Talent is becoming one of Türkiye’s most important investment variables, moving from a human resources issue to a core FDI question as global investors reassess where to place technology, manufacturing, logistics and service operations. The point was underlined at the “Girişim Ekosistemi 2026 Yıllık Toplantısı” in Istanbul, where Sabah columnist Timur Sırt reported that Investment and Finance Office President Burak Dağlıoğlu tied Türkiye’s recent FDI momentum to technology entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence infrastructure, data centers and the country’s human capital base.
FDI Momentum Is Shifting Toward Human Capital
The immediate backdrop is a stronger FDI cycle. According to Anadolu Agency, citing the International Investors Association YASED, Türkiye attracted $12.4 billion in international direct investment in the first 11 months of 2025, up 28 percent year on year. Sabah’s account of the January 2026 Istanbul event reported Dağlıoğlu’s statement that inflows had reached $12.4 billion in the same period and that technology deals were helping Türkiye stand out.
The full year figure was later clarified by the Presidency’s Investment and Finance Office, which said in February 2026 that Türkiye attracted $13.1 billion in FDI in 2025, a 12.2 percent annual increase based on Central Bank balance of payments data. The office said wholesale and retail trade accounted for 32 percent of inflows, manufacturing 31 percent, and information and communication 14 percent. Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said FDI excluding real estate reached $10.7 billion, the highest level in a decade, according to the same Investment Office release.
That sector mix matters. Traditional market access and manufacturing still dominate, but the presence of information and communication among the top FDI categories signals a change in investor logic. Investors are no longer only assessing Türkiye as a production base near Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. They are also pricing in software engineers, product teams, data infrastructure, university links, technopark ecosystems and the ability to scale local operations without importing every key role.
Deals Show Why Talent Has Become a Valuation Driver
Recent transactions support that reading. Nasdaq’s company release said Kazakhstan’s Kaspi.kz completed its acquisition of a controlling interest in Hepsiburada in January 2025 for approximately $1.13 billion. Uber disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2025 that it agreed to acquire an 85 percent stake in Trendyol Go for about $700 million, adding that Trendyol Go generated more than $2 billion in gross bookings in 2024 from over 200 million orders. The Financial Times reported in 2025 that private equity group CVC’s investment in Istanbul-based Dream Games valued the mobile games company at between $4 billion and $5 billion.
These are not conventional capacity investments. They are acquisitions of platforms, users, engineering cultures, delivery networks, game development capability and local management teams. Their relevance to FDI is that Türkiye’s investment proposition is increasingly tied to embedded talent pools, not only low-cost labor or location.
That is also why Dağlıoğlu’s emphasis on AI infrastructure, data centers and energy needs is significant. Digital investment creates demand for engineers, but also for power availability, fiber networks, data governance, cybersecurity, cloud procurement and specialized construction. A foreign investor entering these segments needs more than company incorporation. It must map the market entry path, identify whether the project belongs in a technopark, free zone, organized industrial zone or standard commercial structure, and assess whether incentives, permits and local partnerships match the investment thesis.
The Talent Base Is Large, But Not Frictionless
Türkiye’s demographic base remains a real advantage. The Investment Office states that Türkiye’s labor force is around 36.8 million people, the second largest in Europe, with more than 6.5 million students in higher education and over 850,000 university graduates annually. Its ICT sector page says Türkiye had more than 246,000 ICT employees, 70 percent of them under 35, and that engineering and ICT graduates exceeded 88,000 in 2024.
Industry data point in the same direction. Hürriyet Daily News, citing the Informatics Industry Association TÜBİSAD, reported in June 2026 that Türkiye’s ICT market reached 2.13 trillion lira, or $53.8 billion, in 2025, up 47 percent in dollar terms. The same report said ICT employment rose 17 percent to 289,000, technoparks increased from 105 to 114, and companies operating in technoparks rose 12 percent to 12,966.
Yet investors should avoid treating the talent story as a simple cost arbitrage. The OECD’s Economic Survey of Türkiye 2025 warned that workforce skills still lag other OECD countries and that emigration of high-skilled individuals affects productivity and competitiveness in high-skill manufacturing and services. ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Talent Shortage Survey found that 72 percent of employers globally reported difficulty filling roles, with AI model and application development among the hardest skills to find. Türkiye is part of that global competition, not insulated from it.
For foreign investors, this creates a more complex operating equation. Türkiye may offer a deep graduate pipeline and competitive engineering costs compared with Western Europe, but hiring senior AI, cybersecurity, semiconductor, gaming and cloud architecture talent can still require premium compensation, retention planning and university-industry partnerships. Legal and tax compliance also matters, since employee stock options, contractor models, cross-border payroll, R&D center benefits and remote work arrangements can create tax and labor exposure if structured casually.
