This Month's Latest Tech News in Albuquerque, NM - Saturday May 31st 2025 Edition

Albuquerque's tech boom is accelerating as major public and private investments fuel the region's growing influence in artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure.

This month, the Department of Energy (DOE) designated 16 federal sites - including Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories - for rapid AI data center construction, leveraging substantial in-place energy assets and fast-tracked permitting to support AI innovation and national security.

A DOE report highlights that U.S. data center electricity use has tripled over the last decade and could comprise up to 12% of the nation's total electricity by 2028, driven largely by AI applications and big tech expansions.

Notably, Meta continues its $2 billion Los Lunas campus build-out, which will add 3.8 million square feet of data center space and further establish the region as a national tech hub.

As policy debates continue over preferred energy sources for these facilities - ranging from nuclear and renewables to gas turbines - federal leadership remains committed to keeping the U.S. at the forefront of AI and infrastructure.

As President Trump remarked in January,

“I'd like to see federal lands opened up for data centers. I think they're going to be very important.”

For an overview of DOE's site plans and the potential impact on New Mexico, see the official DOE Request for Information on Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure on DOE Lands.

Understand how these developments fit into the broader U.S. energy and policy landscape in the Associated Press coverage of DOE data center expansion, and read about Meta's ongoing campus innovations in Los Lunas in this Meta Los Lunas data center expansion report.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is opening new avenues for artificial intelligence (AI) innovation by identifying 16 federal sites - including Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico - as candidates for rapid development of AI data centers and co-located power generation.

This initiative, sparked by a January 2025 executive order, aims to accelerate AI infrastructure while leveraging existing energy assets and fast-tracking clean power options, such as nuclear, solar, wind, and geothermal energy.

With data center electricity use having tripled in the last decade and expected to double or triple again by 2028 - potentially consuming up to 12% of U.S. electricity - these lab sites offer critical resources like secure energy infrastructure, skilled research ecosystems, and favorable permitting conditions.

The DOE's recently published Request for Information seeks broad industry and community input on every aspect of development, power needs, collaboration, and environmental considerations, with a goal to have new AI data centers operational by 2027.

As the agency underscores, co-locating data centers with DOE research facilities could drive both AI progress and sustainable energy design. For further details on the DOE's site selection and policy, see the comprehensive analysis at US News: DOE's Invitation for AI Data Centers at Federal Labs, Renewable Energy World: DOE's Federal Land Initiative for AI Data Centers, and Data Center Frontier: U.S. Advances AI Data Center Push.

Below is a summary table of select DOE sites, their states, and energy focus:

“The United States has long been at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation. Maintaining that leadership is a key national and economic security priority.”

Clear Current, an Albuquerque-based startup pioneering AI-powered energy management, has raised over $4 million in an oversubscribed seed round led by Rho Ignition, with participation from Coreline Ventures, Avesta Fund, and Montauk Climate.

The company's cutting-edge platform acts as a 24/7 virtual energy manager, autonomously analyzing thousands of complex energy documents to uncover cost-saving opportunities and streamline procurement, forecasting, and consumption across enterprise operations.

As Clear Current gears up for nationwide expansion, its solutions are already being piloted by industry giants such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, supporting broader sustainability initiatives.

The leadership team - featuring veterans of Bloom Energy, Redaptive, and major infrastructure restoration projects - aims to accelerate job growth in New Mexico's tech ecosystem while delivering transformative value for enterprise clients.

CEO John Reuter emphasized the impact, stating,

“Clear Current's virtual energy manager provides cognitive capabilities that allow energy teams to act in minutes instead of months.”

For a full breakdown of the funding round and participating investors, see the table below.

Learn more about this milestone for Albuquerque's tech landscape at Business Wire's coverage of Clear Current's $4M funding round, Latham & Watkins' role in facilitating the deal at Latham & Watkins' announcement of Clear Current seed financing, and further background details at The SaaS News's report on Clear Current's seed funding.

