Digital Realty has broken ground on a carrier-neutral data center campus in Ankara with more than 22 megawatts of planned IT capacity, giving Türkiye one of its most consequential foreign digital-infrastructure investments to date. The facility, being developed through a joint venture with Rönesans Infrastructure, is scheduled for completion in 2028. More than another server farm, the project tests whether Türkiye can convert its geographic reach, expanding domestic cloud demand and push for data sovereignty into a competitive regional platform linking Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Digital Realty Establishes a Turkish Foothold
Data Center Dynamics reported on October 20, 2026, that construction had begun approximately five weeks after Digital Realty and Rönesans announced their joint venture. Digital Realty said in September that land, power and permitting had already been secured and early works were under way.
The first Ankara facility is intended to serve domestic enterprises, public-sector bodies and digital service providers. Digital Realty has not disclosed its precise location, construction budget, energy-efficiency targets, customer commitments or the partners’ respective equity stakes. That absence of detail matters in an industry where access to substations, redundant fiber routes and anchor tenants can be more important than headline capacity.
The 22MW figure refers to IT load rather than total electricity consumption. Once cooling, power conversion and other support systems are included, the campus will draw more power than its stated IT capacity. How much more will depend on its power usage effectiveness, cooling system and eventual equipment density.
The Ankara development is the first stage of a broader strategy. Digital Realty’s formal announcement said the partners also plan a facility in Istanbul, Türkiye’s main financial and connectivity center. Data Center Dynamics reported that the joint venture could eventually develop as much as 200MW across Türkiye, with investment reaching $3 billion. Those figures represent a potential long-term program, not committed expenditure for the first building.
For Digital Realty, Türkiye extends PlatformDIGITAL, its global colocation and interconnection network, into a market between its established European presence and the Gulf’s rapidly expanding cloud ecosystem. The company said in September that it operated more than 300 facilities across over 55 metropolitan markets in more than 30 countries. Its scale could help attract international carriers and cloud platforms that might hesitate to enter a standalone local facility.
Rönesans brings a different set of assets: construction capacity, domestic institutional knowledge and experience financing complex infrastructure. Erman Ilıcak, president emeritus of Rönesans Holding, said the group had delivered more than $10 billion of private-sector investment in Türkiye and had worked with partners including the International Finance Corporation, TotalEnergies, Meridiam, GIC, Samsung and Sojitz. The partnership model therefore combines a foreign operator’s customer ecosystem with a Turkish developer’s execution and stakeholder-management capabilities.
Why Ankara Is Becoming a Data Center Cluster
Istanbul remains Türkiye’s primary interconnection market, but Ankara offers a distinct demand base. The capital concentrates government institutions, defense and aerospace organizations, universities, regulated enterprises and public data workloads. Locating computing capacity inland also provides geographic diversification from facilities clustered around Istanbul and the Marmara region.
DE-CIX said in October 2025 that 93 percent of international networks peering in Istanbul were present on its platform. It nevertheless identified Ankara, Izmir and Van as emerging nodes in a more distributed national network. Ankara will still require resilient, low-latency connectivity to Istanbul’s exchanges and international routes. The commercial value of Digital Realty’s facility will therefore depend on securing multiple physically separate fiber paths and persuading carriers to establish points of presence on campus.
The project is not entering an empty field. In April 2025, G42-backed Khazna Data Centers announced a site in Ankara’s Başkent Organized Industrial Zone with potential capacity of up to 100MW. Khazna described the development as AI-ready and cited Stanford University’s 2025 AI Index, which recorded a 198 percent increase in Türkiye’s concentration of AI talent between 2016 and 2024.
In June 2025, Trendyol and Castle Investments announced the 48MW Ankara Data Hub in Temelli. Türkiye’s Investment and Finance Office put its development cost at approximately $500 million and said its first 9.6MW phase was scheduled for the third quarter of 2026. Trendyol is expected to consume a significant portion itself, with the balance marketed to cloud and enterprise users.
Google Cloud and Turkcell added another major commitment in November 2025. The partners announced a combined $3 billion program, comprising $2 billion from Google over ten years and $1 billion from Turkcell, to establish Türkiye’s first Google Cloud region. Google Cloud chief executive Thomas Kurian said the region would connect Türkiye to the company’s network of 42 cloud regions and offer accelerated computing, storage, analytics and cybersecurity services. Turkcell has indicated an expected operational window around 2028 to 2029.
Collectively, these projects change Ankara’s position from secondary data-center location to potential hyperscale cluster. They also create a risk of supply arriving ahead of demand. A 22MW facility can be phased, but returns will ultimately depend on contracted occupancy, electricity pricing and the depth of Ankara’s carrier ecosystem. Announced capacity should not be treated as operational capacity, particularly while completion schedules, tenants and financing arrangements remain partly undisclosed.
Government Policy Is Accelerating the Market
Türkiye is explicitly trying to turn data centers and artificial intelligence into an FDI category. Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır said in June 2026 that the government intended to provide approximately $3 billion in public funding to mobilize $10 billion of private investment in data centers and AI. He also said at least 2 percent of public investment expenditure would be allocated to AI projects.
