A handful of locations around the world make the world wide web work. They are called Global Internet Hubs, and are all thriving cities. But this is about to change.
The world’s next Global Internet Hub isn’t a single city but rather America’s 12th megaregion known as the I-64 Innovation Corridor.
Located just two hours south of Washington, D.C., the I-64 Innovation Corridor is comprised of Richmond and Hampton Roads, two neighboring Virginia localities. This 8,000-square-mile megaregion has a combined population of 3 million-plus residents, placing it among the top 20 largest U.S. population centers.
Global Internet Hubs have seven core interrelated components that define their world-class digital infrastructure. As highly collaborative neighboring localities, the Richmond region and Hampton Roads have all seven of these components, and more, putting the I-64 Innovation Corridor on the global interconnection hub map.
The I-64 Innovation Corridor also has gained a place on the intercontinental internet map. Since 2019, this corridor has experienced a 73% compound annual growth rate in international internet bandwidth, according to TeleGeography. This statistic paired with the enormous digital infrastructure investments already made here and the billions of dollars in existing and proposed data centers leaves no doubt that the I-64 Innovation Corridor is well on its way in becoming a Global Internet Hub.
