The key facts

  • Joint project of Ronesans Holding and Digital Realty in the Başkent OIZ near Ankara; the first phase is $450 million plus $900 million for cooling and IT infrastructure.
  • Total investment across all phases is $4.1 billion (Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır).
  • The companies plan to invest more than $10 billion in Ankara and Istanbul, creating 200 MW of capacity — one fifth of the national target of 1 GW by 2030.

Groundbreaking of the complex in Ankara

On Monday, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Ankara data center complex located in the Başkent Organized Industrial Zone (Temelli). The project is being implemented by a joint venture of Turkey's Ronesans Holding and the global data center operator Digital Realty and, as noted, marks an important step in Turkey's ambition to become a regional digital hub.

Investment volumes

Turkey's Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır said at the ceremony that the first facility will require $450 million in investments in basic infrastructure and building construction, while another $900 million will be allocated to cooling systems and IT infrastructure. According to him, once all phases are completed, the facility will represent fixed capital investments of $4.1 billion in the Başkent OIZ near Ankara.

Context of global dynamics

Kacır called data processing and cloud computing 'the oil of the 21st century.' According to his data, the total installed capacity of data centers worldwide will grow from approximately 103 gigawatts last year to 200 gigawatts by 2030, and more than one fifth of the value of new global investments goes to data centers.

HIT-30 state program and infrastructure

The minister recalled that Ankara launched the HIT-30 program — the largest incentive package in the country's history, providing for the allocation of $30 billion by 2030 to attract high-tech investments. Under it, the 'HIT-Data Center Call' scheme with a budget of $1.4 billion supports the construction of data centers with a capacity of at least 30 MW, the 'HIT-Artificial Intelligence Call' mobilizes $1.6 billion to create domestic cloud infrastructure, and the 'HIT-Quantum Call' is aimed at building the country's own quantum infrastructure. Kacır also said that more than 8,900 researchers have received support through Turkey's TRUBA scientific infrastructure; the high-performance computing infrastructure has more than 80,000 processor cores, 504 graphics processors, and 26 petabytes of data storage.

National target and companies' plans

Ankara's strategy is reflected in Turkey's Artificial Intelligence Action Plan for 2026–2030, which sets a goal of increasing installed data center capacity to at least 1 gigawatt by 2030. Kacır added that access to high-performance chips for entrepreneurs and researchers will be facilitated through the 'GPU for all' program. According to him, Ronesans Holding and Digital Realty are expected to play a key role in achieving this goal: the companies plan to lead total investments of more than $10 billion in Ankara and Istanbul, creating, according to forecasts, 200 MW of capacity — one fifth of the national target.