Building tech in the world’s secret R&D hub

Apple. Anthropic. Disney Research. Google. Meta. Microsoft. NVIDIA. Open AI. Few places outside Silicon Valley can claim R&D hubs from all of these companies. Fewer still are concentrated in a city of just over 400,000 people—roughly half the size of San Francisco. Over the past two decades, however, many of the world’s most influential technology companies have established R&D operations in and around Zurich, Switzerland. What began with Google’s decision to build its largest R&D hub outside the United States has evolved into one of the world’s most concentrated centers for AI research, talent, and commercialization, in certain areas at a higher density than Silicon Valley. The question is why so many technology leaders keep choosing the same place to build and scale. Located at the center of Europe, Greater Zurich Area, a region spanning the cantons of Glarus, Graubünden, Schaffhausen, Schwyz, Solothurn, Tessin, Uri, Zug, and Zürich, the region of Winterthur, and the city of Zurich, combines access to major markets with political stability, regulatory predictability, and strong intellectual property protection. And Zurich Airport connects the region directly with key business hubs across Europe, North America, and Asia, making it an efficient base for international operations. The country’s innovation performance reinforces this position. Switzerland has ranked first in the Global Innovation Index for more than a decade, leads the world in patents per capita, and invests over 3.3% of GDP in research and development. Earlier this year, google.org pledged a $1 million grant to the Swiss National AI Institute, a joint effort to advance AI research for the public good. Switzerland’s venture ecosystem reflects a similar focus. Over 60% of Swiss venture capital is invested in deep tech—the highest share globally by a large margin and nearly twice the share of major economies like Germany, France, and the UK. And, according to the Swiss Deep Tech Report