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Northern Virginia alone accounts for nearly 12% of global capacity, though new builds are shifting inland
The US now accounts for 15 of the world's 20 largest hyperscale datacenter markets, with Northern Virginia alone hosting nearly 12 percent of global capacity.
US locations have increased their dominance of the rankings as cloud infrastructure expands, according to Synergy Research.
Since last year, Tokyo, Sydney, and South Carolina have dropped out of the top 20, replaced by Indiana, Tennessee, and China's Guangdong province.
Of the remaining five markets, four are in Asia-Pacific, while Europe has just one: Dublin.
Synergy attributes the US dominance to two factors: 62 percent of the world's hyperscale operators are headquartered there, including the four largest, and the country accounts for almost half of cloud revenue across several key segments.
The US also has abundant land for enormous campuses such as Meta's Hyperion project in Richland Parish, Louisiana, which is expected to accommodate up to 5 GW of infrastructure.
Northern Virginia leads the global market for hyperscale datacenter capacity Synergy Research Group
Hyperscale datacenters are vast facilities designed to support the computing requirements of major cloud and internet operators. Synergy's analysis covers the infrastructure of 21 such companies across cloud services, search, social media, ecommerce, and gaming.
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have the broadest datacenter footprints and together account for 57 percent of global hyperscale capacity, according to Synergy. They are followed by Meta, Alibaba, Tencent, Oracle, Apple, ByteDance, and CoreWeave.
A range of factors influence the choice of location for hyperscale infrastructure, says Synergy chief analyst John Dinsdale. These include proximity to customers; the availability and cost of real estate and power; networking infrastructure; local financial incentives; political stability; and exposure to natural hazards.
"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 datacenters. These factors are heavily influencing the geographic distribution of future infrastructure developments," Dinsdale adds.
According to the New York Times, Loudoun County in Northern Virginia is home to roughly 250 datacenters and expects to collect about $1.3 billion next year from taxes on the equipment inside them.
Loudoun County may be an exception. A report earlier this year found that states were forgoing billions in revenue through incentives offered to datacenter operators, with Virginia's concessions estimated to cost it $1.94 billion.
Northern Virginia does not feature as prominently in new development plans as it once did, according to Dinsdale. Meanwhile, operational hyperscale capacity in Texas has grown by 71 percent over the past year, compared with 36 percent worldwide.
Synergy is tracking another 915 hyperscale facilities at various stages of planning, development, or fit-out, Dinsdale adds. ®
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