Swiss government lacks visibility on owners of over 120 commercial data centres

More than 120 commercial data centres are active in Switzerland, but the federal government has no comprehensive list of their owners or dependencies, according to Green Party National Councilor Gerhard Andrey. The Swiss Data Centre Association (SDCA) confirms there is no mandatory reporting, and its membership only reflects a subset of operators. U.S.-based firms—including Equinix, Digital Realty, Vantage Data Centers and Stack Infrastructure—control the biggest sites, many of which are financed by global asset managers like BlackRock and Vanguard.

These facilities demand large amounts of electricity, with some projects consuming up to 75% of a canton’s total power use, sparking local opposition. Andrey argues that data centres are strategic digital infrastructure and should be treated as public services, calling for a regulatory model similar to the electricity grid overseen by Swissgrid. The federal council has been tasked to promote sovereign digital infrastructure and is now expected to act on transparency and resilience measures.