One of Türkiye's leading telecoms and tech companies, Turkcell, sees artificial intelligence as no longer just a race over models but increasingly a competition over infrastructure, its CEO Ali Taha Koç said.
Koç was speaking at the AI for Good Global Summit organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where he outlined Turkcell's investments across five key layers of the AI ecosystem.
Koç said the future of artificial intelligence would depend on countries and companies' ability to build strong and independent digital infrastructure.
"Artificial intelligence is no longer a matter of models; it is a matter of infrastructure. Whoever controls the infrastructure will shape the future," he said. "If AI is the key to a strong digital future, the future of AI depends on robust and independent infrastructure."
Technology, mobile communications and AI leaders gathered in Geneva, Switzerland, from Tuesday through Friday for the U.N.-backed ITU summit, where Koç participated in two separate sessions on the transformation of the technology sector.
Koç said Turkcell aims to become a regional technology provider capable of supporting Türkiye's digital transformation, highlighting the company's investments in the core layers underpinning AI development.
Koç said AI infrastructure is built on five main layers: energy, chips and computing power, data centres and cloud infrastructure, models, and applications.
"The decisive factor in the AI era is no longer just the size of models or processing capacity. Building an AI-based infrastructure that can move intelligence from data centres into the real world is becoming increasingly critical," he said.
Koç added that telecommunications networks serve as the main platform connecting all these layers, enabling AI to improve network planning, energy efficiency and operational resilience.
"Next-generation networks provide the fundamental infrastructure that carries AI from data centres to people, devices, cities and industries," he said.
Koç said Turkcell's investments in energy, data centres and cloud technologies were part of a broader strategy aimed at strengthening Türkiye's digital infrastructure capabilities.
"One of the most critical fronts in today's global power competition is this: Countries that generate their own energy, process their own data within their borders and build their own cloud infrastructure will shape tomorrow," he said.
Koç said Turkcell's efforts across energy, data, cloud, AI models and applications were components of a single integrated strategy.
"Our goal as Turkcell is operational independence in digital infrastructure," he said. "We are moving forward with an open, balanced and multi-source technology approach, without depending on either East or West and without compromising our national regulations."
"This goes beyond our company; it is our national responsibility. We view every piece of infrastructure we build in our country as a strategic contribution to our national future."
