There has been a story equivalent to that on the front page every few weeks for the last five years that I've been reading HN.
I attribute it to some kind of watch-goliath-fall fantasy. That has been amplified dramatically since Trump got elected. Since then, a couple dozen countries are now supposedly candidates to swipe a lot of tech talent away from the US. Nothing will come of it; even more high-skilled talent will actually make it to the US thanks to reforming the H-1B back to what it was supposed to be. Inbound, substantial corporate tax cuts will increase the power of the magnet luring start-ups to US shores.
Berlin - startup capital of Europe. Strong education system, low cost of living, dev salaries are held down by immigration from, and proximity to, Eastern Europe. Possible synergy with German automotive and manufacturing industries.
Shenzhen: global manufacturing hub, access to Chinese-speaking World. Major support from Chinese government. Possible synergy with supply chain, manufacturing, and logistics.
London: English speaking, global financial capital. Drawbacks include immigration questions and small population.
Toronto seems to be based largely on proximity to the US with a better healthcare and immigration system, plus the university of Waterloo.
Not sure what the obvious rationale would be for Vancouver or Chicago.
I think the closest contender isn't on this list because there's no need to fluff it up on a regular basis - New York. They don't need to keep telling themselves they'll be the next silicon valley.
Because it never recovered from the 2001 crash. Nortel is gone. Corel moved it's HQ overseas. The Adobe offices in Ottawa were having major layoffs in 2012.
Shopify came out of Ottawa, but it's the only one. A Rails dev in Ottawa is usually either working for Shopify or is unemployed.
I attribute it to some kind of watch-goliath-fall fantasy. That has been amplified dramatically since Trump got elected. Since then, a couple dozen countries are now supposedly candidates to swipe a lot of tech talent away from the US. Nothing will come of it; even more high-skilled talent will actually make it to the US thanks to reforming the H-1B back to what it was supposed to be. Inbound, substantial corporate tax cuts will increase the power of the magnet luring start-ups to US shores.