Turkish conglomerate Rönesans Holding and US data centre operator Digital Realty have broken ground on a data centre campus in Ankara that could eventually represent $4.1 billion in fixed investment, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır said on Monday.
The facility is being built in the Başkent Organised Industrial Zone in Temelli, on the western edge of the capital. The first phase involves $450 million of infrastructure and building investment for a 22-megawatt facility, and a second phase will add $900 million for advanced cooling systems and high-capacity IT infrastructure, Kacır said at the ceremony.
Part of a national 1 GW target
Kacır said Rönesans and Digital Realty plan more than $10 billion of combined investment in Ankara and Istanbul, targeting 200 MW of capacity, about a fifth of Türkiye’s goal of at least 1 gigawatt of installed data centre capacity by 2030 under its artificial intelligence action plan.
The government expects more than $10 billion of investment in data centres, cloud and AI infrastructure by 2030, mostly from the private sector. Incentives have backed 42 billion lira of data centre investment since 2012, the minister said.
Ankara is courting the sector through its HIT-30 programme, which offers $30 billion of support for high-tech investment through 2030. A dedicated data centre call carries a $1.5 billion budget for facilities of at least 30 MW, while a separate $1.6 billion call targets cloud-based AI infrastructure.
Why it matters
Digital Realty is one of the world’s largest data centre owners, and its move into Türkiye with Rönesans signals growing international interest in the country as a regional hub between Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. Data centres are power-hungry, and the International Energy Agency expects their global electricity use to double by 2030, putting a premium on reliable grids and cheap energy.
The project follows other tech moves, including Turkcell and TÜBİTAK’s 6G field tests and discount retailer BİM’s new technology company. The World Bank says it has mobilised over $21 billion of private capital for Türkiye since 2022. Foreign professionals relocating for the sector can read our moving to Turkey checklist.
Sources
- Ankara Temelli’ye 4,1 milyar dolarlık veri merkezi (Hürriyet)
- Bakan Kacır: 2012’den bu yana 42 milyar TL’lik yatırımın önünü açtık (Bigpara/Hürriyet)
Photo: BalticServers.com / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
