ANKARA
Turkey is planning to build a silicon-based chip factory in Gebze in northwestern Turkey, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Isik told The Anadolu Agency Tuesday.
“The factory will be built under the leadership of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in cooperation with the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries and companies,” Isik said.
The new project will be the second in Turkey, after ASELSAN, a state-owned corporation that produces defense electronic systems.
In December 2014, Bilkent University started building a factory that will produce gallium nitrate-based chips, but the Gebze project will be the “first factory with large-scale production capacity of silicon-based chips,” Isik said.
Isik said the factory will be built in Gebze, a town in Kocaeli province near Istanbul. It will be near TUBITAK’s Gebze campus and the Technology Valley that Turkey aims to build.
Turkey has been working in recent years to establish a Silicon Valley-inspired industrial region in Istanbul, Turkey's biggest province and economic capital.
“Chips are being produced in TUBITAK’s laboratory at the moment, but we do not have the infrastructure needed to produce chips in series," Isik said, adding that he hopes Turkey will have the needed infrastructure in the near future.
