Switzerland is investing in artificial intelligence to reduce its dependence on US and Chinese technology, but true sovereignty remains a distant goal. The country has built the supercomputer “Alps” and developed “Apertus,” Europe’s first fully public LLM. Yet resources are limited, especially compared to global powers. Dependence on foreign chips, data, and computing power makes full independence difficult. Open-source models, meanwhile, rely on voluntary global maintenance.
Experts propose international cooperation, such as a “federation of sovereign AIs” or an “Airbus for AI” model, allowing countries to pool resources. With current funding and infrastructure, Switzerland can improve autonomy but cannot achieve complete AI sovereignty alone.