In the last week of August, Türkiye’s Ministry of Industry and Technology coordinated an announcement: the country will build “AI growth zones” and, inside them, “AI factories.” Most coverage led with the headline numbers — billions of lira in funding — but a manufacturing SME owner has a narrower question: what does this actually deliver, to whom, and when?
This piece pulls together the concrete parts of the announcement — timeline, funding mechanism, the door it opens for SMEs — and what a manufacturer can start preparing today while waiting for the programme to open.
What an AI factory and growth zone actually are
The plan sits inside the 2026-2030 Türkiye AI Action Plan. A “growth zone” is a specially designated area with energy, land, and telecom infrastructure prepared in advance, built through accelerated permitting. Inside these zones sit “AI factories” — shared compute capacity, data-processing tools, and testing environments that multiple companies can draw on at once. The idea is to give companies access to shared infrastructure instead of each one building its own server investment from scratch.
Coordination sits with the Ministry of Industry and Technology, with the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, the Presidency of Strategy and Budget, TÜBİTAK, and Türkiye’s sovereign wealth fund also part of the mechanism.
Why this is on the agenda now
The biggest bottleneck in running an AI model is compute and energy. Large companies can fund their own data-centre investment; for an SME or a startup, that cost is usually out of reach. One of the goals behind the announcement is closing that gap: the plan targets at least 1 gigawatt of installed capacity and at least 10 billion USD in largely private-sector investment by 2030. In other words, this is not only an SME support scheme — it is a country-scale infrastructure push, and the SME voucher is a small but directly accessible piece of that larger structure.
Timeline: when the zones open
The published schedule reads as follows:
- Within 1 year: the first growth zone will be announced and anchor investors selected
- By the end of 2027: at least one zone will be operational with first-phase capacity
- By the end of 2028: at least 5 growth zones will have been announced, with at least 3 operational
This is a target timeline, not a firm commitment — public infrastructure projects often slip. Still, the practical takeaway for a manufacturer is clear: this infrastructure will not arrive immediately, it will roll out gradually over the next one to two years.
Funding: two separate mechanisms
The plan splits basic research and company scale-up into two distinct funds:
| Instrument | Size (as announced) | Who it targets |
|---|---|---|
| National AI Research Fund | At least 10 billion TRY | Academia, R&D centres, basic research |
| AI Growth Fund | 15 billion TRY | Companies and startups at the scale-up stage |
| AI voucher | At least 1,000 in the first 12 months | SMEs and entrepreneurs — direct access instrument |
The first two are largely aimed at institutional investors and the research side. The instrument an SME manufacturer will actually touch is the third: the AI voucher.
The announcement also lists targets to track through the end of 2028: supporting at least 20 AI startups, reaching at least 10 licensing or co-development agreements, and generating at least 100 million TRY in export revenue from domestic models. These targets will be a useful signal of whether the plan is delivering — worth revisiting as the programme progresses.
What the AI voucher gives an SME
As announced, the voucher is meant to make three things easier to access for an SME:
- Compute capacity (server power for model training and data processing)
- Technical support and productisation consulting
- Mentorship and pilot-project support
The application mechanism — which system, under what conditions, when it opens — had not been clarified at the time of the announcement; these details will be updated as the Ministry of Industry and Technology or KOSGEB publish them through official channels. Before an application window opens, confirm the conditions directly on sanayi.gov.tr or kosgeb.gov.tr — programmes like this typically carry preconditions such as NACE code, company size, or sector restrictions.
What manufacturers can prepare today
There is no need to wait idle for the voucher application to open. AI-assisted production planning, demand forecasting, or quality control all depend on the same thing: regular, clean data collected in one place.
If production data is still typed into spreadsheets by hand, and inventory and sales live in separate systems, the data an AI model would need is already scattered — even once the voucher exists, that gap has to close first. In practice, this comes down to three steps:
- Map your data sources. Accounting, CRM, production tracking, warehouse — if none of these systems talk to each other, start by mapping what lives where.
- Define your measurement points. What a demand-forecasting or quality-control model needs depends on what data is collected, and how often; skipping this step wastes time later.
- Connect the systems. An ERP that talks to the production line, sales data, and accounting is what turns the compute power a voucher provides into something with a data stream to actually feed on.
These three steps deliver an efficiency gain on their own, even before any voucher exists — and once an application window opens, they put a business a step ahead.
This is exactly where İkiz Eksen’s way of working fits in — built on Qera’s track record of 550+ corporate customers and 100+ ERP integrations, we make data measurable and traceable from a single source first, then move it into software. Our digital transition page walks through this approach step by step; if you’d like to assess your organisation’s current data setup together, you can request a free initial digital transformation consulting session.
We covered the broader plan and its other SME-facing components earlier in our Türkiye AI Action Plan piece; this article focuses on the “AI factories” component that took shape at the end of August.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which businesses can apply for AI factories?
The exact application criteria (sector, size, NACE code) had not been published at announcement time. KOSGEB’s comparable programmes typically target manufacturing-sector (NACE C) businesses that are registered and active in its system; confirm the exact conditions on the relevant institution’s official page once the application window opens.
Is the AI voucher a cash grant?
No. As announced, the voucher is not a direct cash grant — it is described as a mechanism that provides access to compute capacity, technical support, and mentorship. The monetary value or usage limits of the voucher have not yet been detailed.
Which city will host the first growth zone?
The announcement does not name a location — it only states the first zone will be announced “within 1 year.” We will update this piece once the site is confirmed.
Does this overlap with KOSGEB’s existing digital transformation support?
No, it is a separate mechanism. KOSGEB’s SME Digital Transformation Support Programme already provides digital-maturity-based credit; the AI factories plan targets access to compute infrastructure and models instead. Over time, the two can complement each other.
What should a small manufacturer do right now?
Without waiting for the voucher or zone to open, the most concrete step is getting production and sales data collected in one system, consistently. No AI tool works well on scattered data — so the first step in preparation is usually an ERP or data-integration project.
Sources
- Anadolu Ajansı — “AI factories” will help SMEs and entrepreneurs level up
- TRT Haber — “AI factories” will help SMEs and entrepreneurs level up
Confirm current conditions and dates on sanayi.gov.tr and kosgeb.gov.tr as the application details are finalised.