Considering that IBM value-unit cost for cores on their pSeries frames can comes out to upward of $30K and sometimes as high as $50K per-core on their newer models, this is definitely a competitively priced option.
...unless you consider that the IBM machines aren't running Windows. IBM owners can actually use the horsepower they buy.
A better comparison would probably be with home-grown or Linux-run Beowulf cluster machines. I'm guessing those can be had for much less, and be in the same class.
It’s nice to see that microsoft’s vulnerable tonka toys needs the expertise of decades to survive. Mainframe and legacy systems have always had huge processing power and were always much more secure than our home pc’s. Older computers were super fast but they weren’t bogged down with microprocessing. Instead much of the ‘drivers’ and interfaces were hard wired to roadrunner through the data.