Albuquerque has deployed an AI-powered Pedestrian Activated Warning System (PAWS) at the heavily trafficked intersection of Central Avenue and Louisiana Boulevard, aiming to address alarming pedestrian safety concerns at one of the city's most hazardous crosswalks.

The system uses advanced cameras, trained to detect when people are crossing - specifically monitoring both north-south and east-west pedestrian traffic beyond mere sidewalk movement.

When activated, the cameras trigger yellow flashing lights to alert drivers in real time, covering approximately 700 feet and providing immediate warnings regardless of whether pedestrians use marked crosswalks.

City officials emphasize that the system, inspired by wildlife warning technologies, utilizes real-time monitoring and does not store footage, prioritizing both privacy and public safety.

As Police Chief Harold Medina warns that pedestrian deaths could nearly equal last year's homicide rate if current trends continue, PAWS is part of a suite of measures including added lighting, medians, and dedicated signals to protect foot traffic along Central.

“So rather than just going off when there is a deer in the area, we were able to train the cameras to know when pedestrians are actually crossing the street here,”

said Dan Mayfield, spokesperson for the Department of Municipal Development.

To learn more, see KOAT's coverage of the AI cameras improving pedestrian safety in Albuquerque, the in-depth analysis from KOB on new safety measures rolling out along Central Avenue, and additional details about the PAWS initiative via KRQE's report on Albuquerque's turn to AI for pedestrian safety.

Securin, a leader in AI-driven Adversarial Exposure Validation (AEV) solutions, has appointed Dr. Srinivas Mukkamala as CEO, signaling a pivotal shift toward advanced AI cybersecurity.

Dr. Mukkamala, recognized for founding RiskSense and his work on the Department of Defense's CACTUS project, will steer Securin to address the growing complexity of modern cyber threats, particularly targeting AI workloads and cloud environments.

His priorities include expanding the company's use of automated penetration testing and AI red teaming to proactively identify exploit chains and real-world vulnerabilities missed by traditional tools.

As he shared,

“Cybersecurity must evolve as fast as attackers do, and AI is key to staying ahead.”

Securin's strategy is to unify enterprise protection, model attacker behaviors, and deliver actionable, threat-driven insights through its continuously updated AEV platform.

The company's approach moves beyond legacy vulnerability scoring by dynamically simulating attacks and prioritizing risk, aiming to support secure, scalable AI adoption for organizations of all sizes.

For an in-depth look at Securin's leadership change and new cybersecurity vision, visit the official announcement on BusinessWire, Dr. Mukkamala's insights in this CEO interview about AI and next-generation threats, and a detailed strategy breakdown by Cybersecurity Insiders on Securin's AI-first approach.

This spring, Microsoft marked its 50th anniversary by reflecting on a transformative journey that began in an Albuquerque garage - where Bill Gates and Paul Allen created “Micro-soft” and wrote their first software for the MITS Altair 8800.

Their bold ambition was “a computer on every desk and in every home,” a vision that propelled Microsoft's rise from MS-DOS to Windows and now to an AI-powered future.

In a rare gathering of all three CEOs - Gates, Ballmer, and Nadella - the company celebrated decades of innovation and highlighted consumer AI products like Copilot, positioning generative AI as the foundation of its next era (Microsoft's 50th anniversary event marking an AI future).

Albuquerque's pivotal role in Microsoft history was spotlighted in retrospectives detailing the company's move from New Mexico to Washington, breakthroughs like Windows and Office, and hardware successes like Xbox amidst a few stumbles such as Zune and Windows Phone (NPR retrospective on Microsoft's 50-year computing revolution).

With Microsoft now approaching a $3 trillion valuation and generating $13 billion annually from AI, its story remains defined by “winning the new” - from empowering developers and building community to pioneering cloud and AI, all rooted in the innovative spirit seeded in Albuquerque fifty years ago (CNBC report on Microsoft's 50-year success and future).

Microsoft's evolution continues to inspire a new generation of technologists and entrepreneurs in Albuquerque and beyond.

