THE INVESTMENT MAP OF THE FUTURE | #02 AI NEEDS LAND: WHERE COULD TÜRKİYE’S NEW DATA CENTER GEOGRAPHY EMERGE?

The Digital Economy Has a Geography Too

From the outside, a data center often looks like a large, enclosed industrial building. Inside, however, the factory of the digital economy is at work.

In a conventional factory, raw materials go in and physical products come out. In a data center, electricity and data go in; computing power, storage, cloud services and digital services are produced. Artificial intelligence makes this structure even more critical because high-performance processors consume more electricity, generate higher heat densities and require more advanced cooling infrastructure.

According to the IEA’s 2026 update, global data center electricity consumption could rise from around 485 TWh in 2025 to approximately 950 TWh by 2030. Electricity consumption by AI-focused data centers is expected to roughly triple over the same period. The IEA also notes that because data centers are geographically concentrated, their local impact on power grids can be more significant than their share of global electricity consumption would suggest. (IEA, 2026)

At that point, the issue is no longer simply constructing a suitable building. Transformer and transmission capacity, connection lead times, power redundancy, independent fiber routes, cooling architecture, disaster risk, physical security and whether the site can support future expansion all become part of the same location decision.

Therefore, if we want to understand where data centers may become concentrated in Türkiye in the future, we need to place energy, fiber and operational resilience maps alongside the conventional real estate map.

What Does a “Good Location” Mean for a Data Center?

In real estate, a good location usually means proximity to the city center, frontage on a major road, commercial activity or surrounding development. For a data center, however, the location equation is different.

The most expensive land in a city may be the wrong place for a data center. Conversely, an area outside the center that receives little attention from conventional real estate investors may become strategic because of power capacity, fiber access and operational security.

The first question is not “how many square meters of land are available?” The real question is: How much reliable power can be delivered to this location, and through how many independent digital routes can it connect to the world?

The core layers that should be assessed together when selecting a data center location are:

• Power capacity and redundancy: Regional grid capacity, transformer and transmission infrastructure, connection schedule, uninterrupted power supply and backup feed options.
• Fiber access and route diversity: Independent connections arriving from different directions rather than a single route, low latency and operational continuity.
• Disaster and operational risk: A combined assessment of earthquakes, floods, fire, extreme heat, physical security and critical infrastructure outages.
• Cooling and water management: Balancing climate conditions, the selected cooling technology, water stress and energy efficiency.
• Scalable land and planning: The ability to expand the campus in phases, together with suitable zoning, ownership structure, environmental permits and infrastructure allocations.

Energy comes first in this equation. Türkiye’s total installed generation capacity is not enough to explain the viability of a data center investment; what matters is regionally accessible capacity. The presence of major industrial consumers in the same transformer or transmission area, connection lead times and redundancy options can directly affect the location decision.

The concept we previously used, Energy Access Premium, takes on a more concrete meaning here. For a data center, value does not come from merely seeing a power line next to the site; it comes from being able to use high-capacity power at the required level of reliability.

Energy alone, however, is not sufficient. The fiber infrastructure that connects the data center to the world must also be robust and, where possible, redundant across different routes. Uptime Institute’s work on risk and resilience likewise emphasizes that route independence across power, water and communications infrastructure is critical to operational continuity.

A third major factor is risk. Because a data center must operate 24/7, factors such as earthquakes, floods, fire, extreme temperatures, power outages and physical security become more important than they are for conventional commercial real estate.

In this respect, Turkcell’s distribution of its next-generation data center portfolio across different geographies such as Gebze, Ankara–Temelli, İzmir–Menderes and Tekirdağ–Çorlu is noteworthy. This structure not only provides proximity to demand, but also creates operational diversity across different risk zones.

In my view, this brings an important concept to the forefront of the future data center economy: Digital Geographic Redundancy.

