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

Book Introduction | The New Geography of Innovation

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

Mehrun Gul | HarperCollins / Simon & Schuster | 2025

One of the most widely accepted assumptions of the technology age is that innovation is born in Silicon Valley and then spreads to the rest of the world. For more than half a century, this narrative was largely accurate. Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, and hundreds of other companies emerged from an ecosystem unlike any other in the world.

However, in The New Geography of Innovation, Mehrun Gul raises a fundamental question: does the world still operate according to this model, or is the geography of innovation undergoing a profound transformation?

Gul, winner of the prestigious Financial Times/McKinsey Bracken Bower Prize and a former professional affiliated with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), examines one of the most significant transformations in the global economy: the globalization of innovation.

The central premise of the book is simple but consequential. For decades, Silicon Valley was viewed as an exceptional and almost impossible-to-replicate model. Yet today, many of the world’s most strategic technologies are being developed outside the United States. The world’s leading semiconductor manufacturing company is located in Taiwan. The most advanced semiconductor equipment producer is based in the Netherlands. A significant share of the global battery industry has emerged in East Asia, while some of the most successful artificial intelligence ecosystems have developed in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, and China.

Therefore, the book begins with a central question: Is the world entering an era in which innovation will no longer be concentrated in a small number of geographical locations?

Unlike many technology books that focus primarily on companies, Mehrun Gul focuses on ecosystems. He argues that understanding innovation requires examining cities, universities, investors, industrial policies, entrepreneurial cultures, migration patterns, and knowledge networks. Technology is the outcome of these interconnected processes rather than their starting point.

Throughout the book, the author examines several emerging innovation hubs around the world.

China represents one of the most important examples. Gul explains how the country has transformed over the past two decades from a low-cost manufacturing center into one of the world’s leading technology powers. Companies such as Tencent, BYD, Huawei, and ByteDance demonstrate that innovation no longer necessarily originates in the West. However, the author avoids presenting an overly simplistic picture of China’s technological rise and also explores the limitations and challenges of its model.

South Korea represents another major case study in the book. Through industrial policy, investment in education, and support for large technology companies, the country has built one of the world’s most advanced technology sectors. In this narrative, Samsung is not merely a corporation; it represents how a nation can transform itself into a technology-driven economy.

Canada receives attention from another perspective. Gul demonstrates how the combination of strong universities, skilled immigration, and investment in fundamental research has helped transform Canada into one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence hubs. According to the author, the role of immigration in shaping innovation ecosystems is far more significant than is commonly recognized.

One of the most engaging sections of the book focuses on Europe. Contrary to the perception that Europe has fallen behind the United States and China in technological competition, Gul shows that many critical technologies are developed within European countries. From ASML in the Netherlands to Arm in the United Kingdom and innovation ecosystems in Switzerland and the Nordic countries, Europe remains a significant actor in the global technology economy.

Perhaps the book’s most important contribution, however, is its challenge to the conventional “United States versus China” framework. Many analyses of global technology competition view the world primarily through the lens of Washington and Beijing. Gul argues that this perspective is incomplete. In reality, dozens of innovation ecosystems are emerging across the world, each following its own model for technological development.

For researchers in technopolitics, the importance of this book lies in connecting technology with geography. In many analyses, technology is treated as a global phenomenon without a specific location. Gul demonstrates that the place where technologies are developed continues to matter. Universities, organizational cultures, immigration policies, venture capital markets, and national strategies all influence the trajectory of innovation.

The New Geography of Innovation ultimately addresses a fundamental question:

Where will the technologies of the future be created?

Mehrun Gul’s answer is clear: Silicon Valley remains the world’s most important innovation hub, but it is no longer the only one. The world has entered an era in which competition to create transformative technologies has become more global than ever before, and this transformation will reshape the map of economic and technological power in the twenty-first century.