Albuquerque
Born from the Manhattan Project—Sandia Labs ($140B impact since 2000), $4B annual R&D. Now betting on quantum: $315M state investment, DARPA partnership, ABQ-Net. Population stagnant at 560K.
Albuquerque exists because the atomic bomb existed. When the Manhattan Project split into separate laboratories in 1945, the non-nuclear engineering work—the delivery systems, the triggers, the testing—moved to a remote Army installation near the Sandia Mountains. That became Sandia National Laboratories, and Albuquerque became a company town for nuclear weapons engineering.
The federal government now spends roughly $4 billion annually on research and development in and around Albuquerque. Sandia alone has generated $140 billion in economic impact since 2000, including $72 billion in new product sales. Combined with Los Alamos National Laboratory 90 miles north and Kirtland Air Force Base within the city, Albuquerque anchors what locals call the New Mexico Technology Corridor—a concentration of federal research institutions unmatched anywhere except perhaps the Washington, D.C. suburbs.
Now Albuquerque is betting that quantum computing will be its next transformation. In 2025, New Mexico committed $315 million to build quantum infrastructure, including fabrication facilities and a new quantum telecommunications network called ABQ-Net. Governor Lujan Grisham announced a $120 million DARPA partnership for the Quantum Frontiers Project. A six-block quantum corridor is rising downtown. The state's pitch: scientific talent from the national labs, affordable land, and low energy costs—exactly the ingredients that attracted nuclear weapons work 80 years ago.
Intel already operates a major fabrication plant in neighboring Rio Rancho. Startup activity grew 6.2% in 2025, with nearly 100 startups and over $86 million in funding. Population has stagnated at 560,000—declining slightly as the city struggles to compete with faster-growing Sun Belt metros for non-federal jobs. By 2026, whether Albuquerque can translate its quantum bet into commercial success will determine if the city escapes the gravitational pull of federal dependence or remains, as it has been since 1945, a specialized node in the national security apparatus.