Pranav Hotkar
London, United Kingdom - May 18, 2026 - Colt Technology Services is expanding its fiber and connectivity infrastructure in Istanbul to support rising demand for AI-ready digital infrastructure and growing interconnection requirements across regional data center markets. The move strengthens the company’s position in one of the fastest-growing connectivity corridors linking Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
The expansion adds connectivity into two major Istanbul data center facilities, one located on the city’s European side and another on the Asian side, allowing enterprises, cloud providers, and hyperscalers to access low-latency, high-capacity network infrastructure designed for AI and high-performance computing workloads.
Colt said the investment is intended to help customers manage rapidly increasing bandwidth demands tied to AI model training, cloud applications, real-time analytics, and distributed compute environments. The company has increasingly focused its infrastructure strategy around AI-ready networking, emphasizing low-latency fiber routes and high-capacity interconnection ecosystems connecting major global data center hubs.
The Istanbul expansion comes as Turkey emerges as an increasingly important regional connectivity gateway for hyperscale infrastructure operators and cloud providers seeking improved access between Europe and Middle Eastern markets. Industry analysts view Istanbul as strategically positioned for AI infrastructure growth because of its geographic role in international subsea and terrestrial fiber routes.
“AI workloads are fundamentally changing infrastructure requirements,” Colt said in the announcement, noting that enterprises increasingly require resilient, scalable, and high-capacity connectivity between cloud regions, edge infrastructure, and data center environments.
The company’s broader AI infrastructure strategy has accelerated over the past year through investments in subsea cable systems, metro fiber routes, and hyperscale interconnection capacity. Earlier this year, Colt expanded transatlantic infrastructure linking major U.S. and European data center corridors to support surging AI-related traffic volumes.
Colt currently operates infrastructure spanning more than 40 countries, with connectivity into over 1,100 data centers globally. The company has also expanded its AI-focused infrastructure initiatives through Colt Data Centre Services, which is developing high-density hyperscale facilities across London, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Chennai, Tokyo, and Paris capable of supporting liquid-cooled AI environments and dense GPU deployments.
The Istanbul investment reflects broader changes occurring across the data center industry as AI deployments increasingly reshape network architecture requirements. Analysts expect AI-driven traffic growth to place significant pressure on long-haul fiber, interconnection ecosystems, and metro connectivity infrastructure over the next several years.
