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# Switzerland — Alps Supercomputer · sovereign AI programme
Sovereign programme record · Switzerland · 2024

## Switzerland: ~$118M announced · disbursement not on record

# Switzerland: Alps Supercomputer + Swiss AI Initiative

-   Announced~$118M
    
-   Government funding~$118M
    
-   Committed—
    
    No committed dollar amount on record.
    
-   Disbursed—
    
    No disbursed dollar amount on record.
    

Funding stages share a dollar scale. A hatched track marks an absent figure and gives its reason. Tildes mark estimated figures.

Cite

**Operating compute / delivered hardware**. Reported operational or delivered: 10,752 NVIDIA Grace Hopper GH200 (physical hardware).

### Hardware on record

<table class="reg-table" aria-label="Tracked accelerators for this programme"><thead><tr><th scope="col">Model</th><th scope="col" class="num">Count</th><th scope="col">Status</th><th scope="col">Organisation / role</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="reg-name">NVIDIA Grace Hopper GH200</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">10,752</span></td><td>Operational</td><td>CSCS, an ETH Zurich institution</td></tr><tr><td colspan="4"><p style="margin:0;font-size:12px;line-height:1.55;white-space:normal;color:var(--text-secondary)">Physical hardware: Alps’ Grace Hopper superchips at its September 2024 inauguration. <a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:var(--teal);text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:3px">Primary source · 2024-09-14</a></p></td></tr></tbody></table>

#### Empanelled partners · 6

<table class="reg-table" aria-label="Partners and reported allocations"><thead><tr><th scope="col">Partner</th><th scope="col" class="num">Accelerators</th><th scope="col">Model</th><th scope="col">Stage</th><th scope="col">Source</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td class="reg-name">Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">10,752</span></td><td>NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip</td><td>Commissioned</td><td><a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Primary source · 2024-09-14</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5"><div class="v2-note" style="white-space:normal"><p style="margin:0;font-size:12px;line-height:1.55;white-space:normal;color:var(--text-secondary)">Physical hardware: Alps’ Grace Hopper superchips at its September 2024 inauguration. <a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color:var(--teal);text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:3px">Primary source · 2024-09-14</a></p><p>Operates Alps in Lugano. ETH Zurich reported 10,752 NVIDIA Grace Hopper superchips at the inauguration on 14 September 2024.</p></div></td></tr><tr><td class="reg-name">ETH Zurich</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">—</span></td><td>—</td><td>Empanelled</td><td><a href="https://www.cscs.ch/science/computer-science-hpc/joint-initiative-for-trustworthy-ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Primary source · 2023-12-01</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5"><div class="v2-note" style="white-space:normal"><p>Co-launched the Swiss AI Initiative with EPFL in December 2023; its CSCS supercomputing centre provides access to Alps.</p><ul><li>Programme-level disclosure</li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><td class="reg-name">EPFL</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">—</span></td><td>—</td><td>Empanelled</td><td><a href="https://www.cscs.ch/science/computer-science-hpc/joint-initiative-for-trustworthy-ai" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Primary source · 2023-12-01</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5"><div class="v2-note" style="white-space:normal"><p>Co-leads the Swiss AI Initiative with ETH Zurich through their respective AI centres.</p><ul><li>Programme-level disclosure</li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><td class="reg-name">Hewlett Packard Enterprise</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">—</span></td><td>—</td><td>Awarded</td><td><a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Primary source · 2024-09-14</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5"><div class="v2-note" style="white-space:normal"><p>Supplied the HPE Cray EX system used for Alps.</p><ul><li>Programme-level disclosure</li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><td class="reg-name">Paul Scherrer Institute</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">—</span></td><td>—</td><td>Empanelled</td><td><a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Primary source · 2024-09-14</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5"><div class="v2-note" style="white-space:normal"><p>Uses Alps through its virtual-cluster architecture for scientific research.</p><ul><li>Programme-level disclosure</li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><td class="reg-name">MeteoSwiss</td><td class="num"><span style="font-variant-numeric:tabular-nums;white-space:nowrap">—</span></td><td>—</td><td>Empanelled</td><td><a href="https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Primary source · 2024-09-14</a></td></tr><tr><td colspan="5"><div class="v2-note" style="white-space:normal"><p>Uses Alps for higher-resolution weather forecasting in Switzerland.</p><ul><li>Programme-level disclosure</li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table>

### External dependence

NVIDIA hardware: High · US technology: High. These are editorial assessments based on the programme’s procurement disclosures.

Named partners: CSCS, ETH Zurich, EPFL, HPE, NVIDIA.

CSCS operates Alps in Lugano, with 10,752 NVIDIA Grace Hopper superchips reported at its September 2024 inauguration. The system supports the Swiss AI Initiative, led by ETH Zurich and EPFL. Their multilingual Apertus models were released on 2 September 2025 for public download. Alps also serves scientific workloads, including weather forecasting for MeteoSwiss and research at the Paul Scherrer Institute.

### Data-quality caveats on this record · 3

-   The GPU count is the 10,752 Grace Hopper superchips reported by ETH Zurich at the Alps inauguration on 14 September 2024.
-   SWI swissinfo reported Alps’ capital cost as CHF100M (approximately US$118M) on 3 October 2024, funded from the public purse.
-   The ETH Board allocated CHF 20M to Swiss AI Initiative research for 2025–2028.

### The evidence trail

11 cited sources

-   [Alps inauguration announcement (CSCS)](https://www.cscs.ch/publications/news/2024/new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated) — Primary source · accessed 2026-04-07
-   [ETH Zurich: Alps inauguration and hardware specification](https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/09/press-release-new-research-infrastructure-alps-supercomputer-inaugurated.html) — Primary source · accessed 2026-03-28
-   [CSCS Alps technical specifications](https://www.cscs.ch/computers/alps) — Primary source · accessed 2026-03-28
-   [CHF 100M capital, CHF 37M operating budget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alps_\(supercomputer\)) — Press or analyst · accessed 2026-03-28
-   [Swiss AI Initiative launch](https://www.zhaw.ch/en/about-us/news/news-releases/news-detail/event-news/successful-launch-of-the-swiss-ai-initiative) — Primary source · accessed 2026-03-28
-   [Apertus release plans, July 2025](https://www.cscs.ch/science/computer-science-hpc/2025/a-language-model-built-for-the-public-good) — Primary source · accessed 2026-03-28
-   [DC capacity target: main facility in Lugano; CSCS extending Alps infrastructure across Switzerland](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/cscs-extends-its-alps-supercomputer-infrastructure-across-switzerland/) — Research database · no accessed date on record
-   [CSCS (Swiss National Supercomputing Centre): operator](https://www.cscs.ch/) — Primary source · no accessed date on record
-   [CSCS: Apertus model release, 2 September 2025](https://www.cscs.ch/science/computer-science-hpc/2025/apertus-a-fully-open-transparent-multilingual-language-model) — Primary source · accessed 2026-09-08
-   [SWI swissinfo: reported Alps capital cost and CSCS director interview](https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/archive-science/how-switzerlands-alps-supercomputer-aims-to-advance-ai/87659724) — Press or analyst · accessed 2026-09-08
-   [ETH Zurich, Globe 4/2024, page 32: CHF 20M Swiss AI Initiative funding for 2025–2028](https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/main/news/globe/Web/2024/Globe2404_Journey-into-space.pdf) — Primary source · accessed 2026-09-08

Machine access The same record, machine-readable: the [evidence-trail feed](https://scrutica.com/sovereign-ai/program/sovereign-ch/feed.xml) and the [derivation-chain export](https://scrutica.com/api/sovereign-programs/derivation-chain/ch).