US strengthens lead in global hyperscale rankings

The US has strengthened its position at the top of the global hyperscale data centre market, with 15 of the world’s 20 largest state or metro markets now located in the country, according to new analysis from Synergy Research Group.

Just 20 markets account for 60% of global hyperscale capacity, while Northern Virginia and Greater Beijing alone represent 17%. The next 20 largest markets account for a further 19%, showing how concentrated hyperscale infrastructure remains in a relatively small number of locations.

According to the analysis, power availability had become an increasingly important location criterion as AI infrastructure demand accelerates, helping some markets expand while constraints have pushed others down the rankings.

Us Markets Dominated the Top 20

Northern Virginia and Greater Beijing remained the world’s two largest hyperscale markets, followed by Oregon, Iowa, Ohio, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas.

Dublin followed, making it the only European location in the global top 20. Four markets were in the Asia-Pacific region, leaving the remaining 15 in the US.

US markets have become more dominant in the global top 20. Two years ago, seven of the 20 largest hyperscale locations were outside the US; today, that number has fallen to five.

Since last year, Tokyo, Sydney and South Carolina have dropped out, replaced by Indiana, Tennessee, and Guangdong.

Synergy attributed the prevalence of US markets partly to the structure of the hyperscale industry itself. Around 62% of hyperscale operators are headquartered in the US, while the country accounts for almost half of cloud market revenues across several major segments.

Power Increasingly Shaped Where Capacity Could Grow

Synergy identified a range of factors influencing hyperscale location decisions, including proximity to customers, real estate, networking infrastructure, financial incentives, political stability, and exposure to natural hazards.

AI demand has increased the importance of one constraint in particular.

John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group, said:

“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,” said John Dinsdale, Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group.

Dinsdale believed these factors are heavily influencing the geographic distribution of future infrastructure developments.

The findings show how hyperscale growth is increasingly tied to the markets that can still provide sufficient power and accommodate large developments.

Texas Emerged as One of the Fastest-growing Markets

The impact of those constraints can already be seen in the rankings.

Synergy said Dublin, Amsterdam, and Singapore had fallen down the rankings over the past two years because of local constraints, while Northern Virginia was no longer featuring as prominently in new development plans as it once did.

Texas moved in the opposite direction.

Operational hyperscale capacity in the state grew by 71% over the past year, almost twice the worldwide average growth rate of 36%.

Other high-growth markets identified by Synergy included Indiana, Tennessee, and South Virginia in the US, alongside Shanghai, Johor, and Jakarta.

The Top Three Held 57%

Concentration was also evident among the companies operating the infrastructure.

Synergy’s research covered the data centre footprints of 21 major cloud and internet service providers across SaaS, infrastructure and platform cloud services, search, social media, e-commerce and gaming.

Amazon, Microsoft and Google together accounted for 57% of global hyperscale data centre capacity, according to the research. They were followed by Meta, Alibaba, Tencent, Oracle, Apple, ByteDance and CoreWeave.

The three largest providers also have extensive international footprints, despite maintaining substantial capacity in their home US market.

That concentration helps explain why changes in the location strategies of a relatively small number of companies can significantly alter the global infrastructure map.

A 915-facility Pipeline Points to Further Change

The current rankings provide only a snapshot of a market that remains in rapid expansion.

Synergy said its known pipeline currently included 915 future hyperscale data centres at various stages of planning, development or fit-out. Its forecasts are based largely on tracking those future facilities.

Dinsdale said the pipeline indicated that location rankings would continue to change over the coming years.

The US and China are expected to remain dominant, but Synergy also expects a number of emerging tier-two markets to become more prominent.

The latest rankings show that AI is not only adding to hyperscale demand. It is also affecting where capacity can realistically be delivered, with power availability and development readiness increasingly shaping the global map.

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