New Mexico
New Mexico’s sovereign wealth fund is investing $50M in a bet that scientists will build startups in Albuquerque
In downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, Adam Hammer is showing me around the building of his newly-launched venture shop, called Roadrunner Venture Studios—an old mattress factory turned open-air office space where he hopes he can convince scientists, engineers, and deep-tech founders to come and build companies.
Hammer walks me over to a wall to the left of the front door—pointing to a graphic of technologies or companies that had their roots right there in New Mexico, but then moved elsewhere once they started to scale. Microsoft is the prominent example: Bill Gates and Paul Allen started building their first microcomputer in Albuquerque before they moved the company to Bellevue, Wash. so they could be closer to the West Coast’s talent pool.
“What we’re trying to do is continue a legacy here in New Mexico of bold ideas— imaginative people,” Hammer says. This time around—he’s hoping his team can convince founders to stay.
Roadrunner Venture Studios is the first venture studio spinoff of America’s Frontier Fund (AFF), the venture capital arm of the policy and education-focused non-profit that is funded by the likes of Mark Cuban, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. Roadrunner is the first of a series of studios AFF plans to scatter across the country, with the intention of helping scientists or researchers from national, university, or corporate laboratories get capital, recruiting help, and the resources they need to turn their work into viable commercial products. Behind it all is a mission to ensure that the U.S. continues to be dominant in innovation.
Nathaniel Paolinelli/Courtesy of Roadrunner Venture Studios
Albuquerque is where things will start—in part because of its proximity to Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Lab, the Air Force Research Lab, and the University of New Mexico. But also because the state’s sovereign wealth fund, the New Mexico State Investment Council, two weeks ago agreed to invest $50 million as an anchor check into Roadrunner’s first venture capital fund, approximately $20 million of which will go directly into Roadrunner itself. The sovereign wealth fund, which just started making venture capital investments a few years ago and has invested in deep tech-focused funds like Lux Capital, Playground Global, and Anzu Partners, has asked these funds in limited partner agreements to at least look at companies based in New Mexico. In the case of Roadrunner, it’s asking the studio to build companies in New Mexico.
“I obviously wanted it to start here, and was willing to anchor the fund to make sure that occurred,” says Chris Cassidy, who oversees the private equity investments of New Mexico’s sovereign wealth fund.
The premise of Roadrunner is to bridge the gap—what Hammer calls the “valley of death”—between the technology being invented and funded in laboratories in New Mexico and elsewhere, and turning the projects into commercially viable companies. Right now, Roadrunner is working with labs like Nokia Bell Labs, the University of Michigan, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Roadrunner’s new general partner, Mike Mettler, who is joining Roadrunner as part of this new fund, was out at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California last week, Hammer says, meeting directly with scientists and assessing which ideas might be ready for company creation. Hammer is hoping to get various stakeholders on the same page, from local municipalities and state governments to other venture capital firms. He touts Hydrosonics, one of the studio’s first three companies, which is building electrolysis technologies to enable affordable hydrogen fuel. Hydrosonics’ founder, Dr. Luis Chavez, had been a researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory before starting a company with Roadrunner last year.
“We met Luis in one of our scouting trips,” Hammer says, explaining how Chavez moved to Albuquerque, set up shop here and within a year had raised approximately $875,000 in venture capital as well as non-dilutive funding from the Economic Development Department.
Gilman Louie, the CEO of America’s Frontier Fund who formerly ran the CIA-funded investment firm In-Q-Tel, says that Roadrunner Venture Studios is part of the investment side of AFF’s business, and that there is “no crossover” and “no financial interest” between its non-profit donors, including Schmidt, Thiel, or Cuban. “All of our philanthropy is kept separate from all of our for-profit activities,” he says, noting that Roadrunner will be squarely focused on working with scientists who need capital.
The problem with any kind of new studio or venture capital firm is that it can take a long time—sometimes a decade—to actually deliver meaningful results or returns. In the near term, SIC’s Cassidy will be monitoring how many companies and how much talent moves to Albuquerque as a result of Roadrunner and is hopeful that Albuquerque, with its renowned Christmas chile sauce and more affordable real estate, can have a startup scene that takes off—and sticks around—too.
“What we’re trying to do is build this center of gravity here,” Hammer says.
