DAMAC Digital and Vodafone Türkiye have opened the first phase of a data center in Izmir following an investment of approximately $100 million, adding a large new computing site on Turkey’s Aegean coast. The facility begins operations with 4 megawatts of capacity and is designed to expand to 20 MW, according to a press release shared with Finance News International. The partners are targeting about $300 million in total investment over the longer term, although they did not publish a schedule for reaching that amount.
The facility spans 7,500 square meters, accommodates more than 650 cabinets and is expected to increase its power capacity fivefold from the opening phase. Vodafone identifies it as the company’s sixth data center in Turkey.
Hussain Sajwani, founder of DAMAC Group and chairman, DAMAC Digital, said: “The inauguration of the Aegean Region’s largest data center in Izmir is a significant milestone in Türkiye’s digital transformation and reflects our long-term confidence in the country’s growth potential. As artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data-driven technologies reshape economies, advanced digital infrastructure will be fundamental to national competitiveness, innovation and sustainable growth. Bringing together Vodafone Türkiye’s deep local capabilities with DAMAC Digital’s global expertise, we are helping to build the resilient, future-ready infrastructure that will power Türkiye’s next chapter.”
Türkiye’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, attended the inauguration alongside Vodafone Türkiye Chief Executive Engin Aksoy and DAMAC Digital executives. Uraloğlu said the project is owned through a 50-50 partnership and highlighted its location in Gaziemir, where corporate customers can place critical information-technology equipment in a professionally operated facility. The colocation model allows businesses to rent secured space, power and connectivity instead of building and running their own data centers.
Plans Changed Between Announcement and Opening
The opening arrives later than first envisaged and with a substantially revised capacity path. When the venture was unveiled in February 2024, the Investment Office of the Presidency of Türkiye said the partners expected the center to become operational in the first quarter of 2025. That announcement projected long-term capacity of up to 6 MW.
The completed first phase instead opened in September 2026 at 4 MW, while the ultimate target increased to 20 MW. The comparison shows that the project’s intended endpoint has become larger even as its initial operating capacity is lower than originally reported.
Construction took about a year and a half, Aksoy said in Vodafone’s account of the ceremony. The center was built with seismic-isolation technology, a relevant design choice in an earthquake-prone country, and Vodafone says it conforms to Tier III standards. Its architecture is intended to support new-generation graphics processing units used in conventional and generative artificial-intelligence workloads.
Connectivity and Commercial Rationale
Izmir gives the project access to western Turkey’s corporate market and to routes serving the Mediterranean. Both the original investment announcement and the new operating statement cite proximity to submarine-cable transit infrastructure linking Europe, Africa and Asia. The center is expected to provide cloud, connectivity, managed-service and cybersecurity offerings, placing it at the intersection of telecommunications infrastructure and enterprise computing rather than serving only as a storage site.
Demand for such infrastructure is increasingly shaped by workloads that require dense computing, resilient power and rapid movement of large volumes of data. Vodafone says more than 100 petabytes are processed through its Turkish infrastructure each month, while its network analyzes millions of transactions and signals in real time. The company has linked the Izmir investment to domestic cloud capacity and data sovereignty.
Engin Aksoy, CEO of Vodafone Türkiye, said: “This project builds on Vodafone Türkiye’s long-term investment in the country’s digital future. Serving more than 25 million mobile customers, millions of SMEs, and thousands of large enterprises, our belief in Türkiye’s potential has never wavered. Delivered in just one and half years, Izmir Data Center stands as a powerful demonstration of this commitment. This facility will not only scale Vodafone’s infrastructure but also reinforce Türkiye’s cloud capabilities and data sovereignty, fuelling the critical data processing and AI needs of businesses.”
DAMAC Digital, the digital-infrastructure arm of Dubai-based DAMAC Group, gains a Turkish operating foothold through a partner with an established enterprise customer base. Vodafone, meanwhile, adds capacity without carrying the project alone under the stated equal-ownership structure.
The immediate result is a functioning $100 million asset; the more ambitious figures remain conditional. Reaching 20 MW and approximately $300 million would require additional construction and customer demand, making subsequent capacity additions the clearest measure of whether the partners’ wider İzmir strategy is being realized.
