Türkiye Yapay Zekâ Vakfı · Est. MMXXVI
We exist to make Türkiye one of the defining AI nations of the 21st century — with independent capability, global partnerships, compute access, talent density, and strategic relevance for the next 100 years. AI is national infrastructure, equivalent to energy, finance, and telecommunications. We build accordingly.
Ankara · Istanbul
Strategic pillars, sequenced and KPI-bound
Sovereign frontier-class GPU cluster operational
Initial sovereign compute commitment
Well-capitalised Turkish AI companies targeted
Ministries with sovereign AI deployed by 2028
Mission & Doctrine
It does so by aligning compute, capital, talent, data, models, and policy under a coherent doctrine. The window in which this is achievable is measured in years, not decades. The Foundation is the institution built to hold that doctrine — and execute it.
Türkiye becomes indispensable in the AI century by deliberately and patiently building sovereign compute, sovereign Turkish models, sovereign datasets, a retained world-class talent system, an investable ecosystem, deeply deployed public-sector AI, and an international posture as the bridge between Western frontier capability, Gulf strategic capital, and the broader Turkic world.
— The Foundation's one-sentence doctrineA category equivalent to energy, finance, and telecommunications — a budget category, a regulatory regime, an institutional architecture, and a long-horizon capital allocation framework. Not a metaphor.
Compute, capital, talent, data, models, and policy must move in coordinated sequence under one doctrine. Each pillar's failure compromises the others. Coordination is the Foundation's executive function.
Türkiye has the geographic position, demographic dividend, industrial base, and strategic sophistication to be one of the defining AI nations — but the window is measured in years, not decades.
Strategy
Our mission resolves into seven pillars. Each has a named lead, a budget envelope, a target outcome, and a measurable five-year KPI. They are not a wish list — they are the smallest set under which national AI sovereignty is achievable in a single decade.
At least one Turkish frontier-class GPU cluster (5–10K H/B-series equivalent) operational under Turkish sovereign control by 2028, anchored by a public-private-sovereign consortium with a $2.5–4B initial commitment.
At least one open-weight Turkish foundation-model family at frontier-adjacent capability by 2028, on a quarterly release cadence — built by a foundation-model institute hosted across leading universities under single technical leadership.
The Turkish National AI Corpus — text, scientific, multimodal, archival — plus the Turkish National Evaluation Suite and Alignment Corpus, hosted under explicit licensing, IRB, and KVKK regimes with national libraries, archives, and broadcasters.
A Turkish AI talent system that produces at the top decile globally, retains its top quartile domestically, and attracts ten diaspora researchers per year to Türkiye-based positions by 2028 — through fellowships, founder residencies, the AI Academy, and diaspora chairs.
Approximately 50 well-capitalised Turkish AI companies across models, infrastructure, and applications — powered by a Sovereign AI Investment Vehicle, startup residency campuses in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, and an AI free zone with regulatory sandbox.
Turkish-language sovereign AI deployed across at least ten ministries and major public institutions by 2028 — with audit, observability, and exit options, under a standardised procurement framework and shared reference architectures.
Türkiye becomes one of the recognised middle-power leaders on global AI governance, frontier-lab partnership, and sovereign AI for emerging economies — through the annual Istanbul AI Summit, a Davos-of-Sovereign-AI closed-door forum, the Türkiye–Gulf AI Compact, an Organisation of Turkic States AI mechanism, and structured engagement with the EU AI Office, the US and UK AI Safety Institutes, the OECD, and GPAI.
Research & Publications
Every Foundation document terminates in named actors, named timelines, named budgets, and named KPIs. A vision without a critical path is decoration. Selected public work from the Office of the Secretary General follows.
The canonical training reference for Foundation fellows and analysts — the technology, the industry and its geopolitics, and Türkiye's sovereign AI position, in 21 chapters of living doctrine.
AI treated as Türkiye's fourth foundational infrastructure layer — alongside energy, telecommunications, and banking — with capital architecture, KPIs, and sequencing specified.
A sovereign counter-thesis to “the atomic age is ending”: why deterrence framing misleads, and how middle powers should actually organise for the AI strategic order.
Bilingual policy brief prepared for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on multilateral technology policy in the AI age.
Programs & Ecosystem
Talent and ecosystem density are not slogans — they are programs with cohorts, budgets, campuses, and KPIs. Six vehicles carry the system.
Research and policy tracks for the people who will brief ministers and negotiate with frontier laboratories. Technically credible, geopolitically fluent.
A residency that turns researchers and operators into founders — with capital access, compute allocation, and campuses in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir.
Executive and civil-service education at scale — so that the people who procure, regulate, and deploy AI understand what they are buying, governing, and operating.
Ten diaspora researchers per year into Türkiye-based positions by 2028 — with compensation parity, research environment investment, and coordinated tax and visa instruments.
A jurisdiction designed for AI companies to build, test, and deploy — clear rules, strategic tax incentives, and sandbox supervision built with the regulators.
Foundation-led sovereign deployment program: standardised procurement, reference architectures for RAG, agents, and multimodal systems, and shared evaluation across ministries.
Annual Convening
The bridge between Western frontier capability, Gulf strategic capital, and the broader Turkic world — an annual summit and a closed-door forum for heads of state, ministers, frontier-lab leadership, sovereign funds, and the researchers who build the frontier.
Partners & Posture
The Foundation operates simultaneously across government, frontier laboratories, sovereign capital, universities, and industry — as Türkiye's trusted bridge to the global AI ecosystem.
Engagement categories reflect the Foundation's stakeholder architecture. Listing indicates the Foundation's structured engagement targets and live relationships, not endorsement by the named institutions.
How We Operate
Seven operating principles, intended to outlast individual personnel, programmes, and political cycles.
Every commitment is evaluated by its expected state in 2035 and 2045.
External communication is calm, intelligent, and infrequent. Internal precision is non-negotiable.
Non-partisan by design and by visible behaviour, across administrations and decades.
Trusted by ministries because we understand engineering; by founders because we understand policy.
We do not slogan. We build, ship, measure, and report — stating facts plainly, including uncomfortable ones.
Every document terminates in named actors, timelines, budgets, and KPIs.
The mandate: make Türkiye more productive, more secure, more globally relevant, and more capable of self-determination.
Engage
For governments, frontier laboratories, sovereign funds, universities, founders, and researchers: the Foundation maintains structured channels for partnership, fellowship, investment, and policy engagement.
Write to the SecretariatAnkara · Istanbul