Uber announces $200M technology center in Turkey: What to know
The new site in Istanbul will join Uber’s other global tech centers located outside the United States in Brazil, India and the Netherlands.
Uber on Friday announced a $200 million investment over the next five years to establish its fourth global technology development center, unveiling Istanbul as its location.
What happened: The announcement came at an Uber Turkey event attended by Uber Global CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacir.
The Istanbul site will join Uber’s other global tech centers outside the United States in Brazil, India and the Netherlands. According to the Turkish Hurriyet News, the new center will accelerate innovation in the mobility and delivery sectors in Turkey.
Uber has not provided a timeline for completion of the data center. Al-Monitor has reached out to Uber for further details on the project.
Following the announcement, Uber shares rose 0.79% on the Nasdaq to $97.50, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern Time, compared to Thursday’s close.
Why it matters: Uber, the US-headquartered ride-hailing and delivery platform, reports its third-quarter earnings next week and has been under pressure from investors to expand beyond its home market, which has matured, is oversaturated, and offers fewer growth opportunities.
Meanwhile, the ride-hailing app Lyft is intensifying its competition with Uber. Lyft CEO David Risher told the Harvard Business Review Leadership Summit on April 29 that his company was gaining market share against Uber. In 2023, Lyft’s market share stood at around 26–27%, he said, and has since climbed to approximately 30–31%.
Turkey is an attractive option for Uber because it represents a high-growth market with a rapidly evolving research and development sector and a highly skilled engineering workforce. The number of R&D workers in Turkey has grown from 29,000 in the early 2000s to more than 310,000 as of Oct. 20, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). Domestic investment is rising as well. The same TUIK data showed that Turkey’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D reached 651.82 billion lira ($15.5 billion) in 2024, an increase of 274.28 billion lira ($6.52 billion) over the 2023 figure.
In a speech at the Uber event, Kacir said that 12,000 companies operating in Turkey’s 113 technoparks are conducting R&D in areas of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, financial technologies and green transition.
Know more: Uber has been steadily expanding its presence in Turkey, most notably acquiring an 85% stake in Turkish e-commerce firm Trendyol Go for $700 million in May. The deal gave Uber control of a business that delivers groceries and meals for more than 90,000 restaurants and markets through a network of 19,000 couriers.
The acquisition also brought 180 engineers from Trendyol to Uber. According to the newspaper Milliyet, the availability of highly skilled talent in Turkey played a key role in Uber’s decision to establish its new tech hub in Istanbul.
