ISTANBUL
Turkcell, a Turkish GSM operator, and Google will make a $3 billion investment in the country, Türkiye's vice president said, adding that this investment will trigger additional investment projects.
Cevdet Yilmaz, speaking at Google's Cloud Day event in Istanbul on Thursday, said that while Turkcell plans to invest $1 billion, Google Cloud's $2 billion investment is positive for the country.
"This investment also reflects the confidence international investors have in the strength, resilience, and innovation capacity of our economy," he underlined.
Last week, Turkcell announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Google to provide Google Cloud services across multiple industries in Türkiye, the company announced on Wednesday.
As part of the collaboration, Turkcell will work with Google Cloud to provide the infrastructure needed for a planned Google Cloud region in Türkiye.
The partnership is expected to become operational between 2028 and 2029 and will expand Turkcell’s data center portfolio.
Yilmaz stressed that the hyperscale cloud region, which will be implemented in collaboration with Google Cloud and Turkcell, is an important strategic step that will further strengthen Türkiye's regional position in the fields of data, cloud infrastructure, and AI.
Investment demonstrates confidence global technology leaders have in Türkiye
Mehmet Fatih Kacir, the Turkish industry and technology minister, also said at the event that Google Cloud and Turkcell's collaboration is a significant step toward Türkiye's vision.
He stressed that the investment would take place in the first half of 2026.
Kacir said Türkiye currently has a 250-megawatt data center capacity but aims to increase it to 1 gigawatt by 2030.
The minister stated that the country is providing support for the establishment of high-quality data centers with a minimum capacity of 30 megawatts.
He said Turkcell and Google's investment demonstrates the confidence global technology leaders have in Türkiye.
"Our businesses, entrepreneurs, public institutions, and researchers will now have access to world-class hyperscale cloud infrastructure," he said.
He added: "With the accelerating effect of our support, we will mobilize $10 billion in data center and AI investments by 2030."