers of quantum projects aren’t chasing gigawatts. They are looking for what JLL calls “quantum ecosystems” — educational hotbeds with resources to support the technology’s research and development.

Successful quantum computing hubs tend to share three defining characteristics, according to Batson: strong government support through funding and incentives, a critical mass of private sector quantum companies, and, most critically, the presence of major research institutions like universities or national laboratories.

The institutions not only generate the research underpinning the industry but also produce the highly specialized workforce needed to develop and operate quantum facilities — expertise far beyond what is needed in the broader data center sector. 

“Universities are the foundational anchor of virtually every leading quantum ecosystem,” Batson wrote. “Universities also act as neutral conveners, attracting government funding, anchoring public-private innovation districts, and drawing startups into proximity. The result is a self-reinforcing cluster effect that makes the university campus a de facto real estate catalyst for the broader quantum district forming around it.”

Many of the largest quantum real estate development projects mirror the construction of this ecosystem, coming to fruition through partnerships between the private sector, universities and government.  

One of the most prominent examples is the 128-acre Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park in Chicago, co-developed by public and private sector partners with a price tag of more than $1B.

Built on the site of a former steel mill, the campus brings together labs and computing infrastructure for the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, federal quantum research labs and a host of private sector quantum firms, including PsiQuantum and IBM.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s new Quantum Systems Lab, announced in May, is being funded through a collaboration between the university and state, with the intent of bringing on private sector quantum firms as partners.

As quantum computing moves beyond the research phase and into commercial deployment, the industry is expected to migrate toward established data center markets.

Those future projects are expected to look more like traditional data center facilities than the mixed-use research hubs being built today.  

Many of the world's largest companies are confident quantum will be widely adopted in the near future. According to a survey conducted by S&P Global in late 2025, 47% of corporate leaders anticipate a major impact from quantum computing in the next three years, with 32% predicting a moderate impact. Just 21% didn’t foresee any impact within three years. 

Once quantum advantage is achieved and cloud providers and large enterprises begin integrating quantum into their existing infrastructure, a growing share of deployments is expected to shift from universities and government laboratories to privately owned enterprise and hyperscale data centers, the S&P Global report says. 

Major data center tenants are already looking ahead to quantum deployments. Hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services are already integrating quantum computing into their digital infrastructure architecture and anticipate ramping up these deployments as the technology evolves, with the idea of ultimately offering quantum computing at scale through their cloud services. Microsoft is developing a quantum processor designed to fit into one of its standard server racks. 

“By the end of the decade, we are confident that we will have machines in data centers that have commercial value,” Zulfi Alam, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of quantum, told CNBC in February. 

“I would not be able to say this with this much clarity last year, but this year, I can state to claim that by 2029 you will have machines that will have commercial [value], meaning that they will be doing calculations that classical machines cannot do,” Alam added. 

Other large enterprises are also preparing to deploy quantum computing, with JPMorgan Chase, OQC and AMD all planning quantum AI data centers for finance.

Quantum’s eventual growth in traditional data center hubs won’t come at the expense of quantum’s growth in the academic hubs in which it emerged, Batson said. This is largely due to the industry's severe workforce shortage. 

While the broader data center sector is facing a labor pinch, it is even direr in the quantum industry. According to JLL, there is only one qualified candidate for every three open roles in the quantum industry, and the talent pool is unlikely to grow significantly in a sector that needs quantum physicists and other specialists with advanced degrees. 

While data centers chase power, the geography of quantum real estate will continue to follow the physicists. 

“Talent will decide where quantum facilities develop, not land or power,” Batson wrote. “Investors developing near that talent, particularly around universities, will hold a structural advantage as deployments scale.”