Switzerland's Data Centers: The Federal Government Builds for Sovereignty – and Stays Silent on Power, Heat, and Water

Blog (EN)

clarus.news | Analysis | July 21, 2026

by Thierry Leserf, Ernst Anker and Andreas Binggeli with support from Claude Faible

The federal government has given itself a data center strategy for the first time. The Federal Chancellery's SB022 paper, in force since June 9, 2025, subordinates its own data centers to digital sovereignty. It defines two requirement levels and plans locations through 2044. However, the topics shaping the European data center boom – power hunger, waste heat, water, missing environmental assessments – are practically absent. Meanwhile, individual cantons are forging ahead. And municipalities are largely negotiating alone with operators.

What the Federal Government Does: Concrete for Sovereignty

The Federal Chancellery developed the strategy "Data Centers of the Civil Federal Administration" in close collaboration with the departments. The Federal Council was informed about it on June 25, 2025. The principle is clearly formulated: "Own IT is one of the prerequisites for digital sovereignty."

The strategy distinguishes two levels. DC Level III corresponds to the standard industry offering. Here, the federal government may additionally rent commercial data centers – or use those of the cantons. DC Level IV places higher demands on information protection, availability, and sovereign operation. This level is provided exclusively in federal facilities. It has long-term priority.

The location network comprises two metro regions. In Bern, the existing Primus will be renovated from 2026, with a lifespan until 2044. The time pressure is real: The cooling systems' refrigerants may only be operated until 2030. As a replacement, the new Nubes building should be ready from 2040 – price tag: a low three-digit million amount. Newly integrated is Comes, an existing data center exclusively for Level IV. In Eastern Switzerland stands the military-civilian Campus; if needed, space will be rented in the Frauenfeld area ("Navis"). Hardened Castell locations of the DDPS serve for long-term data backup.

One requirement is remarkably concrete: Level IV products must function for 24 months without external dependencies – without internet connection, without license codes. This is a direct response to geopolitical risks and Cloud Act debates.

Running in parallel is the Swiss Government Cloud (SGC) of the FOITT, planned for 2025 to 2032, with total costs of 319.4 million francs. It covers cloud levels I to III. The SFAO systematically audits the key project; according to the SFAO report, the repeatedly postponed tender should be launched by February 2026. The framework contracts "Public Clouds Confederation" with five hyperscalers were extended by five years in September 2025.

The Cantons: From Location Marketing to Waste Heat Obligation

At the cantonal level, the mood is shifting. The Schaffhausen Cantonal Council adopted a motion in June 2026: Waste heat from data centers must be utilized in the future. The trigger is Beringen. There, US company Stack Infrastructure is building a 36-megawatt facility. It is likely to increase the canton's electricity demand by around 70 percent. The building permit was approved in about three months – an environmental impact assessment was not necessary. The canton must now revise its energy plan. A protest camp is scheduled for July.

The Canton of Zurich already has binding rules. Data centers with more than 2 GWh of waste heat must provide excess heat to third parties at production cost. Larger facilities must be included in regional energy planning. The feasibility of heat extraction must be demonstrated in the building permit procedure. (Note: simply documented, verification against legal text pending.)

The competency question is politically contentious. Schaffhausen FDP Council of States member Severin Brüngger warns against national "regulatory mania": "I believe the cantons are responsible here." Green National Councilor Marionna Schlatter counters: electricity, water, and waste heat issues need national rules. One finding is undisputed: A comprehensive overview of Swiss data centers' resource consumption is missing. The federal government itself admits not knowing which AI models are operated in this country.

Regarding access to federal infrastructure, the cantons remain excluded. The DC strategy allows them usage only at Level IV – maximum two racks, without own access, operated by federal personnel. Conversely, the federal government reserves the right to cover its Level III needs in cantonal data centers. At least: The Swiss Center for Digital Sovereignty launched in April 2026 networks 31 authorities and companies. The associated SDS network counts over 160 members. Federal, cantonal, and municipal governments exchange information there – nothing is binding.

The Municipalities: Building Police Instead of Negotiating Power

For commercial data centers, the municipality is usually the first and only approval authority. An environmental impact assessment applies under federal law only in extreme cases: for fossil emergency power plants over 50 MWth or very large fuel tanks. The federal government provides a guide for cantons and municipalities through EnergieSchweiz – recommendations, not obligations.

The negotiating position is structurally weak. Unlike German municipalities, which can achieve substantial business taxes per megawatt, Switzerland lacks a comparable incentive system. There's also a timing problem: data centers have lifecycles of 10 to 15 years, heating networks of 30 to 40 years. Anyone who bases a district heating network on a single data center carries concentration risk. Exactly these questions should be clarified before building approval – most municipalities lack the knowledge and leverage for this.

The Comparison: What the Federal Strategy Ignores

clarus.news recently analyzed the data center debate in Europe along four conflict fields: regulatory gaps, waste heat wastage, financial asymmetry, local resistance. The comparison with the complete strategy paper SB022 is sobering:

Waste heat: not a single occurrence in the document. Yet with the Primus renovation from 2026 and the new Nubes building, precisely those projects are coming up where heat extraction would be plannable. The federal government would only demand what Zurich already prescribes for private entities.

Power and climate: The "Ecological Optimization" comprises two points – "state of the art" and the Primus renovation. Only certification according to ISO 50001 (energy management) is binding for both levels. Efficiency targets, origin of electricity, or grid compatibility: absent.

