DeepL is one of the best-known European AI companies. Many businesses and government agencies used its translation service precisely because it was considered a powerful European alternative to major U.S. providers. However, since May 20, 2026, DeepL has been partially collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for data processing. When even a successful European AI provider relies on an American hyperscaler for infrastructure, scalability, and availability, a problematic structural dependency becomes apparent.
More Than Just a Data Protection Issue
For Switzerland, this is about more than just data protection. Digital sovereignty is a cornerstone of neutrality. Those who cannot help shape, review, and—in the event of a crisis—control central digital infrastructure lose their room to maneuver.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming an integral part of core processes in government, business, research, education, industry, and critical infrastructure. Anyone who wants to operate AI systems professionally needs computing power, stable cloud services, security, availability, and scalability. When these fundamentals are provided primarily by a handful of international providers, dependencies arise. These affect not only data security but also the ability to act, resilience, innovative capacity, and economic sovereignty.
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The government must act as an anchor customer**
swissAI advocates for the federal government to more firmly embed digital sovereignty in public procurement. The federal administration, government-affiliated entities, and critical infrastructure should apply binding criteria when selecting AI and cloud solutions.
These include, in particular, data location, jurisdiction, transparency, auditability, exit strategies, and interoperability.
Swiss and European solutions should be given preference wherever they are available, suitable, and economically viable. This will enable the public sector not only to reduce risks but also to generate demand. This demand is crucial for Swiss and European providers of data centers, cloud services, AI models, and trustworthy applications to grow and become competitive.
Sovereignty Means Freedom of Choice
Digital sovereignty does not mean isolation. Switzerland should continue to cooperate internationally and make use of global technologies. What is crucial, however, is that it has genuine freedom of choice when it comes to key digital infrastructure. Those who have no alternatives are not sovereign.
Switzerland is well-positioned to achieve this, with strong research capabilities, innovative companies, high security standards, and a strong culture of trust. This foundation should be leveraged in a targeted manner to strengthen independent AI and cloud infrastructures in Switzerland and across Europe.
Dialogue Between the Federal Government, Industry, and the Research Community
swissAI calls for a structured dialogue between the federal government, industry, the research community, and civil society. “Digital sovereignty must be jointly defined as a strategic goal and concretely implemented through procurement criteria, infrastructure, and cooperation. Switzerland needs genuine freedom of choice,” says Chris Beyeler, President of swissAI. Switzerland must now clarify the digital foundations upon which its AI future should be built and how it can ensure that key technologies are not only used but also helped to shape.
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Examples from Switzerland
Flexbase
Flexbase is building infrastructure for energy, computing power, and AI in Laufenburg. The project demonstrates that high-performance infrastructure for data- and computation-intensive applications can be developed in Switzerland.
https://flexbase.ch/de
Apertus
Apertus is an open, transparent, and multilingual language model developed by the Swiss research community. It demonstrates how AI can be developed as a traceable and reusable foundation for research, business, and public applications.
https://apertvs.ai/
Euria
Euria is an AI platform developed and operated by Infomaniak in Switzerland. It offers companies and organizations access to generative AI with a particular focus on data protection, control, and European independence. The project demonstrates that trustworthy AI applications can also be developed using Swiss infrastructure.
https://euria.infomaniak.com/
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Contact
swissAI – Association for Artificial Intelligence
Chris Beyeler, President of swissAI
swissAI.ch, human@swissai.ch, media@swissai.ch, +41 56560 11 00