Insider Brief
- Roadrunner Venture Studios and New Mexico opened a 35,000-square-foot quantum lab in Albuquerque to give startups access to specialized equipment, researchers and commercialization support.
- Initial participants include Diraq, IonQ, QBoltz, Mesa Quantum, Quantum Machines, QuEra Computing, Photon Queue and Conductor Quantum.
- Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories will help operate an on-site demonstration facility where companies can prototype, test and benchmark quantum technologies.
PRESS RELEASE — Roadrunner Venture Studios and New Mexico’s Technology and Innovation Office (TIO) today debuted the Roadrunner Quantum Lab (RQL) Powered by the State of New Mexico. Built in Albuquerque’s Innovation District, the new 35,000-square-foot will be an anchor facility for New Mexico’s $450M commitment to quantum, granting essential access to founder resources such as lab space, specialized equipment, and access to leading researchers.
“New Mexico has been a home for quantum information science for decades, and it’s now emerging as a place where quantum companies can grow and thrive,” said David Kistin, Roadrunner’s Director, Roadrunner Quantum Lab. “The RQL is helping bring together researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, and industry partners to build a stronger quantum ecosystem across the Southwest.”
The lab is a direct result of the State of New Mexico’s selection of Roadrunner Venture Studios and its coalition partners to establish and operate a quantum venture studio. The RQL has already attracted leading quantum information science companies and partners to the space to build alongside new startups and researchers. These companies will take up residence at the RQL later this year.
“New Mexico doesn’t just talk about the future of quantum; we build the room where it happens,” said Economic Development New Mexico Secretary Rob Black. “The Roadrunner Quantum Lab gives quantum startups access to the infrastructure, equipment and connections they need to turn breakthrough research into companies, products and high-skill jobs here in New Mexico.”
The initial tenants at the RQL include:
Diraq is developing utility-scale quantum computers with qubits built by modifying silicon transistors, the building blocks of modern computer chips. Founded in 2022, by Andrew Dzurak, the inventor of CMOS-compatible silicon spin qubits, Diraq has operations in Australia and the United States. Diraq partners with foundries, hyperscalers, and governments to deliver economical and energy-efficient quantum computers that can be readily deployed in data centers.
Diraq is establishing a laboratory in New Mexico through the RQL. The company plans to expand its test and measurement capabilities, deploy advanced quantum hardware infrastructure, and build a local team of measurement engineers to support quantum device characterization and development. These activities will contribute to the growth of New Mexico’s quantum ecosystem through participation in DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative (QBI).
“RQL is focused on bringing quantum computing to market and their commitment to commercialization closely mirrors our own at Diraq,” said Andrew Dzurak, Diraq Founder and CEO. “We’re building quantum computing processors based on silicon because that’s the most economical and scalable way to reach the many millions of qubits that our customers will require. New Mexico’s investment in RQL demonstrates a strong commitment to building a world-class quantum ecosystem, and we’re excited to establish a team in Albuquerque that will help accelerate our progress toward utility-scale quantum computing.”
IonQ, Inc. is the world’s leading quantum platform and foundry – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the Superion, is the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems. Earlier systems have helped customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve a 20x performance increase over previous quantum solutions and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance. IonQ is making quantum platforms more accessible and impactful than ever before.
IonQ is expanding its engagement in New Mexico and plans to use the Roadrunner Quantum Lab and the Quantum Demonstration Facility to support collaboration with the state’s national laboratories, universities, research institutions, and the broader quantum ecosystem. Building on IonQ’s existing long-term collaborations in New Mexico, the company expects its local activities to support technical collaboration, quantum application development, workforce and ecosystem engagement, and the development of future opportunities across quantum technologies.
“New Mexico has long been at the forefront of quantum science, with a unique combination of national security missions, world-class research, and deep technical expertise,” said Scott Millard, IonQ Chief Business Officer. “The Roadrunner Quantum Lab brings these strengths together, creating an environment where industry, national laboratories, universities, and the State can collaborate to move quantum technology from research into real-world capability. IonQ is excited to deepen our presence in New Mexico and help accelerate the technologies and mission applications that will define the quantum era.”
QBoltz
QBoltz is building QBrain, a quantum-inspired photonic Ising machine for combinatorial optimization. Combinatorial optimization problems arise wherever large and fast-changing scheduling, routing, and resource allocation decisions must be made in defense, autonomy, and logistics. QBrain works on the same Ising formulations used in quantum optimization, but computes with light at room temperature, using mature components from the display industry. Founded by three PhDs who hold more than 60 patents and have built photonic and semiconductor products at Meta, Google, Qualcomm, and Teledyne, QBoltz is working toward a world where machines think with photons.
QBoltz is establishing its New Mexico base at the Roadrunner Quantum Lab, where it will station staff for prototyping and applied research and install QBrain hardware that customers and partners can access. Because QBrain runs the same Ising formulations as quantum optimizers, QBoltz expects to collaborate with RQL’s resident quantum companies on shared problem sets. The move extends existing work in the state, where QBrain’s proof of concept at Sandia National Laboratories solved an Ising problem with millions of variables, and research continues at the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies in Albuquerque.
