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I think this is an excellent point. While Detroit has a relatively small population, it's metropolitan area does not. It's large metropolitan area has a large S

I think this is an excellent point. While Detroit has a relatively small population, it's metropolitan area does not. It's large metropolitan area has a large STEM talent pool thanks to the automotive sector, the second largest Delta hub (behind Atlanta and just a giant airport anyways), and has a very willing government plus Dan Gilbert. It'll be a uphill battle, but I think Detroit is a serious dark horse.

flamedoge 9y ago
but big question is, will Amazon go into automotive sector? otherwise, I don't see Detroit being their pick.
- nkozyra 9y ago
  Perhaps the point was that there may be some transferable technical talent already in place. Plenty of programmers, statisticians, UX experts, data scientists and IT folks needed for modern auto companies.
hpcjoe 9y ago
Dan Gilbert has created RocketFiber. 1Gb for $79/month residential and business in Detroit. 10Gb available for reasonable amounts. When I was running my own company, I came quite close to looking at spots there. I was in Plymouth (30 miles west), but needed lots of bandwidth at the time, and DC hosting wasnt an option. FWIW: you could do air cooled DCs up and down the Michigan west coast. Wonderfully cool air coming off a natural chiller, Lake Michigan, cheap power, excellent transportation infrastructure, very business friendly state government ... though sometimes they lurch the other way, most of the time they don't do stupid things. I tried gauging investor interest in this model of DCs a few years ago ... few thought DCs were a growth industry, and clouds/hosting was a fad. Go figure.