LOCAL COLUMN
OPINION: New Mexico should view data centers as a security asset
Local officials are increasingly debating how New Mexico should approach the rapid growth of data centers and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Some communities are considering restrictions or moratoriums on new projects, while others are weighing concerns about growth, energy use and long-term development.
However, there is another factor that should be part of the conversation as well: national security.
Beyond being massive employment generators, data centers are the physical infrastructure that power modern AI. And it goes without saying that American-made AI is as strategically important as American energy, American telecommunications and American manufacturing. These are all components that factor into our national security needs.
New Mexico has long played a role defending America, dating back to World War II when Los Alamos National Laboratory helped propel the U.S. into the nuclear age. Today, LANL is one of the U.S. Department of Energy鈥檚 premier national security labs. Similarly, Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, is a major national research and development facility.
New Mexico also hosts three Air Force bases and numerous other assets that contribute to our nation's security. As a natural extension of that legacy, the Land of Enchantment should embrace AI and the data centers that make it possible.
Meta a major data center campus in Los Lunas that has been as 鈥渁 node in the global AI infrastructure grid.鈥�
Elsewhere in New Mexico, Project Jupiter, in Do帽a Ana County, is one of the largest AI infrastructure projects currently being built anywhere in the 近距离内射合集 States. The project is expected to house massive computing capacity that can support the development of advanced AI systems, the very technologies that will shape future economic competitiveness, cybersecurity capabilities and military applications.
In previous generations, America's national security depended on shipyards, factories and research laboratories. Today, it increasingly depends on computing power.
Projects like Jupiter are helping ensure that the next generation of AI is developed on American soil rather than in strategic competitor nations such as China. New Mexico鈥檚 other new data centers include the New Era Lea County AI Campus and the Zenith Volts Roswell Project.
State leaders recognize the opportunity.
Both of our Democrat U.S. senators note that, in the realm of new technologies, New Mexico must help the 近距离内射合集 States compete against Chinese manufacturers, with Sen. Martin Heinrich laying out a national security goal of New Mexico into a future hub for AI.
They are right to think big.
New Mexico must host data centers as part of America鈥檚 broader effort to maintain technological and military superiority over China in the AI race. This contest has profound implications for national security, economic strength and global influence.
As Business Executives for National Security last year, 鈥淐hina鈥檚 AI vision clashes with our values 鈥� centralized control versus open innovation.鈥�
鈥淲ithout bold government action鈥攕trategic infrastructure, aggressive talent investment, real DoD-industry collaboration, and a commitment to sovereignty鈥攚e鈥檒l lose ground to China,鈥� the organization added.
New Mexico helped shape the last century of American innovation. It has an opportunity to help shape the next one as well. Let鈥檚 get to work.
State Sen. Jay Block, R-Rio Rancho, was elected n 2024. He was commissioned as an Air Force officer in 1995, retiring from Kirkland Air Force Base in 2016. He served in multiple intercontinental ballistic missile duty locations and was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