Microsoft's Q1 2025 financial results reflect its powerful momentum in AI and cloud, with revenue surging to $70.1 billion - a 13% year-over-year increase - driven by Azure's 33% growth and brisk adoption of enterprise AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Net income climbed to $25.8 billion, and operating profit hit $32 billion, both exceeding analyst expectations and propelling Microsoft stock up over 7% after the announcement.

As detailed in Microsoft's Q1 earnings analysis, the company continues to invest heavily, earmarking more than $85 billion in fiscal year capital expenses to scale AI infrastructure, while managing profitability through operational efficiency.

CEO Satya Nadella emphasized the company's strategic direction:

“Cloud and AI are the essential inputs for every business to expand output, reduce costs, and accelerate growth. From AI infra and platforms to apps, we are innovating across the stack to deliver for our customers.”

Microsoft now holds a 22% global cloud market share, outpacing both the market and key competitors in growth rates.

For a comprehensive comparison of cloud industry leaders in Q1, see the table below from CRN's Q1 2025 cloud market roundup:

For an in-depth breakdown of this record-setting quarter and its long-term impact, visit The New York Times feature on Microsoft's financial and AI strategy.

Indigenous Hands and Voices, an Albuquerque-based organization, is leading the way in using artificial intelligence to safeguard minority languages and cultural traditions.

Through their innovative Omenka App, launched in the city, they are leveraging AI to document, teach, and celebrate the endangered Igbo language and its associated music and customs, providing an interactive platform for community members and the broader public to connect with unique cultural heritages (AI technologies supporting language preservation).

This vital work aligns with national efforts to use AI for preserving underrepresented voices, and was recently highlighted as both timely and urgent given shifting federal priorities for arts funding that have affected many New Mexico nonprofits - including those supporting Indigenous and minority communities (federal funding changes for New Mexico arts nonprofits).

These programs also dovetail with statewide creative industry events this spring, where collaboration between local artists, cultural organizations, and technologists is unlocking new avenues for cultural sustainability and public engagement (New Mexico's Creative Industries Season 2025).

As Indigenous Hands and Voices demonstrates, community-centered AI offers practical tools to empower local cultures and ensure diverse voices endure in the digital age.

Albuquerque's national labs are driving major breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and supercomputing, with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Sandia National Laboratories at the forefront of this transformation.

LANL's recently deployed Venado supercomputer powered by NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchips - engineered for up to 10 exaflops of peak AI performance - has rapidly transitioned to a classified network to support pressing national security priorities.

This advanced system enables the training of billion-parameter AI models that predict critical events, such as material failures across an array of mission-relevant materials, and has even produced a groundbreaking model for decoding DNA-protein interactions to accelerate personalized medicine.

As project co-lead Dan O'Malley explained,

“Our largest model has 3 billion parameters, and we can capture complex fracture behavior that generalizes across five different mission-relevant materials.”

Sandia, meanwhile, pioneers AI-driven “vibe coding” for automated software development - an approach that automates software development from mere functional descriptions, substantially streamlining research and cybersecurity workflows.

Both labs are deepening collaboration with commercial tech leaders like NVIDIA and OpenAI, while also embracing automated cybersecurity detection and DevSecOps tools to bolster resilience.

For a comprehensive look at the technological advancements shared at the latest NLIT Summit and their implications for federal science and security, explore Carahsoft's summit report on AI, HPC, and cybersecurity and review technical highlights of the Venado system's architecture in this in-depth analysis of its NVIDIA-powered deployment.

Google has officially launched AI Mode in Search for all U.S. users, introducing a seismic shift in how Albuquerque residents - and the nation - engage with online information.

Powered by the advanced Gemini 2.5 model, AI Mode transforms the familiar search experience into a dynamic hub of conversational, multimodal, and context-aware answers.

Users now see an AI Mode tab that, when activated, generates in-depth responses using a query fan-out technique, breaking each question into subtopics and simultaneously analyzing data across hundreds of websites for expertly synthesized results.