The policy reflects a broader effort to retain more domestic data processing and develop local AI capacity. Kacır said the government wanted Türkiye’s data to remain in the country and be processed using domestic models, while making at least 2,000 public datasets available to Turkish AI developers.
Digital infrastructure is also becoming more visible in FDI statistics. According to Central Bank data cited by the Investment and Finance Office, Türkiye attracted $13.1 billion of FDI in 2025, an increase of 12.2 percent from 2024. Information and communication received $1.31 billion, or 14 percent of total inflows, ranking behind trade and manufacturing. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said FDI excluding real estate reached $10.7 billion, its highest level in a decade.
Government backing does not make support automatic. Investors need to determine whether a specific campus, energy installation, R&D function or equipment package qualifies under the applicable incentive framework. Türkiye’s Investment and Finance Office says available instruments can include tax reductions, employment support, land allocation and assistance for R&D and innovation, subject to project classification and certification.
For a foreign sponsor, investment-incentive work must therefore begin before procurement and capital expenditure are locked in. Project location, minimum investment thresholds, imported machinery lists and the separation of operating, property and technology entities can affect eligibility. Government relations and regulatory liaison also matter because grid access, construction approvals, environmental processes and incentive administration sit across several institutions.
Power, Carbon and Equipment Pose Execution Risks
Power availability is the binding constraint in many mature European data-center markets, and Ankara will not be exempt. Türkiye’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources reported that national electricity consumption increased 2.1 percent to 360.9 terawatt-hours in 2025. The National Energy Plan projects demand of 455.3TWh in 2030 and 510.5TWh in 2035.
Installed capacity reached 126,944MW by August 2026, according to the ministry. Solar represented 22 percent of capacity, wind 12.2 percent and hydropower 25.5 percent. Actual generation remained more carbon-intensive: coal produced 33.6 percent of electricity in 2025 and natural gas another 23 percent, while wind and solar together provided 21.4 percent.
This distinction matters to international customers with emissions targets. A grid connection alone will not establish a low-carbon operating profile. Developers may need renewable power-purchase arrangements, credible energy-attribute certificates or dedicated generation and storage strategies. They must also establish how backup generation, water use and high-density cooling will comply with environmental and municipal rules.
Much of a modern data center’s critical equipment, including servers, switchgear, uninterruptible power supplies, cooling technology and specialized fire-protection systems, may be imported. Import-export planning should cover customs classification, certifications, duties, temporary imports for testing, delivery sequencing and foreign-exchange exposure. With completion set for 2028, delays involving long-lead electrical equipment could become as important as civil construction.
This is where project management extends beyond supervising a building contractor. Grid milestones, carrier deployment, equipment imports, incentive documentation, commissioning and customer readiness must proceed as one integrated schedule.
Data Sovereignty Creates Demand and Compliance Obligations
Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Law, known as KVKK, creates a strong commercial case for local infrastructure while imposing obligations on its users. The Personal Data Protection Authority states that data controllers must implement technical and organizational safeguards against unlawful processing, access and loss.
The law’s Article 9, amended in 2024, permits international transfers through mechanisms including adequacy decisions, approved binding corporate rules, standard contracts and written commitments approved by the authority. Standard contracts must be notified to the authority within five business days of signature. Separate sectoral rules can apply to banking, payments, healthcare and telecommunications.
Local hosting does not by itself make a workload compliant. Investors and customers must identify whether each party is acting as controller or processor, map subcontractors and remote-access arrangements, set retention policies, register where required and examine whether support operations cause data to leave Türkiye. Legal and tax compliance should consequently be designed alongside cloud architecture, not addressed after contracts are signed.
Foreign operators must also choose an appropriate corporate structure for landholding, operating activities, shared services and joint-venture governance. Incorporation and corporate structuring affect licensing responsibility, financing, dividend distribution, transfer pricing and exposure to construction and operating risks.
What This Means for Foreign Investors
Digital Realty’s groundbreaking is evidence that Türkiye’s data-center opportunity has moved from market forecasts to physical deployment. Yet the investment thesis still depends on execution: securing reliable power, building redundant fiber connectivity, converting announced cloud demand into leases and complying with rules that differ by workload and industry.
A foreign investor evaluating the sector should begin with a market-entry study that tests customers, competing capacity, latency requirements and power economics by location. Incorporation and corporate-structuring work should then allocate property, operations, financing and liability appropriately between the foreign sponsor and local partners. Investment-incentive analysis must be completed before eligible spending is committed.
Legal and tax compliance should cover KVKK, sector-specific localization, cybersecurity, employment, withholding taxes and transfer pricing. Government relations are relevant to grid access, permits, incentive certificates and engagement with national and municipal authorities. Import-export facilitation is required for specialized equipment, while disciplined project management must connect construction, energy, telecoms, customs and commissioning schedules.
For investors not yet ready to build, expo and trade-fair representation can support structured engagement with Turkish carriers, engineering firms, equipment vendors and prospective enterprise customers. The central lesson is that Türkiye’s geographic position creates an opportunity, but coordinated local execution determines whether that position becomes an investable, operational data-center platform.