ChromeOS or a derivative in a virtual machine
Buy the hardware, could be a less expensive model, and evaluate it. Return or sell if not keeping it. Worst case, write off as a loss.
On Server Fault, we assume your organization has the capital to invest in necessary tools.
A virtual machine is not the same as actual hardware, the physical form factor of the latter is important. Yes, VMs based on ChromeOS exist, including several forks (CloudReady, NayuOS, FydeOS).