Türkiye has broken ground on a data center campus in Ankara that officials say could represent $4.1 billion of fixed investment when fully developed, giving the country one of its most consequential tests yet as a destination for foreign capital in cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The project, backed by Turkish infrastructure group Rönesans and US-listed data center operator Digital Realty, matters beyond its initial 22-megawatt capacity. It will test whether Türkiye can combine dependable power, international connectivity, regulatory certainty and investment incentives into a credible alternative to established European data center hubs.
From Groundbreaking to a Bankable Project
The campus is being developed in the Başkent Organized Industrial Zone at Temelli, west of Ankara. At the October 19 groundbreaking ceremony, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır said the initial facility would require $450 million for basic infrastructure and construction, followed by approximately $900 million for cooling and information technology systems. He put the eventual fixed investment across all phases at $4.1 billion, according to Anadolu Agency.
The first phase is expected to provide more than 22 MW of IT capacity and roughly 10,000 square meters of carrier-neutral data center space. Rönesans expects it to enter service in 2028, while the partners also intend to develop a second campus in Istanbul.
The headline investment figure requires careful interpretation. When the joint venture was announced in September, Digital Realty confirmed the 22 MW Ankara campus, secured land, power and permits, but did not assign a $4.1 billion value to it. Rönesans subsequently said its broader partnership with Digital Realty could reach 200 MW and involve up to $3 billion of direct development investment.
At the groundbreaking, Rönesans President Emeritus Erman Ilıcak described a wider capital model in which facility developers build the powered shells and customers install servers, networking equipment and other technology. Rönesans said the Ankara investment could reach $4.1 billion over three years, while the planned Istanbul campus could involve $1.7 billion from the developer and $3.3 billion from tenants.
The figures therefore appear to combine different categories of spending and possibly different phases. For investors, the relevant questions are how much equity and debt have been committed, which expenditures depend on customer leasing, and whether the 2028 operational target applies only to the first facility. A groundbreaking establishes momentum, but capacity reservations, power-delivery milestones and anchor-tenant contracts will determine the commercial outcome.
Ankara Is Becoming a Digital Infrastructure Cluster
The Rönesans-Digital Realty venture is part of a wider concentration of projects around Ankara rather than a standalone bet. UAE-based Khazna Data Centers announced in April 2025 that it had secured a site in the same Başkent Organized Industrial Zone for an AI-capable campus with potential capacity of up to 100 MW, according to Khazna.
Trendyol and Castle Investments separately announced a $500 million, 48 MW Ankara Data Hub in June 2025. Its first 9.6 MW phase was scheduled to become operational in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Turkish Investment and Finance Office. Turkcell already operates a major Temelli facility and reported 50 MW of active IT capacity across its four next-generation Turkish data centers at the end of 2025.
Demand is also being strengthened by hyperscale cloud investment. Google Cloud announced in November 2025 that it planned to establish a Turkish cloud region with Turkcell as part of Google’s ten-year, $2 billion investment in the country. Turkcell said it would invest another $1 billion in data centers and cloud technologies. Google Cloud identified data residency, lower latency and access to AI and cybersecurity services as core reasons for the deployment.
These commitments can reinforce one another. A larger base of operators attracts telecommunications carriers, cloud platforms, cybersecurity providers and specialist contractors. Greater network density, in turn, makes carrier-neutral facilities more valuable.
However, clustering also creates competition for electrical capacity, qualified technicians, fiber routes and major customers. Ankara’s advantages include its role as the seat of government, access to public-sector and defense-related demand, relatively affordable land and the ability to provide geographic diversity from Istanbul. Its weakness is that international connectivity still depends on resilient long-haul routes to Türkiye’s principal commercial and cable gateways. Investors must assess fiber-path diversity and latency, not merely the distance between Ankara, Europe and the Middle East.
Incentives Support the Economics, but Eligibility Is Project-Specific
The government is treating data centers as strategic infrastructure. Kacır said Türkiye is targeting at least 1 GW of installed data center capacity by 2030 under its 2026-2030 Artificial Intelligence Action Plan. The Rönesans-Digital Realty partnership’s prospective 200 MW would equal one-fifth of that national objective.
Ankara has connected this target to HIT-30, a high-technology investment program through which the government plans to direct $30 billion of incentives by 2030. Kacır said the HIT-Data Center call has a $1.4 billion support budget for projects of at least 30 MW, while the HIT-Artificial Intelligence call carries $1.6 billion for cloud and AI infrastructure.
Türkiye’s wider investment regime may provide VAT and customs-duty exemptions for qualifying machinery, corporate tax reductions, land allocation, energy or infrastructure support, and assistance with permit procedures. The Investment and Finance Office reported that 432 incentive certificates, covering TRY109.5 billion of investment, were issued to international investors in 2025.
