The Next Hotspot
A highly interactive, ten-chapter read on the global race to build AI infrastructure – where the power, the capital and the permission actually are.
A single buildout, and ten very different places to land it.
Artificial intelligence is a global capital event, but the things it needs – firm power, water, land, fibre and political permission – are stubbornly local. The Next Hotspot tracks where the next wave of data-centre construction actually lands, and where it stalls, across ten markets on five continents.
Three things decide every market: can you power it, can you fund it, and will they let you build it. Each chapter is read against those three.
Ten chapters across six regions, from Johannesburg and Santiago to Johor, Mumbai, Abu Dhabi, Virginia and Frankfurt – each a different answer to the same pressure.
A scored readiness read, a findings file graded claim by claim, annotated primary documents, and a map of the market – the same instruments, applied place by place.
The work itself, on the page.
The instruments this report publishes in – each one live and sourced down to the line. Where the same instrument runs across several markets, switch between examples beneath the card. Open any of them.
Every project, graded.
Announced against verified-live capacity, megawatt by megawatt, each row carrying the one constraint that actually binds the build. Live in the Brazil chapter.
Open the ledger
Every project, graded.
The same megawatt-by-megawatt read applied to Batam and the Nongsa corridor, each row carrying the constraint that binds it. Live in the Indonesia chapter.
Open the ledger
Every project, graded.
Announced against verified-live capacity across the Johannesburg cluster, constraint by constraint. Live in the South Africa chapter.
Open the ledger
The paper trail.
Primary sources marked up claim by claim, each tied to its grade and drawn straight from the issuing authority. Live in the Europe chapter.
Open the document
The licence, marked up.
A grid ruling read line by line, each passage tied to its grade and drawn from the issuing authority. Live in the South Africa chapter.
Open the document
The filing, line by line.
Budget papers and policy notes annotated claim by claim, each tied to its grade. Live in the India chapter.
Open the document
The case, on the board.
Findings pinned and graded Verified, Announced or Contested, each tied to a primary source. Live in the India chapter.
Open the file
Seven economies, on file.
Each free zone opened as its own dossier, from Batam and Nongsa to the templates they were built against. Live in the Indonesia chapter.
Open the file
The market, mapped.
Eighteen clusters across Europe, from FLAP–D to the next-wave zones, each node opening its own file. Live in the Europe chapter.
Open the map
The market, mapped.
Enter by continent or by country and jump straight to any market. The full interactive directory.
Open the map
The market, mapped.
The regional map for the Gulf – nodes, corridors and the sites that anchor them.
Open the map
The market, mapped.
The regional map for India – the campuses, the grid and the coastline that feeds them.
Open the map
Power, capital, permission.
Each market scored against the three things that decide every build – can you power it, can you fund it, will they let you. The Gulf read, scored across eight indicators.
Open the scorecard
Power, capital, permission.
The same three-part readiness read, scored indicator by indicator. Live in the India chapter.
Open the scorecard
Power, capital, permission.
Power, capital and permission, scored for the archipelago. Live in the Indonesia chapter.
Open the scorecard
Where each market sits.
Plot the ten on any two forces to see the clusters, and who wins for opposite reasons. The full positioning map.
Open the comparison
The numbers, side by side.
Markets read against one another factor by factor, each series tracked over a decade. Live in the Kenya · Morocco · Nigeria chapter.
Open the comparison
Sixty years in one frame.
How an economy arrived at this moment, traced decade by decade. Nigeria, across the long view.
Open the timeline
Sixty years in one frame.
The same decade-by-decade arc, traced for Morocco. Live in the Kenya · Morocco · Nigeria chapter.
Open the timeline
Sixty years in one frame.
The long arc for Kenya, decade by decade. Live in the Kenya · Morocco · Nigeria chapter.
Open the timeline
Today, and what comes next.
Site by site, what stands today against what the build-out adds – the projection fades to the installed reality. Live in the Europe chapter.
Open the lookahead
Today, and what comes next.
The same site read two ways – what stands now and what a chosen path builds. The United States lookahead.
Open the lookahead
Today, and what comes next.
What stands now at KAEC and NEOM against what is announced. Live in the Gulf chapter.
Open the lookahead
Every claim is graded. Nothing is taken on trust.
The Next Hotspot is built on open-source intelligence – public filings, regulator records, company disclosures and primary documents – cross-checked against contributors working in each market. Four principles run beneath every chapter. Tap through them.
Verified, Announced, or Contested
Every material claim carries a grade, so you always know how solid the ground is. Verified is on the public record. Announced is stated by a party but not yet independently confirmed. Contested is disputed or unresolved. The same key runs through all ten chapters.
Primary documents, annotated line by line
Where a chapter rests on a key document – a licence, a grid ruling, a filing – we show the source and mark up the passages that matter, each tied to its grade. In production every annotated tab carries the actual document text, drawn from the issuing authority.
Partners on the record, named
Specialist briefs – the regulatory read with Simmons & Simmons, the hardware teardown with our technical partner – are labelled as contributed analysis and attributed to a named author. Contributed work is reviewed and approved by the contributor before publication, and it is not advice.
Models tagged, projections framed, no paymaster
Every modelled figure is tagged as modelled and every projection is framed as such – never dressed as fact. The report carries no sponsors, so nothing here is shaped to please one. Logos shown identify parties for evaluation, not endorsement.