Capacity Geography and the Next Wave
Compute capacity does not spread evenly; it clusters, and it clusters for reasons you can name: cheap and available power, permitting speed, fiber density, climate, tax treatment, and proximity to existing gravity. The map of where capacity is concentrating today is a map of those advantages, and the map of where it is moving next is a map of where the old clusters ran out of power and the new advantages emerged. Learn to read capacity geography and you can see the next wave forming before it breaks, because the constraints that push it are visible years in advance.
Knowledge check
What is the single factor most responsible for pushing new data-center capacity away from established hubs toward emerging markets, and why?
Show the answer
Power, specifically the availability of large, deliverable electricity capacity on a workable timeline. Established hubs like northern Virginia have saturated their grids and now face multi-year interconnection queues and moratoria, so new capacity migrates to places that can actually deliver hundreds of megawatts soon, even if other attributes are less ideal.