Over the long term, it may become more important for Türkiye’s critical digital infrastructure to develop across complementary regions rather than concentrating in a single city or risk basin. For this reason, capacity growth in Ankara, Thrace and the Aegean should be monitored alongside continued expansion in and around Istanbul.

Cooling and water are part of the same equation. The one-line generalization that “data centers consume a lot of water” is insufficient; water use can vary substantially depending on location and cooling architecture. In water-stressed regions, air-cooled systems or technologies that reduce water use may make more sense. Climate, water security and energy efficiency therefore need to be assessed together.

Which Data Center Geographies in Türkiye Should Be Monitored?

It would not be appropriate today to declare any one area “Türkiye’s new data center region.” However, existing data center investments, corporate demand, power and fiber infrastructure, and recently announced hyperscale projects help explain why certain geographies merit closer monitoring.

Gebze–Kocaeli: A Dense Node with Strong Existing Demand

The advantage of the Gebze–Kocaeli corridor is clear: it is close to Istanbul, major companies and dense industrial demand; power and fiber infrastructure are developed; and a data center ecosystem already exists. Turkcell’s Gebze data center has also been operating in the area for years.

Yet the same concentration also brings disadvantages such as high land costs, earthquake risk, strong power demand and competition for grid connections. The key question for the future may therefore be not only how much further Gebze can grow, but where secondary rings capable of sharing Gebze’s digital load may emerge.

Ankara–Temelli: The City of the Hyperscale Investment Is Now Clear

The Ankara–Temelli corridor has therefore become even more noteworthy. Ankara is home to a high concentration of public institutions, defense, telecommunications, finance and other critical organizations. On the Temelli side, large land parcels, industrial infrastructure, transport links and existing data center investments are present in the same geography.

Under the Google Cloud–Turkcell collaboration announced in November 2025, the new Türkiye region is planned to enter service in 2028–2029 and consist of three or more availability zones. As of the second quarter of 2026, Turkcell stated in its official investor presentation that construction had begun in Ankara on the hyperscale data center facilities to be allocated to Google Cloud’s Türkiye region. The city-level location is therefore now established. (Turkcell Q2 2026)

By contrast, the publicly available corporate documents we reviewed do not disclose a specific district or parcel within Ankara. It would therefore be incorrect to assume that the existing Temelli data center is the confirmed location of the new Google Cloud campus. From a real estate perspective, what should be monitored is the new hyperscale investment’s footprint on power, fiber, planning and land allocation across Ankara.

Tekirdağ–Çorlu: Where European Connectivity Meets Digital Infrastructure

In Thrace, the Tekirdağ–Çorlu corridor has a different advantage. In addition to its proximity to Istanbul, it lies on road, rail and communications corridors opening toward Europe. Turkcell’s European Data Center in Çorlu also shows that the region already has a place on Türkiye’s existing digital infrastructure map.

As the region’s strong industrial base, logistics connections and data center investments begin to appear on the same map, Thrace should be assessed not only through the lens of “industry + Europe + logistics,” but also through industry + logistics + fiber + data.

İzmir–Menderes and the Aegean Production Belt

On the İzmir side, Menderes stands out because of existing data center investments. Yet the long-term story may not be limited to İzmir’s own digital demand. As industrial production in Manisa, Kemalpaşa and Aliağa becomes more digitalized and increases its use of automation and AI, corporate demand for data and cloud services across the Aegean Region may also grow.

For this reason, it would be misleading to view İzmir’s data center economy independently of the surrounding production belts. In the Aegean, the relevant issue is not a single facility, but how production, energy, fiber and demand for digital services develop within the same network.

From this perspective, it makes more sense to read Türkiye’s future data center map not through city names, but through the following combination: power + fiber + corporate demand + manageable operational risk + scalable land.

Land Next to the Data Center, or Land Inside the Digital Ecosystem?

A real estate investor may fall into a familiar trap here: “A data center is coming, so nearby land will appreciate.” It is not that simple.

Data centers are not necessarily like conventional factories employing thousands of people in shifts. Therefore, the assumption that they will always generate large-scale residential demand in their immediate surroundings may be incorrect. Their economic impact can operate differently.