“New Mexico is where we first demonstrated the core technology behind QBrain, and our work at Sandia and now at RQL keeps the momentum going,” said Erik Shipton, QBoltz CEO and Co-founder. “We’re excited to build a longer-term presence here and be part of the state’s growing quantum ecosystem.”
Mesa Quantum‘s mission is to bring high-performance quantum sensing out of the lab and into real-world deployment at scale. To accomplish that mission, Mesa Quantum leverages deep experience from Sandia and NIST to build chip-scale quantum sensors designed for scalable, volume manufacturing. These sensors — designed for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) applications — are enabled by the company’s proprietary Q-VCSEL™ platform and other photonic components.
Mesa Quantum is establishing a testing and validation facility for its quantum sensing hardware at the Roadrunner Quantum Lab, with dedicated office and lab space to support a growing team of New Mexico-based employees.
“The next chapter of quantum sensing will be written in places like New Mexico,” said Sristy Agrawal, CEO of Mesa Quantum. “The Roadrunner Quantum Lab is exactly the kind of infrastructure this ecosystem needs to turn world-class research into world-class products.”
Elevate Quantum (EQ) is the federally designated and funded quantum Tech Hub for New Mexico and Colorado, with a mission to dramatically accelerate the commercialization of quantum technologies. EQ builds and operates shared infrastructure, fabrication, advanced packaging, and testing capabilities, workforce programs, and ecosystem initiatives designed to help quantum technologies move faster from the lab into commercial deployment.
At the RQL, EQ will establish and operate new capabilities focused on quantum hardware testing, benchmarking, and workforce development. EQ is developing an open-access cryogenic testing and validation capability for superconducting quantum components, alongside hands-on technician training using commercial-grade cryogenic, vacuum, control, and measurement systems. The effort is designed to help companies validate components under realistic operating conditions, reduce technical risk, and accelerate commercialization, while building a workforce trained on the equipment and procedures used by industry and national laboratories. EQ is also working with QuEra to expand component testing and benchmarking capabilities into neutral-atom systems.
These activities are separate from EQ’s Advanced Packaging Facility, also being established in Albuquerque, which will provide professionally operated, high-mix, low- to mid-volume packaging capabilities for quantum and photonics companies. Together, the two facilities expand the infrastructure available to New Mexico companies across multiple stages of quantum hardware development and commercialization.
“New Mexico has an extraordinary opportunity to become one of the places where quantum hardware moves fastest from development to deployment, and Roadrunner is an important part of making that possible,” said Jessi Olsen, CEO of Elevate Quantum. “Our presence there will bring together hands-on workforce training with real-world testing and benchmarking capabilities that help companies validate technology faster and reduce the risk of bringing new hardware to market. We’re excited to build these capabilities alongside Roadrunner and the broader New Mexico quantum ecosystem.”
Sandia National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories, headquartered in Albuquerque, is among the nation’s leading centers of quantum research, with decades of work spanning quantum theoretical and experimental research in quantum computing hardware, algorithms, architectures, sensing, and networking.
With Los Alamos, Sandia will help stand up and operate the Quantum Demonstration Facility on site, providing access to their world-leading quantum expertise for resident companies. Company access to Sandia and LANL scientists, engineers, and unique capabilities will run through cooperative research agreements.
“New Mexico’s national laboratories have long been at the forefront of quantum research, and partnerships across the state are essential to realizing the full potential of that work,” said Jen Gaudioso, co-director of Sandia’s Quantum Futures Center. “The Roadrunner Quantum Lab adds a new point of connection for researchers, startups and industry partners working to advance quantum technologies from concept to capability.”
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory will serve as a founding research partner at the Roadrunner Quantum Lab, contributing decades of quantum expertise to support resident startups. Alongside Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos will help organize the Quantum Demonstration Facility (QDF), where early-stage companies can prototype, characterize, and benchmark quantum devices in collaboration with the labs. Los Alamos can contribute a diverse set of technical expertise, including application and algorithm specialists, quantum physicists and engineers, device integration specialists, and systems and software developers, serving as an independent technical partner to participating companies.
“The opening of the Roadrunner Quantum Lab marks the next phase in New Mexico’s growing quantum ecosystem,” said Carleton Coffrin, Quantum Science Coordinator, Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Los Alamos is proud to be a contributor to this effort and to support the state in achieving its economic development goals.”
Quantum Machines (QM) is the leading global provider of hybrid quantum-classical control solutions. Its Hybrid Control approach harmonizes quantum and classical operations across software and hardware, helping teams iterate faster and resolve setbacks. QM’s Orchestration Platform delivers Hybrid Control in one environment for systems from a few qubits to thousands, with solutions tailored to each modality.
QM will lease lab space at the RQL and is actively hiring a New Mexico-based team member to lead its on-the-ground operations. QM’s first quantum control system (OPX) is expected to arrive at RQL ahead of the facility’s opening day, enabling advanced quantum test, measurement, and characterization capabilities for researchers, startups, and industry partners. By expanding access to these capabilities, QM looks forward to helping RQL and New Mexico provide the open-access resources quantum companies need to develop, validate, and commercialize new technologies, while working alongside Sandia, Los Alamos, and partners across the state’s growing quantum ecosystem. QM’s presence at RQL will also help establish the facility as a multi-modality test and measurement hub spanning superconducting, spin, and neutral-atom platforms.
