To this day, Silicon Valley remains the top technical hubs in the world. If it were a country, Silicon Valley would be second to only Qatar in terms of annual gross domestic product. However, Silicon Valley is not the world’s only tech hub. Across the globe, other cities and regions are beginning to emerge as hubs.
Singapore
Singapore’s strong research institutions and intellectual property protections fuel the development of an innovation culture. To make this innovation culture attractive, startup companies in Singapore are given access to funding through the government. This translates to speedy growth, as the number of startup companies in Singapore has nearly doubled from 2003 to 2016.
Tel Aviv
In Tel Aviv, the tech sector has the nation’s fastest industrial growth rate, namely in the subsectors of medicine, cybersecurity, and aerospace with regard to innovation. Tel Aviv is considered to be an up-and-coming tech hub because more startup companies per capita in the world – one startup for every 215 residents. Here, artificial intelligence is the most popular sector for startup companies – approximately 40% of all Tel Aviv-based startup companies are in the AI sector.
Shanghai
Unlike other tech hubs, the top industry sector in Shanghai is gaming. The market value of the gaming sector in Shanghai alone is valued at nearly $15 billion. Startup companies have been able to flourish in Shanghai due to government support – entrepreneurs are given a special visa in addition to $4.6 billion of funding. This is especially the case for Shanghai-based startup companies operating in the IT, biomedicine, advanced manufacturing, and new energy sectors.
Tokyo
Unlike the other locations mentioned, Tokyo is still emerging as a hub. Despite having top-quality infrastructure, the highly-educated talent pool is still diversifying and the venture capital base is still growing. Recently-passed measures have helped boost Tokyo’s tech ecosystem, namely the robotics and financial technology subsectors, as more talent comes to Japan from overseas.
New York City
Although the top tech sectors in New York City are cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and data analytics, the city is actually home to more educational technology companies than any other city in the United States. The quantity of edtech companies likely helped minimize the negative impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic, since 886 companies received nearly $16.2 billion in funding through venture capital deals in 2020. It is also worth noting that New York City is second to only Silicon Valley in terms of the number of early-stage investments.
Bangalore
Bangalore is the largest tech hub in India and, by extension, South Asia. From 2014 to 2020, between 30% to 40% of all Indian startup companies that received funding were based out of Bangalore. In addition to this local dominance, Bangalore has been one of the world’s top tech hubs for quite some time now. It has been the fastest-growing tech ecosystem in the world since 2016 and, in terms of funding, ranks sixth in the world for venture-capital investments.
Sources Cited
Manning, John. “Beyond Silicon Valley: A Look at Some of the World’s Key Tech Hubs.” International Banker, 2 Apr. 2021, internationalbanker.com/technology/beyond-silicon-valley-a-look-at-some-of-the-worlds-key-tech-hubs/.
“Top 7 Emerging Startup Hubs Around The World.” SwitchPitch Blog, 18 Feb. 2021, switchpitch.com/top-7-emerging-startup-hubs-around-the-world/.
Uta, Julia-Christina. “7 Important Tech Hubs of the World.” Brand Minds, 28 Jan. 2021, brandminds.ro/7-important-tech-hubs-of-the-world/.
Zanni, Tim. “Technology Innovation Hubs.” KMPG Technology Innovation Hubs Report, KMPG, info.kpmg.us/content/dam/info/en/pdf/2020/tech-innovation-hubs.pdf.