Microsoft will invest $400 million in Switzerland | Press review n°9
What to take away from the news on artificial intelligence during the week of June 2 to 8, 2025.
Welcome to the ninth press review of Artificial reality. I publish a selection of the latest important developments in AI every week. Have a good read!
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Microsoft will invest $400 million in Switzerland
The company which owns the operating systems Windows, the cloud computing platform Azure and the AI assistant Copilot announced on Monday massive investments of $400 million in Switzerland, Le Temps reports.
Brad Smith, the director of Microsoft, went to Bern to give further details on the multinational’s ambitions. The corporation will extend the capacity of its four data centers in the country, located in Geneva and Zurich, to meet the rising demand of its customers for artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.
Microsoft will also collaborate with the Switzerland Innovation Parks to accelerate startups and SMEs’ AI innovations from research to market applications. In parallel, it will continue its nationwide Swiss AI Tech Accelerator program to help startups scale AI solutions, states the company in a press release.
The tech giant plans to train one million Swiss people in artificial intelligence by 2027 to prepare workers, teachers and students for an economy increasingly driven by this technology. Finally, it will expand its collaboration with the International Geneva ecosystem, including with the United Nations.
Le Temps journalist Anouch Seydtaghia considers that “if Microsoft deploys so much energy to seduce, it’s also to gain considerable benefits” and to “ciment [its] foundation in Switzerland”. In his Bern speech, Brad Smith has indeed stated that this country is the tenth global market for the group and that “31% of Swiss people use artificial intelligence on a regular basis”, adding that “the country moves forward very quickly”.
Microsoft, which has around 1000 employees in Switzerland, has the Swiss Confederation and UBS amongst its customers.
“Microsoft is no angel”
In an opinion piece titled “No, Microsoft is no angel, contrary to appearances”, Anouch Seydtaghia recalls that the multinational has recently deactivated the email address of Karim Khan, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, upon request by the United States government after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
This email disconnection sparked Europe’s fears that Microsoft could cut digital services again at the demand of United States president Donald Trump.
Furthermore, data protection experts have expressed doubts about the security of the informations hosted in Europe by Microsoft, stating that they could still be transferred to the United States in certain cases.
But the controversial aspects of Microsoft go even further: the company provides AI and cloud services to the Israeli military in the war in Gaza. It also worked with the Pentagon to develop augmented reality headsets for the US army, before the control of this $22 billion project was transferred to Anduril at the beginning of this year.
Seven important news this week
Anthropic launches new Claude service for military and intelligence use (The Verge)
Anthropic appoints a national security expert to its governing trust (TechCrunch)
Reddit Sues Anthropic, Alleges Unauthorized Use of Site’s Data (The Wall Street Journal)
State lawmakers to Congress: Don’t stop us from regulating AI (The Washington Post)
Meta becomes the latest big tech company turning to nuclear power for AI needs (ABC News)
ChatGPT can now read your Google Drive and Dropbox (The Verge)
You are hardwired to blindly trust AI. Here’s how to fight it (The Washington Post)
Read the other articles of the week I have selected by clicking here.
🎥 Watch
To work with the military: “a return to grace” for Meta
Andrew Bosworth, the Chief Technological Officer of Meta (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Threads), was interviewed by Bloomberg on Wednesday during the Bloomberg Tech summit in San Francisco.
Asked about the recent controversial announcement that Meta collaborates with weapons company Anduril to develop an augmented reality headset for the United States army, Andrew Bosworth said that “the tides have turned” in Silicon Valley and that it is now more palatable for the tech industry to work with the Pentagon.
He reminds the audience that Silicon Valley was founded on a three-way investment between the military, academics and private industry. According to him, the fact that Meta works for the Department of Defense is thus “a return to grace”.
The segment about Meta and the military starts at 07:35.
Seven important videos this week
AI Expert Warns Trump Bill Is Total Disaster (Breaking Points)
Trump Taps Palantir AI To Spy On All Americans (Breaking Points)
“Empire of AI”: Karen Hao on How AI Is Threatening Democracy & Creating a New Colonial World (Democracy Now)
“How to Survive the Broligarchy”: Carole Cadwalladr on Tech Titans & Rising U.S. Authoritarianism (Democracy Now)
AI CEO explains the terrifying new behavior AIs are showing (CNN)
Demis Hassabis On The Future of Work in the Age of AI (Wired)
Alphabet's Pichai on AI, Antitrust Suits, Privacy (Bloomberg)
Watch the other videos of the week I have selected by clicking here.
🔈 Listen
Silicon Valley and the war business
In the new episode of Tech Won’t Save Us, journalist Paris Marx discusses the new military industry complex in the United States with senior technology reporter Sam Biddle, who writes for The Intercept.
They explain why Silicon Valley has become more open to work for the US army in recent years. The last example comes from Meta, who just announced a collaboration with the defense contractor Anduril to develop augmented reality goggles for the military.
Addressing the current domestic and international political context, they show how the national security of the United States seems to be used as a pretext by the tech companies to justify their wish to obtain very lucrative contracts.
“All these companies got started building software for people to use at home and at work. I think the truth is, that you can only sell so many Instagram ads, you can only get people to buy so many Meta AI Ray-Bans or whatever, you can only sell so many Google cloud accounts to small businesses. There is a shitload of money if you can get that Pentagon spigot to open.”
- Sam Biddle
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Have a good week,
Arnaud
