The future of AI in Switzerland is at stake. New U.S. export controls threaten to drastically curtail the development and use of cutting-edge AI systems in our country.
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The recently announced U.S. export controls on advanced AI chips pose major challenges to Switzerland’s technological sovereignty and AI capabilities. Unlike many other European countries, Switzerland will face stringent restrictions on access to AI computing resources over the next three years.
Switzerland’s allocated “base quota” amounts to 790 million so-called Total Processing Performance (TPP) units for the 2025–2027 period - roughly equivalent to 16,500 modern AI chips (GPUs) per year. If each of the 20 largest companies uses just 500 GPUs, 60% of the annual quota would already be consumed - without even accounting for start-ups, universities, or other firms. It’s as if a strict cap on AI were being imposed on the entire Swiss economy and population, precisely at a time when AI is becoming as fundamental as the computer itself.International comparisons show how severe these restrictions are for Switzerland: Elon Musk plans to expand his AI cluster from 100,000 to 1 million GPUs - 20 times the total computing resources allocated to Switzerland for the next three years. This illustrates how badly the country’s competitiveness could be affected. Cloud providers, research institutions, financial service providers, pharmaceutical companies, and AI start-ups will all be competing for the same limited pool of computing resources. Already, Swiss organizations often wait months to access the latest AI models, while other countries can use them immediately. Switzerland will effectively be AI-restricted.
A potential path to greater access is through National Validated End User (NVEU) status, which could grant a much larger allocation of up to 5,064,000,000 TPP (around 320,000 H100s) by 2027. However, this comes with stringent security requirements and complex compliance obligations that many organizations may find challenging.
We call on Swiss policymakers to engage in diplomatic negotiations with the United States. As a longstanding, reliable partner to the U.S. with close economic and scientific ties, placing Switzerland in the restrictive Tier 2 category is difficult to understand - especially since almost all other European countries have been categorized in Tier 1 without restrictions. Switzerland enjoys a high level of trust worldwide and in the U.S., and has been a dependable partner for decades. Numerous U.S. companies are established here, and Swiss research and innovation make a significant contribution to global research and development.
Time is of the essence, as compliance must be achieved by May 15, 2025. This leaves Swiss organizations only limited opportunity to adjust their AI development strategies and secure their share of the permitted computing resources. Without careful national planning and coordination, these restrictions could seriously undermine Switzerland’s ability to maintain its position in the global AI landscape.
This situation requires our immediate attention to ensure that Switzerland remains competitive in the AI era. The decisions made in the coming months will shape the country’s AI capabilities for years to come.