Availability does not mean automatic entitlement. The Ankara project’s announced first phase, at more than 22 MW, is below the 30 MW threshold described for the data center call. Eligibility could depend on whether authorities assess the entire campus, an aggregated investment plan or each phase separately. Investors must also establish which expenses qualify, whether imported servers and cooling systems receive the same treatment as construction, and how incentives interact with depreciation, financing and related-party arrangements.
This makes investment-incentive advisory work important before procurement contracts are signed. The sequencing of the incentive certificate, import documentation and capital expenditure can affect whether tax and customs benefits are preserved.
Power Is the Critical Constraint
Data centers convert power availability into computing capacity, making grid access more important than headline construction cost. The first 22 MW figure refers to IT equipment, not total facility consumption. Cooling, power conversion and backup systems will push actual demand higher.
Türkiye has considerable generation capacity. The Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources reported 126,944 MW of installed capacity at the end of August 2026, including 22 percent solar, 12.2 percent wind and 25.5 percent hydropower. Yet the generation mix remains more carbon-intensive than the capacity figures suggest. In 2025, coal produced 33.6 percent of electricity and natural gas 23 percent, while solar, wind, hydro and geothermal together contributed about 40 percent, according to the Energy Ministry.
The national 1 GW data center target would represent 8.76 terawatt-hours of annual IT electricity use if fully loaded continuously, before cooling and other overhead. That is equivalent to roughly 2.4 percent of Türkiye’s 2025 electricity consumption of 360.9 TWh. The calculation is illustrative, since utilization will vary, but it shows why transmission capacity, substations and renewable procurement must advance alongside new campuses.
Foreign developers will need bankable grid-connection commitments, redundancy across substations, transparent tariff assumptions and a credible route to lower-carbon electricity. Renewable power-purchase arrangements, on-site generation and efficiency measures can reduce exposure, but they require regulatory, technical and land-use coordination. Project management must therefore integrate energy engineering with construction schedules rather than treating electricity as a standard utility connection.
Data Sovereignty Creates Demand and Compliance Obligations
Türkiye’s policy emphasis on digital sovereignty is commercially significant. Keeping sensitive workloads closer to users can reduce latency and help banks, airlines, government institutions and regulated businesses manage residency and operational-resilience requirements.
Local hosting, however, does not by itself establish legal compliance. Türkiye amended Article 9 of Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 in 2024, introducing mechanisms such as adequacy decisions, binding corporate rules and standard contracts for overseas transfers. The Personal Data Protection Authority requires standard contracts to be notified within five business days of signature, as set out in its official English text.
A multinational using an Ankara facility may still generate cross-border transfers through remote administration, technical support, disaster recovery, security monitoring or integration with global cloud regions. Investors therefore need to map data flows, allocate controller and processor responsibilities, establish cybersecurity governance and review sector-specific rules before onboarding customers.
Türkiye’s Cybersecurity Law No. 7545, adopted in March 2025, adds another layer to the operating environment. Legal and tax compliance must be built into facility design, contracting and incident-response procedures. Government relations also matter because data center operations intersect with the Industry and Technology Ministry, telecommunications authorities, energy institutions, data-protection regulators, organized industrial zone management and local permitting bodies.
What This Means for Foreign Investors
The Ankara project signals that Türkiye is moving from conventional colocation toward larger, AI-ready and hyperscale infrastructure. That shift is supported by domestic demand, government incentives and a growing group of international operators. It is not yet proof that Türkiye has become a regional data hub. Delivery will depend on power, fiber, customers and regulatory execution through 2028 and beyond.
A prospective investor should begin with market-entry analysis that distinguishes domestic cloud demand from transit or regional demand. Site selection should test power availability, seismic design, fiber diversity, water and cooling requirements, construction capacity and proximity to customers.
Company incorporation and corporate structuring must address land rights, joint-venture governance, foreign financing, profit repatriation and currency exposure. Investment-incentive work should establish eligibility before capital orders are placed. Legal and tax compliance must cover data transfers, cybersecurity, sector rules, employment and related-party contracts.
Import-export facilitation will be material because high-value servers, accelerators, cooling equipment, switchgear and backup systems may cross multiple customs regimes and face long lead times. Government relations can help coordinate regulators and infrastructure providers, while project management is needed to align permitting, grid delivery, procurement, construction and customer commissioning.
For technology vendors without an immediate permanent footprint, expo and trade-fair representation can also provide a lower-risk route to identify operators, contractors and anchor customers. The investment opportunity is substantial, but capturing it will require disciplined on-the-ground execution as much as capital.