Fast Company’s Startup Day 2025 brought together leading figures of the business and technology world on November 26 at Wyndham Grand Istanbul. One of the event’s notable speakers, Emre Kurttepeli, shared compelling insights in his session titled “Entrepreneurship Trends ’26.”
Kurttepeli emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) continues to shape and influence all major global trends. He described the AI ecosystem through a three-layer model: infrastructure, mid-layer, and application layer. According to Kurttepeli, competition at the infrastructure level has shifted from companies to a race between nations, with China and the United States emerging as the dominant players.
He noted that although many companies initially attempted to build their own AI models, testing and operating such models requires millions of dollars, leaving foundational model development largely in the hands of major tech corporations. For this reason, he said, the window of opportunity for Turkey at the infrastructure level has become limited.
However, Kurttepeli highlighted that in the next 5–10 years, Turkey has strong potential to produce globally competitive companies in the AI application layer. He pointed to significant opportunities in business-focused or consumer-focused AI solutions, such as applications designed specifically for professionals like architects.
Kurttepeli predicted that the AI application market will become highly segmented, local in nature, and driven by speed, stressing that being early and fast will be crucial to capturing market share.
He also underlined that today almost no AI company has a valuation below 50 million dollars, as the substantial costs of building and testing models push valuations upward. “These valuations are not always reflective of market reality; they are shaped by the necessity of the technology,” he said, adding that every industry will inevitably undergo an AI-driven transformation.