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Leapfrog released its 2026 spring hospital safety grades.
Grades are assigned based on overall performance, including patient safety.
The Leapfrog Group’s goal is to publicly report patient safety and quality information for the benefit of consumers, purchasers, and referring physicians as they make decisions about where to seek care and where to direct patients,” the company stated on its website.
Here’s how your local hospitals performed.
MountainView Regional Medical Center – A
Leapfrog gave MountainView an “A.”
“Being the only hospital in Doña Ana County to earn an ‘A’ from The Leapfrog Group speaks to the high standards our team sets – and meets – every day,” said MountainView CEO Patrick Shannon. “This achievement reflects the dedication of our physicians, nurses, and employees to deliver the safest care possible for our community.”
“An ‘A’ Grade is a strong sign that MountainView is deeply committed to protecting patients from harm,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “We commend the leadership, Board, clinicians, staff and volunteers for the role each played in earning this distinction.”
The hospital performed better than average in several areas including low infection rates, addressing safety problems, and ICU care. The hospital received below average performances ratings in surgical site infections post colon surgery, communication about medicine and discharge, communication with doctors and nurses and nursing and bedside care for patients.
Memorial Medical Center – B
Memorial Medical Center received a “B” grade from Leapfrog.
The hospital performed well in effective leadership, reduction and prevention of infections and addressing safety problems.
The hospital received below average ratings for kidney injury after surgery, serious breathing problems, harmful events, communication about medicine and discharge, and communication with doctors and nurses.
Not rated by Leapfrog were Three Crosses Regional Hospital.
Nearby top rated hospitals
Leapfrog gave an A to William Beaumont Army Medical Center and Del Sol Medical Center in El Paso. Las Palmas Medical Center in El Paso received a B.
How did other New Mexico hospitals perform?
A recipients were:
- CHRISTUS Southern New Mexico in Alamogordo
B recipients were:
- Lovelace Women’s Hospital in Albuquerque
C recipients were:
- Carlsbad Medical Center in Carlsbad
- CHRISTUS St. Vincent in Santa FE
- Eastern New Mexico Medical Center in Roswell
- Lovelace Medical Center-Downtown in Albuquerque
- Lovelace Regional Hospital in Roswell
- Lovelace Westside Hospital in Albuquerque
- University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque
D recipients were:
- San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington
- UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center in Rio Rancho
Explore the full survey results at https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/.
Jessica Onsurez is editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News. Reach her by email at jonsurez@usatodayco.com.
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) — The Social Security Office released the most popular baby names for 2025 on Thursday. And here in New Mexico, we saw some familiar names top the charts once again.
Coming in at No. 1 for girls is Mia, and as for the boys, Noah ranks No. 1. That’s no change from 2024 when Mia and Noah also led the pack, both coming in at No 1. For 2025, there were a total of 66 babies named Mia and 115 babies named Noah, while in 2024, there were 81 Mias and 105 Noahs.
What do the names mean? Online sources list a few different interpretations for Mia, but one common association is with the Italian word “mia,” which means “mine.” As for Noah, the name is most commonly associated with the prominent bible figure. It’s thought to mean “rest,” or “comfort.”
Here’s a look at some of the other top baby names in New Mexico for 2025.
- Girls:
- Olivia (65 total)
- Sophia (65 total)
- Sofia (60 total)
- Camila (59 total)
- Eliana (57 total)
- Isabella (56 total)
- Amelia (53 total)
- Aria (45 total)
- Aurora (45 total)
- Boys:
- Liam (109 total)
- Mateo (99 total)
- Elijah (76 total)
- Santiago (70 total)
- Sebastian (69 total)
- Ezra (67 total)
- Elias (66 total)
- Ezekiel (66 total)
- Levi (69 total)
Nationally, Olivia and Liam are the most popular baby names, and have been for the past seven years, according to the Social Security Administration. As for the fastest-rising names, Klarity jumped nearly 1,400 spots on the girls’ list, and Kasai jumped 1,108 for boy names.
Other names rising in popularity for boys include Atlas, Adriel, Emiliano, Arthur, and Archer. On the girls’ list, Ailany, Sienna, Amara, and Georgia are becoming more popular.
You can find the full list by state online.
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