Where are the World’s Future High-Growth Colocation Markets?

RENO, NV, March 31, 2025

Last year Synergy released an article showing that just twenty metros account for 60% of the world’s current colocation market. While those key metros will continue to grow, it is notable that only three of them feature in Synergy’s list of future top twenty high-growth markets. The three markets that are both supersized and high growth are Northern Virginia, Mumbai and Phoenix. Based on Synergy’s colocation forecast, the metros with the highest colocation growth rates over the next five years will be Johor, Lagos, Santiago, Chennai, Kuala Lumpur, Queretaro, Jakarta and Mumbai. It is notable that five of these eight are in the APAC region, with the others being located in Latin America and Africa. While the US remains by far the largest country market, none of its metros make the top ten in terms of future growth rate, with Portland coming the closest. The European market with the highest growth rate will be Berlin. The research is based on Synergy's in-depth quarterly tracking of colocation markets, including both retail and wholesale segments. Synergy provides quarterly revenue data for almost 300 colocation companies, with breakouts for 59 countries and 89 individual metro markets. To be considered for this high-growth list, metros had to be substantial in size with at least $100 million in current annual colocation revenues. There is a strong local and national aspect to colocation, but on a worldwide basis the leading companies are Equinix, Digital Realty, NTT, China Telecom, CyrusOne, GDS, KDDI (Telehouse), Chindata and Centersquare.

“While the major colocation markets today are located in metros that have a large concentration of companies and economic activity, we are seeing the increasing emergence of many metros in countries that have smaller economies, but which are growing rapidly," said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “It is also the case that power or geographic constraints are limiting growth in some traditional colocation strongholds like Singapore, Amsterdam and Dublin, pushing future deployments into neighboring regions. These trends will gradually tilt the balance of power in the colocation world. While the geography of growth opportunities for colocation providers will shift, five years from now the largest markets will still be Northern Virginia, Beijing, Shanghai, London, Frankfurt and Singapore.”