“New Mexico’s quantum ecosystem brings together world-class national-lab expertise, venture infrastructure, and open-access quantum resources to help promising technologies move from development toward commercialization,” said Itamar Sivan, Co-founder and CEO, Quantum Machines. “Quantum Machines is proud to bring our OPX platform to the Roadrunner Quantum Lab, expanding advanced quantum control and measurement capabilities and helping companies develop and validate their technologies while working alongside Sandia, Los Alamos, and partners across the state’s growing quantum ecosystem.”
As the scientific and commercial leader in neutral- atom quantum computing, Quera helps enterprise innovators leverage quantum to gain competitive advantage, support HPC centers as their users tackle classically intractable problems, and enable government programs to build national and sovereign capabilities. We do this by combining our quantum systems, available on-premises and via the cloud, with application co-design and collaborative research. Born at Harvard and MIT and still advancing together, QuEra builds neutral-atom systems on a public, peer-reviewed path to fault tolerance, and operates globally from Boston, New Mexico, Tokyo, and the United Kingdom. As quantum computing moves from “one day” to “Day One”; QuEra delivers practical impact today while leading the path toward large-scale, fault-tolerant systems.
QuEra is the anchor tenant of the Roadrunner Quantum Lab, where it is building a $4 million open-access test facility for photonics and optics validation, paired with on-site compute infrastructure for hybrid quantum-classical workloads. QuEra is hiring full-time employees in New Mexico and opening access to academic, national lab, and startup partners.
“New Mexico has solidified itself as a leader in quantum with over $450 million in strategic quantum investments to date, and the Roadrunner Quantum Lab is an early example of how those investments are delivering for the state,” Nate Gemelke, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Strategist, QuEra Computing. “We’re excited to anchor the growing ecosystem and to build the test infrastructure that lets New Mexico founders prove out their technology.”
Photon Queue is the world’s leading developer of free-space quantum memory devices. Founded in 2024 as a spinout from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the company builds high-performance quantum memories that store photons using linear optics at room temperature — delivering ultra-high efficiency and world-leading bandwidth with no cryogenics, vacuum systems or complex transduction required.
Photon Queue is opening a New Mexico branch in Albuquerque, next door to its first customer, Sandia National Laboratories, supported by non-dilutive funding from EDD. The branch will house assembly, test, and characterization capability for the company’s optical quantum memory devices, including a tunable laser, optical spectrum analyzer, and a vibration-isolated optical table for device-level characterization. The company will hire two early-career optical and electrical engineers into the Albuquerque operation.
“New Mexico is one of the most important places in the country for quantum,” said Nathan Arnold, founder and CEO of Photon Queue. “The RQL is exactly the kind of infrastructure that is difficult to get anywhere else in the country and will help us turn high-performance quantum memories into scalable products.”
Conductor Quantum builds the infrastructure to put quantum computers online. The company co-authored with NVIDIA the first benchmark for an AI controlling a quantum computer. Conductor is a Y Combinator-backed company based in San Francisco.
Conductor is establishing a New Mexico presence, including an office at Roadrunner Quantum Lab, to work with partners in the state’s quantum ecosystem. Conductor will use the space as a base for collaboration with local hardware and lab partners as we expand operations in New Mexico.
“New Mexico has the national labs, the talent, and the quantum ecosystem. Roadrunner Quantum Lab gives us a real home on the ground as we put quantum computers online,” said Brandon Severin, Co-founder and CEO of Conductor Quantum.
Noblespace
Noblespace served as the real estate partner for the Roadrunner Quantum Lab, bringing together the specialized space and infrastructure needed to house cutting-edge quantum research and company creation under one roof. Working closely with Roadrunner and the State of New Mexico, Noblespace helped transform 35,000 square feet in Albuquerque’s Innovation District into a purpose-built home for the region’s growing quantum ecosystem.
“Building the physical foundation for New Mexico’s quantum future required a space as ambitious as the science happening inside it,” said Howard Kozloff, Founder & CEO of Noblespace. “We’re proud to have partnered with Roadrunner to deliver a facility where startups, national labs, and industry leaders can come together and turn breakthrough research into real-world companies.”
“A year ago, we set out to prove that New Mexico could turn decades of research strength into real companies and real jobs,” said TIO Director Nora Meyers Sackett. “Today that promise has walls, equipment, and startups walking through the door. This is what we mean when we say, ‘Next starts here.’”
To support the work of the studio and RQL, Roadrunner organized a New Mexico quantum coalition last year, which includes nearly a dozen partners spanning national laboratories (Sandia, Los Alamos), private industry (QuEra Computing, Maybell, Qunnect, Resonance), academic institutions (University of New Mexico) and venture capital firms (DCVC, Playground Global, Quantonation).
To find out more about the facility, visit its website at roadrunnerquantumlab.com.
