The lab, known as the Quantum Venture Studio Campus, is under construction in downtown Albuquerque\u2019s so-called Innovation District. The facility will be used by companies and universities, under the administration of Roadrunner Venture Studios, a startup incubator that was selected last August<\/a> to both build and operate the lab after a \u201crigorous evaluation project\u201d by the New Mexico Economic Development Department.<\/p>\n It will feature a multi-node quantum network, dilution refrigerators, a quantum testbed, quantum packaging and demonstration facilities, along with a rapid prototyping center. The campus will also serve as the headquarters for the Quantum New Mexico Institute.<\/p>\n Rob Black, the state\u2019s secretary of economic development, explained in an interview that the aim of the state\u2019s investments in quantum are multifold and that they build on New Mexico\u2019s legacy as a cradle for frontier technology. The state, he said, is no stranger to innovation, as it was home to the first tests of the atomic bomb, in 1945, as well as early contributions to nuclear fusion, fracking, clean room technology, satellites, GPS and early internet infrastructure tied to missile defense.<\/p>\n This history, along with the state\u2019s skilled technical workforce \u2014 which has the highest concentration of individuals with PhDs in the country \u2014 and the renowned national science labs at Sandia, Los Alamos and the Air Force Research Lab, gives the state a\u00a0\u201cunique right to win\u201d in this space, Black said. <\/p>\n Despite the state\u2019s rich history of innovation, Black said, the state also\u00a0failed to commercialize\u00a0many of those breakthroughs. He said investment in quantum computing \u2014 a technology still in early stages of development \u2014 is about fixing that gap before commercialization, so that the next generation of technologies\u00a0stay in New Mexico.<\/p>\n \u201cMicrosoft spun out of Sandia National Labs, but Bill Gates couldn\u2019t get capitalized in New Mexico, so he left, because his dad said he if he moved back home, he would help \u2014 he would invest in his company. We never want to see that happen again,\u201d Black said. \u201cSo we\u2019re trying to create an ecosystem, and quantum is a great example of that, where we\u2019re bringing in the physical infrastructure that helps support startups and test beds and others to engage with these technologies in different ways, and then you\u2019ve got a customer base sitting across the road, with Sandia and [Los Alamos] and Kirtland Air Force Base, that is \u2026 also a scientific support base to advance the technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n Another opportunity New Mexico doesn\u2019t want to miss, Black said, is to build on the state\u2019s prominent role in national security. Black said DARPA is a partner for New Mexico\u2019s quantum ambitions and that its quantum validation testing program is tied into the Roadrunner quantum lab.<\/p>\n The stakes of these partnerships with national security actors and the private sector extend beyond innovation into what researchers call \u201cQ-Day,\u201d the theoretical moment that quantum computers become powerful enough to break encryption systems that secure all of the sensitive data on the planet, including banking information, government communications and health records.<\/p>\n \u201cNew Mexico has always been a leader in national security for our country, and I think part of this story is we want to be the first place that understands what Q-Day looks like in quantum, and so it\u2019s important that America leads that \u2014 we believe New Mexico will be a core part of how we do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Black said the state is thinking about quantum networks as security infrastructure. The state is repurposing some of the funding it received through the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program<\/a> to build secure quantum networks\u00a0that can provide a defense layer against hostile actors, connecting Los Alamos, Sandia and downstate.<\/p>\n
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