20 Markets Hold 60% Of Hyperscale Data Center Capacity – Synergy

Only 20 state or metro markets account for 60% of global hyperscale data center capacity, according to Synergy Research Group. Northern Virginia leads with 11% of the total, followed by Beijing at 6%. The US dominates the top 20, with 15 markets, while four are in APAC and one is in Europe: Dublin.

Tokyo, Sydney, and South Carolina have dropped out of the top 20, replaced by Guangdong in China and Indiana and Tennessee in the US. The next 20 largest markets account for another 19% of global hyperscale capacity, with greater representation from APAC. Synergy attributed the US dominance to 62% of hyperscale operators being headquartered there, while the country generates nearly half of global cloud market revenue in key segments.

“A range of factors influence the choice of location for hyperscale infrastructure, including proximity to customers, availability and cost of real estate, availability and cost of power, networking infrastructure, ease of doing business, local financial incentives, political stability, and minimizing the impact of natural hazards,” said John Dinsdale, chief analyst at Synergy Research Group. “With the extremely rapid growth in demand for AI technology and infrastructure, availability of power has become an ever more critical criterion, as has the ability to overcome or work around local community objections to building large data centers. These factors are heavily influencing the geographic distribution of future infrastructure developments.”