Microsoft has launched an R&D Center in Türkiye on March 17, with an opening ceremony attended by Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, President of Digital Transformation Office Ali Taha Koç, Microsoft EMEA President Ralph Haupter, and Microsoft Türkiye General Manager Levent Özbilgin.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister Varank noted that with 11 percent annual GDP growth, Türkiye has been the fastest growing economy in the G20, OECD and the EU in 2021. “R&D centers have an important role for us in order to achieve our target to become one of the top 10 economies in the world. The support that we have put forth has moreover allowed every inch of our nation to become lined with technoparks and incubation centers – including over 1,600 R&D and design centers,” Minister Varank said and added, “We hope R&D centers to support talented young software engineers, and then eventually spread our home-grown solutions around the world.”
Microsoft R&D Center Türkiye plans to develop source databases (PostgreSQL), cloud systems, and big data processing, and introduce its work around the world – at least 100 countries – via a new platform it is working on called Azure. At present, it employs 30 engineers, and aims to recruit hundreds more over the next five years.
Laying the foundations for various major engineering projects, Microsoft has been present in Türkiye since 1993 and recruited Turkish engineers onto its staff, which over time, has blossomed into one of Microsoft’s best research and product development teams.
