Machinepower Index / Dossiers / Türkiye

Rank 22 of 25 · Tier 3

Türkiye

Strategic Autonomy — Build enough sovereign capability to negotiate from strength — inference-grade compute, open-weight depth, a hardened grid, retained talent — without racing the superpowers to the frontier.

Score4.21
Potential5.13
Bottleneck cost−0.92
Weakest cell: Hardware & Silicon Access at 2.5 Binding layer: Watts Direction: Stagnating Edition: Q3 2026

Score comes from the twelve measurements beneath the three layers. A nation needs all of them at once — world-class models are no use on a grid that cannot power them — so one weak measurement pulls the Score down instead of being averaged away. Potential is the plain average of the three layers. The gap between the two is what being lopsided costs: nothing if a nation is evenly built, more the further its strengths and weaknesses sit apart. The exact formula is on the methodology page.

The three layers

WattsMaterial power · holds the weakest cell
4.2 / 10

Energy, grids, data centres and silicon — the physical capacity to run models at scale.

WeightsIntelligence power
4.6 / 10

Models, alignment capability, standards influence and the talent that produces them.

WillPolitical power
6.6 / 10

The capacity to wire AI into the state and the economy while holding public consent.

Where the score comes from

Each layer is the plain average of its four measurements. The Score uses those twelve measurements directly rather than the three averages, because averaging hides things: a 10 next to a 3 comes out as a forgettable 6.5, and you lose both facts. Every measurement is scored 0–10 and marked to show where the number came from.

LayerSub-dimensionBasisScore
WattsPlanning & PermittingAssessed5.5
Firm Power CapacityDataset5.7
Sovereign ComputeDataset3.1
Hardware & Silicon AccessDataset2.5
WeightsFrontier Model OutputAssessed3.1
Alignment CapabilityAssessed3.5
Regulatory StandingDataset6.8
Talent DensityAssessed5.0
WillState ProcurementDataset5.9
Public Sector AdoptionDataset7.8
Workforce TransitionAssessed5.1
Public TrustDataset7.6

Dataset means the number comes straight from a published source. Assessed means we judged it ourselves, because no dataset measures that thing cleanly — 5 of the 12 here, and 116 of 312 across the Index. The CSV export flags them too.

Sources

Every source below was published within the last 12 months. These are the main ones behind Türkiye's profile. The full list, and the rule on how recent a source has to be, are on the methodology page.

Oxford Insights GAIRI 2025January 2026
Government AI Readiness
Overall 58.91 (rank 53) · PSA 77.59

The validated January 2026 report scores Türkiye at 58.91 overall with public-sector adoption at 77.59 — deployment will running ahead of the stack beneath it.

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Ipsos AI Monitor 2026June 2026
Public Trust in AI
65% say benefits outweigh drawbacks

In the 2026 Ipsos wave, 65% of Turkish respondents agreed AI has more benefits than drawbacks — warmer than most of Europe, and steady on the year.

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TOP500.orgJune 2026
High-Performance Compute Capacity
TRUBA systems — 15.1 PF national total

Two TRUBA systems totalling roughly 15 petaflops are Türkiye's listed presence on the June 2026 TOP500 — thin for a G20 economy and the source of the 3.1/10 compute cell.

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Bottlenecks

These hold Türkiye below its Potential. Its two lowest scores cost it the most: hardware & silicon access at 2.5 (part of Watts) and sovereign compute at 3.1 (part of Watts).

Watts (Material)Hardware & Silicon Access

Assessment

A state whose strongest asset is appetite: its government actually deploys what it buys, and its public is warmer on AI (65%) than most of Europe. But the material and intelligence layers trail badly: 15 petaflops of listed compute for a G20 economy, no notable models, and chip access hostage to a complicated geopolitics.

The art of the possible

Türkiye's advantage is position: energy corridors, a manufacturing base, and a foot in every bloc. The play is compute non-alignment — hosting capacity for markets that find hosting awkward elsewhere, while TRUBA-scale public compute grows into something a G20 economy can defend.

Strategic play — Strategic Autonomy

Build enough sovereign capability to negotiate from strength — inference-grade compute, open-weight depth, a hardened grid, retained talent — without racing the superpowers to the frontier.

The play is editorial, not scored: it names the game Türkiye's measured position supports. Eight plays run across the Index — Total Sovereignty, Strategic Autonomy, Chokepoint Leverage, Diffusion Advantage, Compute Rentier, Specialist Power, Sovereign Capital and Siege Autarky.

Open Türkiye in the live Index → — every source behind every number, the comparison tool and the CSV export.