The New Geography of Innovation: The Global Contest For Breakthrough Technologies

In this groundbreaking book, Mehran Gul maps the recentwaves of technological advancement up until the current moment to show howinnovation becomes a far more global game.

This is a story about technology and the places where itfinds its way into the world. Silicon Valley has been unrivalled forhalf-a-century in spinning out technologies and fast-growing, high value,billion plus dollar tech companies the Apples, Facebooks, Googles of theworld that made it the centre for the most rapid creation of wealth in humanhistory. But now its secrets are spreading to more parts of the world.

It used to be rare for a new company to reach abillion-dollar scale. In 2013 there were only 39 privately held billion-dollartech companies in the world. Now, it happens a lot. In 2023, there are over1,200. And it used to be only in the US that these sorts of companies could befound. In 2013, only 12 of the 39 privately held billion-dollar companies werebased outside the US. Now, theyre everywhere. In 2023, over 500, nearly halfof all billion-dollar tech companies, are overseas.

The geography of innovation is shifting. The modern worldhas a lot more high value tech companies than ever before, growing a lot fasterthan ever before, in a lot more places than ever before. The broad contours ofthis emerging world are visible dimly in the distance. This book has been anattempt to chart its bold new frontiers.

About the Author

Mehran Gul thinks and writes about business and technology.He has been a Lead for the Digital Transformation of Industries at the WorldEconomic Forum in Geneva and an Expert on Higher Education, Entrepreneurship,and Industrial Policy at the United Nations Industrial DevelopmentOrganisation.

He completed his undergraduate degree in Lahore, thengraduated from Yale as a Fulbright scholar.

The New Geography of Innovationwon theFinancialTimes/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize for writers under 35.