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January 9, 2026, 2:44 AM EST. Quantum computers may require more power than the world's fastest supercomputers, depending on design choices. Most existing machines have fewer than a thousand qubits, the basic units of quantum information, and they suffer from errors. To be genuinely useful, researchers say, they must become FTQCs with many more qubits and robust error correction. At the Q2B Silicon Valley conference, Olivier Ezratty of the Quantum Energy Initiative warned that several FTQC designs scaled to about 4000 logical qubits could consume more energy than today's top systems. The LLNL's El Capitan supercomputer runs at roughly 20 megawatts. Ezratty's estimates place some FTQC designs at up to 200 megawatts, though others could stay under 1 megawatt. Cooling needs and other hardware choices largely drive the variance.