Executive’s Desk: Why New Mexico is the place to build

My answer to the oft-asked “why New Mexico?” rests on the unspoken expression of raw vitality in every New Mexican building humanity’s future in the high desert.

The state’s quantitative metrics alone are strong, placing it at the top of innovation lists —but these do not describe the full range of its intangibles. For that, I refer to the strength of its people, fostered by the love for the state and combined with the resiliency engendered by working in a yet-challenging environment.

This produces a raw vitality in New Mexicans which serves as the foundation of all the other intangibles in the state — its culture, family-like business climate, nimble executive branch — and underscores why New Mexico is a place to build. Our job now is to share this love and vitality with “hidden New Mexicans” who are circulating in the world, but do not yet realize that their home is really under the Zia.

Of course, vitality is not the only reason New Mexico makes sense as a place to build a technology company. The quantitative numbers alone support a New Mexico-first thesis. New Mexico ranks at the top of “most innovative states” lists.

Disaggregating the basis of those metrics, the state ranks at the top in Ph.D.s per capita, with Los Alamos County nearly doubling the next-highest at the top of a county-based list at 12.8% in 2023. The Dallas Federal Reserve claims that “New Mexico led the nation in research and development (R&D) as a share of state GDP in 2021.” It is tied for top per capita R&D spending amongst all states.

It has two national labs, employing over 30,000 people with combined budgets of over $10 billion. Its universities produce highly qualified science, technology, engineering and math graduates who benefit from the world-class scientific talent circulating in New Mexico. The state’s sovereign wealth fund is the second-largest in the United States, and 30th in the world.

From a startup perspective, New Mexico’s Economic Development Department has more tools and programs to help early-stage startups than almost any other state. Companies that want to relocate to New Mexico can qualify for assistance with tax incentives, municipal bonds, site selection, hiring assistance and state grants. The total compensation can extend the runway of a young company by years and, alone, make the state an appealing location to found companies.

Those numbers, however impressive, are mutable. Any other state could establish similar programs with an eye on matching New Mexico, and one could argue that it’s not just the Ph.D.s per capita but rather in total that matters. Discussions about “why New Mexico?” could devolve into an argument not over the numbers themselves, but rather which numbers put forth by which states matter.

To truly grasp “why New Mexico?” one has to understand that the intangibles are part of its essence.

New Mexico is a first-name state. Its population, distances and lack of traffic mean that not only is business conducted with a personal touch, it means you are never more than one hop out from anyone with whom you need to speak.

The executive branch and its Economic Development Department are nimble enough to tailor individual responses to companies that want to relocate to the state. More than one visiting CEO has remarked that New Mexico’s reception was the best they had ever experienced, at times contrasting how their home states treat them like numbers and with a lack of personal attention to their proposed facilities or desired business outcomes.

While that attention is partly due to the state’s family-based culture, it is also an expression of its will to power.

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche summed up how the love of something challenging can build a resilience and abundance of its own, saying, “How does one become stronger? By deciding slowly; and by holding firmly to the decision once it is made. Everything else follows of itself.” A visitor sees this philosophy in the metaphor of every living thing willing life into the gorgeous, challenging high desert. From the wildflowers in springtime bloom, to the desire of every citizen to build in the high desert through fostering life and bringing others to create that future, New Mexico as a concept is the will to bring something to life.

The average visitor experiences this will as the warmth of a New Mexican inviting you to come see the state through their eyes, to explore their mountains, enjoy their food, admire their art, appreciate their mélange of culture — taking the most Nietzschean of stances when the easier choice might be to abandon the project and move to a place of pure abundance.

Without being too environmentally deterministic, forging a life in New Mexico is a statement of strength. Inviting someone else to do the same is a desire to empower that individual with the same vitality that decides on the high desert over the coast, wheaten field or woods.

It is strength through the expression of love for the Enchanted State, regardless of the challenge that it is to construct a life there. It is what brought the first nations to New Mexico, other immigrants and, most recently, J. Robert Oppenheimer, who realized that no other place in the world encapsulated the strength and beauty to be the background for something that would change the course of humanity.

So what does New Mexico have to do to capitalize on this will? We need to find the hidden New Mexicans that have yet to experience the Land of Enchantment and demonstrate through our love and strength why this is their new home. We need to find more Oppenheimers — then facilitate our shared adoration for the state and together build its future.

This is the true test of a hidden New Mexican, not whether they were born here, or if they want to merely accept the state’s generosity, but whether they recognize the will underpinning all the state’s intangibles — and agree that New Mexico, its people, its will, makes it the best location for their next endeavor.