As Google's Head of Search explains, this enables “deeper web search and hyper-relevant content discovery,” turning hours of manual research into minutes.

Enhanced Deep Search and Gemini 2.5's advanced contextual reasoning enable detailed visualizations, real-time data integration, and personalized recommendations based on previous search and Gmail activity - all while ensuring transparency and user control.

With new features live in Labs, upcoming voice support, and integration with Google Lens and Workspace, AI Mode's capabilities extend far beyond traditional “10 blue links.” For Albuquerque entrepreneurs, students, and technologists, this paradigm enables detailed planning, comparative research, and smarter e-commerce directly within Search.

For more on the nationwide rollout and impact, see Google's official announcement on AI Mode and the power of Gemini 2.5.

Local experts note that these changes are just the beginning; AI Mode's agentic tools - like automated checkouts and interactive live camera search - will soon be available to even more users, as discussed in-depth by industry analysts at Arion Research's Google I/O review.

The surge in artificial intelligence (AI) demand is radically reshaping the U.S. energy landscape, with data centers now projected to consume between 11% and 12% of the nation's electricity by 2030 - one of the fastest reversals in overall power sector trends in decades.

According to a recent International Energy Agency report on AI-driven electricity demand, global data center electricity demand is set to more than double to 945 TWh by 2030, rivaling the total consumption of major economies.

AI-optimized data centers in the U.S. will drive nearly half of anticipated electricity growth, outpacing other sectors like heavy manufacturing and electric vehicles.

The Southwest, and particularly New Mexico, is at the forefront of this transformation: developments like Meta's expansion in Los Lunas and pilot net-zero projects near Roswell highlight local opportunities and grid challenges.

Policy and technology responses are evolving in real time. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, sponsored by the Department of Energy, is developing geothermal underground thermal energy storage (UTES) systems to address one critical aspect - data center cooling, which alone can account for nearly 40% of annual site energy use.

These storage solutions reduce peak loads and grid strain during extreme weather events. As Andrew Chien, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, puts it,

“The idea of Cold UTES is super exciting because it's a novel player in the space of data center energy management and cooling.”

Meanwhile, sustainability remains a major concern - 56% of U.S. data center electricity still comes from fossil fuels, threatening to upend carbon reduction targets unless new renewable infrastructure comes online rapidly, according to analysis from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute on data center energy consumption.

For a comprehensive look at how economic investment, energy use, and innovation are reshaping the sector, this dev/sustainability report on data center energy and AI trends in 2025 provides detailed historical and future projections.

Albuquerque's remarkable rise as a national tech and AI hub is unmistakable, with a blend of historic research assets, energized public-private partnerships, and growing global connectivity fueling its momentum.

Recent federal decisions, such as the U.S. Department of Energy's selection of Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories as sites for advanced AI data centers, are reshaping the region's role in the nation's digital infrastructure.

The city champions inclusivity too, as programs like Teeniors bridge generational tech gaps - reaching nearly 9,000 older adults - with founder Trish Lopez emphasizing,

“I want to model what an ethical strong business in our capitalist society can look like, that takes into account people before profit. And takes into account the impact we can have without extracting from our communities, without hurting anybody.”

Economic vibrancy is evident with the new NMexus Center, a first-of-its-kind global business accelerator and commercialization hub attracting foreign direct investment from countries like India and Oman - estimated to foster $400 million in economic impact and create 1,500 jobs over five years.

Albuquerque's innovation ecosystem also excels in pioneering quantum computing, as Sandia Labs launches a demonstration facility to strengthen lab-industry-university collaboration on next-generation quantum technologies; as one scientist observes, “If this [industrially useful quantum computer] happens in the next eight years, that would be extremely transformative.” As America's tech industries evolve, Albuquerque is not just following - they're shaping the trajectory, driven by an inclusive workforce, world-class infrastructure, and a commitment to global competitiveness and ethical growth.