Ep. 254 - Rob Hopewell: It’s Not a Bubble, and Your Phone Is a Data Center (Yes, That One) from The QTS Experience

Ep. 254 - Rob Hopewell: It’s Not a Bubble, and Your Phone Is a Data Center (Yes, That One)

1 hour Posted Jul 9, 2026 at 2:05 pm.

From UUNET to now — the early internet, peering, MAE East/West

“Unprecedented” — solving first-time problems (spiky AI load, the utility)

Selling power, not square feet — the model that changed the industry

A day in the life running QTS sales — deals at the C-level

What the dot-com bust taught him — strategy, relationships, hustle

The 2016 hyperscale pivot — the Freedom Design and the availability zones

“Plan B: make plan A work” — the first deal, and Blackstone

EdgeConneX and what “the edge” really is

Building speculatively — the formula that won Atlanta

The messaging problem — what a data center actually is

Why AI isn’t a bubble (and meeting OpenAI in 2017)

“One throat to choke,” building sales talent, and the takeaway: culture

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Show notes

Rob Hopewell’s been in data centers so long I keep accusing him of starting at 11 — UUNET, EdgeConneX, now running QTS sales. We get into why this AI moment isn’t the dot-com bust, why the phone in your hand is a data center, and how our industry can finally explain itself.

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Links:

Rob Hopewell on LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/robhopewell/]

QTS Data Centers: Q.com

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