The New Geography of Innovation by Mehran Gul The Global Contest for Breakthrough Technologies
What's it about? The New Geography of Innovation (2025) explores how cutting-edge technologies and high-growth startups are increasingly emerging outside traditional hubs such as Silicon Valley, reshaping the global innovation map. It investigates why certain regions suddenly become hotspots for breakthrough technologies, how government policy, talent, capital, and geopolitics interact in that process, and what this shift means for economic and technological power in the decades ahead. For most of your life, “innovation” probably meant a few familiar places: a handful of big-name companies in Silicon Valley, maybe a research lab or two you’d seen in the news. For decades, that picture wasn’t far off, with a few companies setting the global pace in computing, the internet, and smartphone design. However, that world is changing fast. Breakthroughs in AI, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and biotech are now emerging from cities you might struggle to place on a map. Governments ...