If new power infrastructure, fiber investments, technical maintenance services, backup power systems, cooling technologies, cloud services, cybersecurity firms and new data center campuses begin clustering in the same area, we are no longer looking at a single building, but at a broader digital infrastructure ecosystem.

Accordingly, the question an investor should ask is not “what land is next to the data center?” but is this data center a standalone facility, or the beginning of a larger digital infrastructure cluster?

This distinction is critical for real estate. A data center investment should not be expected to create an automatic value premium for every nearby parcel. To understand any value effect, zoning function, power connection, fiber access, ownership structure, environmental permits, corporate demand and actual infrastructure investment must be assessed together.

Anadolu Properties View: How Should a Digital Infrastructure Node Be Read?

When we at Anadolu Properties look at the AI economy from a real estate perspective, our main concern is not which AI model is stronger or which technology company will win the race. The question that interests us is more physical: Where in Türkiye will the infrastructure that powers this economy be built?

Until now, when reading the investment map of the future, we have overlaid roads, railways, ports, Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs), energy and production infrastructure. From now on, we need to add one more layer to the same map: data.

In our view, the presence of a data center alone is not enough for a region to become strategic in digital infrastructure. High-capacity and redundant power infrastructure, multiple fiber routes, manageable natural-disaster and operational risk, land stock suitable for expansion, and genuine corporate digital demand need to converge in the same geography.

We call this convergence a Digital Infrastructure Node.

A Digital Infrastructure Node does not simply mean “there is a data center here.” The real question is whether the physical and economic conditions are emerging that could lead new data center investments to choose the same region repeatedly.

Therefore, rather than looking only at the addresses of existing data centers, the following signals should be monitored to see whether they are strengthening together:

• New transformer, transmission and high-capacity power connection investments
• Development of fiber and backbone connections based on multiple routes
• New data centers, technology campuses or large-scale digital infrastructure projects
• Land allocations, planning changes, environmental permits and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes
• Regional growth in corporate cloud, AI and data-processing demand
• Alignment of zoning, ownership and expansion capacity with technical investment requirements

If these signals begin to appear in the same geography, we may no longer be looking at unrelated developments, but at the possible emergence of a new digital economic zone. Even at this stage, however, any investment decision should be separately verified through the records of the relevant municipality, land registry, planning, energy and other public authorities.

The Google Cloud–Turkcell investment should be monitored particularly closely from this perspective. We now know that construction of hyperscale facilities has begun in Ankara; for an investor, however, the most valuable information is not simply the word “Ankara.” More important are which power connections are being strengthened, which fiber routes are being made redundant, which planning decisions support new campuses and whether a genuine digital ecosystem is forming around this infrastructure.

In my view, this field will become increasingly important in future real estate research. Until now we have asked, “Where is the city expanding?” In the near future, another question will be added: Where is the digital economy physically locating?

There Is Land Beneath the Cloud

Artificial intelligence may be digital. But the economy that runs it is physical.

Behind an AI system are servers, the power grid, fiber lines, cooling infrastructure, security systems and the real estate that supports all of them. As the AI economy grows, therefore, it will not only be the market value of technology companies that changes; the economic function of certain energy corridors, fiber routes and industrial areas may change as well.

Some geographies that attract little attention from conventional real estate investors today may take on a completely different strategic function in the years ahead. But the correct approach is not “a data center is coming, so buy land nearby.” The key is to understand why the data center chose that location.

Sometimes the determining factor may be power capacity; sometimes fiber redundancy, disaster risk, climate, corporate demand or a combination of several of these at the same location. For this reason, we will increasingly discuss a new real estate class on the investment map of the future: digital infrastructure real estate.

Artificial intelligence may run in the cloud. But where that cloud is built is still determined by power, fiber and land.

Mustafa Yılmaz

CEO – Anadolu Properties

Europe – Türkiye Investment Bridge