Swiss AI is forging a different path from US and Chinese giants

ddd Patrick Pleul / Keystone

Swiss start-up Giotto is taking a gamble by launching a sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) operating system for the general public.

This marks an unprecedented Swiss push into a global market overwhelmingly dominated by United States and Chinese giants, such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek. Switzerland is now seeking to showcase its own strengths.

In the global race for generative AI, the American and Chinese trailblazers are taking the lion’s share. However, some Swiss players are hoping to play the role of spoiler. Giotto has already rolled out its tool to large companies such as Groupe Mutuel, RUAG and SAP, and is now targeting the general public.

Another notable success story is Apertus. The large language model, developed in Switzerland, has surpassed six million downloads in a year, overtaking French rival Mistral. This unexpected success is a reward for taking a novel approach.

“There are two benchmarks: performance and the trust people have in the model. We’re trying to build trust through complete transparency,” Martin Jaggi, professor of machine learning at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne EPFL, told Swiss public broadcaster RTS.

This open approach is reassuring at a time when the capabilities of AI sometimes frighten the general public. According to a Politico survey, two in three Americans believe there is a risk that AI could destroy humanity.

Data sovereignty

But a Swiss AI is also a guarantee of sovereignty at a time when international tensions are flaring up again.

“Without a model like Apertus, we have no control over the future of AI in this country,” said Antoine Bosselut, co-founder of Apertus. With systems such as ChatGPT or Claude, developers could decide overnight to cut off access to Switzerland, he added, or they could decide that all data transmitted should go directly to the US government. And it’s the same with Chinese models.

This view is shared by Aldo Podestà, co-founder of Giotto, who believes that AI is a fundamental technology that Switzerland must master. He compares control of AI to that of electricity. In his view, a country that lacks the necessary expertise in this field would be unable to maintain its level of development.

He also believes that Switzerland has the necessary expertise to carve out a place for itself in AI. In particular, he cites the research teams at Swiss universities.

To compete with American and Chinese companies, Giotto does not want to rely solely on speed. The company intends to develop high-performance models that consume little energy. “We must focus on efficiency,” said Podestà.

Investor reluctance

Nevertheless, Switzerland suffers from investor reluctance, according to Charles-Henry Monchau, head of investments at SYZ Bank. “There is a bottleneck: access to capital,” he said. “Generally speaking, Swiss start-ups manage to raise their initial few million. The problem lies in raising the hundreds of millions needed for subsequent development.”

“Unfortunately, the best minds are leaving Switzerland, or companies are being bought out by larger foreign firms.”

Unable to compete financially on generalist, mass-market models, Switzerland’s salvation could lie in specialisation – in other words, AI dedicated to specific tasks.

Just like the watchmaking industry, Switzerland will struggle to compete with major foreign players on entry-level products. But it could become a benchmark for high-performance niche products.

Translated from German, sub-edited by Matthew Allen/ac

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