Virginia offers more hyperscale data center capacity than Europe or China: Synergy Research Group

Over half of the data center capacity hyperscalers operate worldwide is in the U.S., according to the most recent 2Q22 figures from Synergy Research Group. And the largest share of U.S. capacity remains in Virginia – where capacity exceeds the amounts that can be found in Europe and China, respectively, the market research firm states.

There are now more than 800 hyperscale data centers around the world, Synergy Research estimates. The U.S. is home to 53% of such capacity, measured by critical IT load, and well more than a third of that capacity can be found in Virginia. Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties in Northern Virginia, a.k.a Data Center Alley, is a hot spot, particularly in the Ashburn area. Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and ByteDance are among the hyperscalers with a presence in the region.

In Europe, the major centers are Ireland and the Netherlands. In China, companies such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu drive demand. Synergy Research focuses on the top 19 hyperscalers; cloud providers Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have the largest footprints, which each operating well more than 130 data centers, of which at least 25 are in each of the main regions of North America, APAC, and Europe. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Alibaba, and Tencent consume the most data capacity overall worldwide.

“Hyperscale operators take a lot of factors into account when deciding where to locate their data center infrastructure. This includes availability of suitable real estate, cost and availability of power supply options, proximity to customers, the risk of natural disasters, local incentives and approvals processes, the ease of doing business and internal business dynamics,” commented John Dinsdale, a chief analyst at Synergy Research Group. “This has inevitably led to some hyperscale hot spots.

“In Europe, the Netherlands and Ireland have always punched far above their weight, beating out countries with larger economies like Germany and the UK. But globally, the standout region is the U.S. state of Virginia,” Dinsdale continued. “Virginia has far more hyperscale data center capacity than either China or the whole continent of Europe. However, our analysis of the future data center pipeline shows that the relative importance of these hot spots will tail off a little over the next five years, as hyperscale infrastructure permeates a broader geographic footprint.”

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