Ankara Is Turning Talent Into Industrial Policy
The policy response has accelerated. In June 2026, Anadolu Agency reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced an AI Action Plan for 2026-2030, targeting at least $10 billion in mainly private sector investment for data centers, cloud computing and AI infrastructure. The plan aims to raise data center capacity to at least 1 gigawatt by 2030, train 10,000 advanced AI specialists and 100,000 AI application professionals, and provide AI literacy education to 5 million citizens.
In August 2026, Hürriyet Daily News reported that Erdoğan announced a separate program to select 550 doctoral students for training at 20 research universities in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, chip technologies and advanced computing, with a goal of bringing about 3,000 young researchers into the science and technology ecosystem over five years. The same report said Türkiye now has 785 AI-related programs across 171 universities, according to the Council of Higher Education.
This connects directly with incentive policy. The Investment Office said the HIT-30 High Technology Investment Program commits $30 billion in incentives to establish Türkiye as a high-technology production base, targeting electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors and energy technology. It includes a $4.5 billion package for battery production and $5 billion for electric vehicle capacity. Separately, law firm NSN noted that Presidential Decree No. 9903, published on May 30, 2025, restructured Türkiye’s investment incentive system around the Türkiye Century Development Move, the Sectoral Incentive System and Regional Incentives, with support for high value-added, digital and green transformation investments.
The implication is that talent policy, industrial incentives and FDI attraction are now intertwined. Investors seeking to build AI labs, R&D centers, software export units, advanced manufacturing lines or data centers need to evaluate incentive eligibility early, before selecting a legal structure or signing a site lease. Incentives may depend on sector classification, NACE codes, location, fixed investment amount, import substitution criteria, R&D content and digital or green transformation status.
Practical Investor Questions Are Becoming More Specific
A talent-led investment strategy in Türkiye requires granular planning. Market entry work must go beyond demand estimates to include labor availability by city, university pipelines, salary inflation, competing employers and the depth of management talent. Istanbul remains the central technology and finance hub, but Ankara, Izmir, Kocaeli, Bursa and emerging technopark clusters may offer better fits depending on engineering discipline, manufacturing integration or incentive profile.
Company incorporation and corporate structuring also shape outcomes. A foreign investor may choose a standard limited or joint stock company, acquire an existing platform, establish an R&D center, operate through a technopark entity, or use a free zone for software and service exports. Each route changes tax treatment, reporting obligations, employment incentives and the treatment of intellectual property.
Compliance is equally central. Digital businesses must consider data protection rules, cybersecurity obligations, sector licensing and competition approvals. Data centers and advanced manufacturing projects add environmental permits, energy connection issues, import-export procedures for hardware, customs treatment, and possible localization requirements. Investors in AI, cloud, mobility, fintech or e-commerce must also engage regulators and public institutions, making government relations and regulatory liaison a practical necessity rather than a ceremonial function.
Trade-fair and expo representation can be relevant where investors use events such as technology, defense, mobility, logistics and industry fairs to identify suppliers, university partners, distributors and acquisition targets. Import-export facilitation becomes important when projects depend on servers, chips, telecom equipment, test devices, robotics, battery components or specialized machinery. Project management is then needed to coordinate permits, recruitment, construction, vendor onboarding and incentive reporting across Turkish institutions.
What This Means for Foreign Investors
Türkiye’s talent story is becoming one of the country’s main FDI arguments, but it should be read as an execution challenge as much as an opportunity. The investable thesis is not simply that Türkiye has young engineers. It is that a large workforce, expanding universities, growing technoparks, digital infrastructure plans and high-technology incentives can support regional platforms in software, AI, e-commerce, gaming, mobility, manufacturing and logistics.
For foreign investors, the practical next step is disciplined pre-entry analysis. That means testing the talent pool by city and sector, choosing the right corporate structure, identifying applicable investment incentives, mapping legal and tax compliance, and engaging public authorities where permits, infrastructure or strategic incentives are involved. It also means building an operating plan that connects recruitment, site selection, import-export needs, supplier development and implementation timelines.
An FDI advisory firm working in Türkiye would therefore be most useful not at the end of the process, but before the investor commits capital. Market entry, incorporation, incentives, compliance, government relations, expo representation, import-export facilitation and project management all sit inside the same decision. In a market where talent is now central to valuation and execution, the investors that translate Türkiye’s human capital advantage into a structured operating model will be better positioned than those that treat talent as an afterthought.