Water: Water cooling appears only as an orderable product in the appendix. The resource aspect – in Beringen drinking water is used for cooling – remains unmentioned.

Environmental assessment and acceptance: The site search for Nubes is justified with "complex requirements and conditions" requiring 13 to 15 years. Which conditions these are, whether an EIA is voluntary, and how the local population is involved, the strategy doesn't say.

In fairness: SB022 is an IT strategy, not an energy paper. But the federal government demands exemplary behavior from the private sector – and leaves open whether it delivers it itself in its own buildings.

Sovereignty: Strong in the Basement, Thin in the Stack

From a sovereignty perspective, the strategy is progress with clear limits. The 24-month autarky for Level IV is tangible and verifiable. The separation of operating systems to avoid circular dependencies is well thought out.

But the strategy deliberately defines data centers narrowly: space, power, cooling, access. The operation of IT and cloud platforms is explicitly excluded. Sovereignty thus ends at the rack edge. What runs above it is decided elsewhere – for instance at the virtualization layer. The army shows with the NDP and its dependence on Broadcom/VMware how quickly sovereign concrete and non-sovereign software come together.

The same tension shapes the SGC: According to the message, around 68 percent of usage should go to foreign hyperscalers by 2032, only 22 percent to federal data centers. Parliament is now demanding a stronger private cloud. The 2026 tender will be the test case.

Finally, the federal dimension remains unresolved. Cantons and municipalities manage tax data, health data, police data – as sovereignty-relevant as federal data. A common, federally conceived infrastructure architecture doesn't exist. Two racks per canton are not an offer, but a symbol.

Key Statements

  • The federal government anchors digital sovereignty structurally for the first time: two DC levels, 24-month autarky for Level IV, location planning through 2044.
  • Energy, waste heat, water, and environmental assessment are almost completely absent from the strategy paper; only ISO 50001 is binding.
  • Cantons increasingly regulate themselves (Zurich, Schaffhausen), but receive hardly any access to federal infrastructure.
  • Sovereignty ends at the rack edge: The software stack above remains dependent on hyperscalers and US licenses.

Critical Questions

  1. Evidence: What quantitative demand forecast underlies the dimensioning of Nubes – and will it be publicly verifiable with the checkpoints in 2030 and 2035?
  2. Evidence: Why is there no national statistics on the electricity, water, and land consumption of Swiss data centers, although the federal government emphasizes their strategic importance?
  3. Interests: The federal government extends contracts with US hyperscalers by five years while preaching sovereignty. Who in the administration profits from the status quo of public cloud usage?
  4. Interests: Why does Zurich prescribe waste heat delivery for private entities, while the federal government formulates no corresponding self-commitment for its own new buildings?
  5. Causality: Does the 24-month autarky actually lead to capability in crisis situations – or does it merely shift dependency from licenses to spare parts and specialist personnel?
  6. Causality: Is the division into Level III and IV a security logic – or effectively a savings logic that permanently directs the majority of administration into commercial infrastructure?
  7. Feasibility: Site search, construction, and migration of Nubes require 17 to 19 years. What happens if the project is delayed like other federal IT projects and Primus must go offline in 2044?
  8. Feasibility: Can municipalities like Beringen enforce requirements like heat extraction without projects migrating to neighboring cantons with lower requirements?

Conclusion

Switzerland has three speeds on the topic of data centers. The federal government plans sovereign infrastructure in decades – solid, but blind to energy and environmental issues. Individual cantons react to concrete major projects with initial requirements – late, but at least something. Finally, municipalities approve what comes – without audit obligations, without incentives, without compensation.

The federal strategy answers the question of where classified data lies securely. It doesn't answer who uses the heat, who prioritizes the electricity, and who controls the software. France treats digital infrastructure as a strategic overall question. Switzerland treats it as a real estate project with security zones. That's a start. It's not the end of the task.

Sources:

  • Federal Council/FC: Press release "New strategy for the federal data centers", 25.06.2025 (admin.ch) – verified
  • Federal Chancellery: SB022 – Strategy Data Centers of the Civil Federal Administration, valid as of 09.06.2025 (full text PDF) – verified
  • clarus.news: "Data Centers in Europe: The Rapid Boom Between Climate Change and Digital Necessity", 21.07.2026
  • SRF: "Power-hungry data centers become political issue in Switzerland", June 2026 – verified
  • AlgorithmWatch CH: Research "Data Centers in Switzerland", November 2025 – verified
  • EnergieSchweiz/SFOE: "Data Centers – Important Tips for Cantons and Municipalities" – verified
  • SFOE Magazine energeiaplus: "Heating Buildings with Data Centers", August 2023 – verified
  • Federal Council: Message Swiss Government Cloud, 22.05.2024; FC: Extension "Public Clouds Confederation", 12.09.2025 – verified
  • Netzwoche: SGC credit debate (hyperscaler share according to message, via Republik) – secondarily documented
  • dnip.ch: "Swiss Government Cloud tenders", 19.01.2026 (referring to SFAO report) – simply documented
  • Velasolaris technical article on waste heat requirements Canton Zurich, March 2026 – simply documented, legal verification pending

Verification status: ✓ 21.07.2026

This text was created with the support of an AI model (with Claude). Editorial responsibility: clarus.news | Fact-checking: 21.07.2026

Tags: #DataCenters #DigitalSovereignty #SwissGovernmentCloud #FederalAdministration #Cantons #WasteHeat #EIA #Schaffhausen #Zurich #Hyperscaler

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