I don't know, that place has actually tracked SV in a lot of ways, from a good university, to a concentration of smart people, to some good VC's, to being a nice place, to ... rampant NIMBYism that has driven housing prices up to nearly 700K (Zillow).
Your metric of comparison is a sports conference?
Oh FFS. When you're visiting, sure. But not after you've lived here a few weeks and your body has built more red blood cells. That's why cyclists come here to train -- it's legal blood doping.
ABQ is a starkly beautiful midsize city with an unusually high number of nuclear physicists. That's necessary but far from sufficient for being a tech center. And as far as I could tell, the city's ideal is for a relatively small number of relatively large employers, not in hundreds of 5-20 employee firms.
Besides, if you're interested in working for one of those firms, let alone starting one, Denver's only six or seven hours north.
I mention that last part as I think Zappos being in LV has pulled some tech interest into LV.
We also have this good news/bad news airport situation: The airport is in the middle of town and it's VERY easy to get in and out of quickly. OTOH there are few direct flights anywhere -- the Bay area being a notable exception.
As for the "international" aspect of ABQ, that's mostly wishful thinking. There might be a few flights to/from Mexico, but that's about it.
EDIT: Here's the list of nonstop destinations. Looks like there aren't any direct international flights, period. http://www.abqsunport.com/flightsairlines/destinations/
I went to school there (CC) but that was back in the early 90's so I'm not exactly up on things, but I've long considered reconnecting with the area, finding an excuse to open a satellite office or something.
In my memory the Springs was pretty sleepy and outside of the small little hippie commune liberal arts college was mostly comprised of retired or military or both.
Does Colorado Springs figure at all in Colorado's business/tech scene?
My knowledge is pretty out of date, I imagine it has exploded into a national security apparatus city as well by now.
COS had the good seeds of a tech hub prior to the dot com melt down. Lots of cities did.
But what I think helped drain the potential was 9/11 and the uptick in defense contracting. All the engineers went to one of several contractors and all the non-engineers who would get involved in startups left town because they couldn't find engineers who would take the risk.
It's a great town if you want to work on the fringes, or commute to Denver, or work in government contracting. Since none of those three fit my needs I packed it up and moved to the Broomfield corridor (I couldn't afford Boulder proper).
I don't know about the Math at Boulder, but I haven't heard much fair or negative about it. Not enough data to make any conclusions.
AMC is alright, but it's post-undergrad/grad-school only, so anything you hear has that flavor added. Lots of med-y students though, few researchers in small labs (<3 grad students/PI).
CU-CS? No idea, never talked to anyone that graduated there or is there now. Guess that means it's not super good or super bad then, again, not enough data.
Colorado has its own problems and housing costs are rising, but there are plenty of places to live here that are affordable. Even if you live in Denver, I think you get a better value for your salary than in SV.