Well, that's going to lead to about five minutes of chaos as various people scream at each other about budgeting.

Sheesh, forget he asked.

He looks up where IBM is headquartered during the chaos.

A town called North Castle, New York, and by the time he's navigated the 1999 internet well enough to find that out the chaos has died down and a handful of departments may-or-may-not have room in their budgets for him depending on what he's selling for.

The prices, overall, are 'high but not absurd'. And nothing cutting-edge electronic, robotic, or AI is on offer.

(He sends an email to IBM and a dozen other processor-manufacturing companies, containing some 2030-ish technical documents with a few key details redacted, and says he has more, when can they meet with him to negotiate.)

Not every department buys anything, and none buy very much, but he has some spending money at the end if that.

Yep. And if he knows corporations it'll be days or weeks until one of them gets around to talking to him unless he barges into their CEOs' offices. If they believe him at all.

So instead he asks around, what is the next place of academia that would appreciate a personal visit from the Future Fairy and has someone who knows someone here so Nick can be vouched for?