Digital Realty enters Türkiye with a 22 MW Ankara campus planned for 2028

Digital Realty and Rönesans Infrastructure announced on 14 September a joint venture to develop and operate data centres in Türkiye, starting with a carrier-neutral campus in Ankara designed for more than 22 MW of IT capacity. In its press release, the US operator said land, power and permitting for the Ankara site are secured, early construction has started and completion is scheduled for 2028. The release gives no investment amount and no ownership split between the partners.

What the release says

The venture brings Digital Realty's PlatformDIGITAL offering to Türkiye to serve demand for cloud, AI, connectivity and enterprise infrastructure, according to the release. It says the Ankara campus is intended for national enterprises, public sector organisations and digital service providers, and that the partners plan a further data centre in Istanbul. They expect the two sites to operate as a connected platform. The release describes the venture as extending the company's footprint across South-Eastern Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and the corridor linking Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Greg Wright, Digital Realty's chief investment officer, welcomed the partnership with Rönesans Infrastructure to establish the company's presence in Türkiye, the release says. Paula Cogan, managing director for EMEA, called the expansion a key milestone in the company's regional growth strategy. Erman Ilıcak, president emeritus of Rönesans Holding, said Rönesans has delivered more than $10 billion of private-sector investment in Türkiye. The release describes Digital Realty as operating more than 300 facilities in over 55 metros, and Rönesans as one of Türkiye's largest investment companies with multilateral lenders including IFC and the EBRD among its long-term partners. It does not state the Istanbul site's capacity, location or timetable. Data Center Dynamics likewise reported that the ownership stakes and the Ankara site address were not disclosed.

How it compares

The Ankara figure is large against the first phase of the most recently opened project in the country. DAMAC Digital and Vodafone Türkiye said on 7 September that their Izmir site opened with 4 MW and a plan to scale to 20 MW, at about $100 million for that facility. By Corridor Signal's arithmetic, 22 MW is 5.5 times the Izmir opening phase and 10 per cent above its planned final size, although the Ankara figure is described as capacity the campus is designed for, not what will be energised at completion.

Another Ankara project is already announced. Data Center Dynamics reported in May 2025 that the retailer Trendyol and the UAE firm Castle Investments planned a 48 MW data centre in Ankara, with 9.6 MW in the first phase and a launch due in the third quarter of 2026. Corridor Signal found no announcement confirming that it has opened. At the hyperscale end, the Investment Office of the Presidency said in November 2025 that Turkcell and Google Cloud would invest a total of $3 billion in a hyperscale cloud region.

The existing base

Data Center Dynamics, citing Data Center Map, said Türkiye has 81 data centres across 17 markets, mostly in Istanbul, with Equinix the most notable international operator. PeeringDB's public API, queried on 17 October, listed 49 colocation facilities in Türkiye. Both counts rely on voluntary or third-party listings, and neither measures megawatts, so they cannot be set against the 22 MW figure.

The release does not name an anchor tenant or say whether any of the Ankara capacity has been pre-leased. The items to track are:

• whether the partners disclose investment and ownership terms;
• the capacity and site of the Istanbul data centre;
• whether the Ankara campus holds to its 2028 completion date.