The Sandia Science & Technology Park continues to expand its footprint and economic impact, bringing new companies and higher paying jobs to the Albuquerque area.

Growing economic impact

A recent analysis by the Mid-Region Council of Governments shows park companies have paid a cumulative $8.6 billion in wages, generated nearly 6,600 jobs and helped create $4.8 billion in taxable consumer spending over the last 27 years. In 2025 alone, the park generated $403 million in taxable consumer spending and $246 million in wages.

The park, adjacent to Kirtland Air Force Base and Sandia, was launched in 1998 to expand collaboration between the private sector and the Labs, bring more high-paying private-sector jobs to the area and boost New Mexico’s role in technology development. It has succeeded in all of those goals.

“For nearly three decades, the Sandia Science & Technology Park has created lasting economic value for New Mexico, including billions of dollars in wages that support families and help our state thrive,” Labs Director Laura McGill said. “Sandia is proud of its role in fostering the partnerships that continue to make that success possible.”

In 2025, the average salary for park employees rose to $115,000, up nearly $23,000 from 2023 and well above the $64,480 average salary for the Albuquerque metropolitan area.

New companies

2025 was also a significant year of growth for the park, with six new companies moving in. The park’s 27 buildings now house 47 companies. New tenants include:

• Advanced Inspection Services, headquartered in Plymouth, Minnesota, provides contract dimensional measurement services for the medical, aerospace, defense, automotive and agricultural industries.
• Critical Materials, a New Mexico-based company, is developing Sandia-licensed technology that uses food-grade ingredients to extract critical minerals from mine tailings.
• Genuen, based in Lenexa, Kansas, addresses complex development and testing challenges across industries including aerospace, automotive, transportation, medical and national security.
• IB3 Global Solutions, headquartered in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, is a veteran-owned small business that provides solutions and services in nuclear security operations, nonproliferation and counterproliferation, training and exercise support and technology transformation.
• I-Pulse Albuquerque has developed proprietary technologies using high-voltage, pulsed electrical power for industrial, mining and geothermal applications. I-Pulse also has offices and facilities in the U.S., U.K., France and Japan.
• Zenthos Energy, based in Albuquerque, is developing and scaling rechargeable aluminum battery technology for battery energy storage systems.

For Genuen, one attraction was the park’s location just outside KAFB’s gates.

“For Genuen, the Sandia Science & Technology Park provides exactly what we need to support our work with the labs: physical proximity to our customers and a professional environment that makes collaboration easier,” Genuen regional director Lisa J. Adkins said.

Genuen is a systems engineering and automated test solutions company that supports mission-critical programs across aerospace, national security, transportation and other advanced industries. The company moved into the Sandia Science & Technology Park to be closer to the Sandia teams it works with and to strengthen collaboration between its Albuquerque engineers and those in Kansas and Michigan.

“Being in the park allows our engineers to spend more time in face-to-face discussions with Sandia teams and to work closely with colleagues visiting from our corporate offices, which ultimately improves how we deliver and sustain complex test systems,” Adkins said.

Tech transfer partnerships

These partnerships are critical to helping Sandia meet its mission needs and move state-of-the-art technologies to the marketplace.

“Being located in the Sandia Science & Technology Park gives companies direct access to partnerships, expertise and programs that can help them develop new technologies and grow their businesses,” said Mary Monson, Sandia’s senior manager of Technology Partnerships and Business Development. “The continued economic impact highlighted in this report reflects the value of those connections to Sandia’s mission and New Mexico’s economy.”

The new CAMINO facility, which opened in the park in February 2026, will help spur even more opportunities. CAMINO is serving as a hub for expedited design, prototyping and manufacturing components essential to the nuclear security enterprise’s mission.

“The proximity of companies in the Sandia Science & Technology Park simply doesn’t exist in most business environments,” Mary said. “Companies in the park can quickly provide goods and services to the Labs and receive assistance from Sandia through programs like the New Mexico Small Business Assistance Program and TRGR Technology Readiness Initiative.”

Nearly three decades of partnership

When the Sandia Science & Technology Park was launched in 1998, it was envisioned as a true public-private partnership. Nearly three decades later, it has fulfilled that vision. Private investment in the park has reached $681 million, while public investment has reached $105 million.

According to the analysis, the city of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County see the greatest economic benefit from the park. In 2025, the park generated $154 million in consumer spending in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, while its economic impact also extended to Sandoval, Torrance, Valencia and southern Santa Fe counties. Across the five-county region, taxable consumer spending associated with the park totaled approximately $403 million last year.  

The park also contributes approximately $400 million annually in gross regional product across the five-county region. In 2025, it supported 1,060 indirect jobs, up from 737 in 2024.

With new companies continuing to move in nearly three decades after its launch, the park continues to demonstrate its value — not only to businesses looking to grow and work more closely with Sandia, but to the regional economy as a whole.

It’s an initiative Sandia is proud to be part of.

“Innovation has its greatest impact when it extends beyond the laboratory and creates opportunities for people and communities,” Laura said.