Google Switzerland - 20 years of "Inventing together" in Zurich

The history of Google Switzerland began two decades ago on Zurich's Limmatquai - a milestone for the company and the Swiss technology industry. In 2004, two employees opened the first development site outside the USA, at a time when "googling" was just entering the dictionary and technologies such as smartphones, YouTube and cloud computing were still in the future.

In the meantime, technologies have developed rapidly in close cooperation with a wide range of innovative players. Google Switzerland, with around 5,000 employees from 85 nations, has been and continues to be actively involved in this progress. Today, the company pays particular attention to the research and development of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI offers new opportunities for society and the economy. Personalities from business and research as well as high-ranking representatives from Google agreed on this on Monday. On the occasion of the anniversary, they met at the Google site in Zurich to discuss potential, partnerships and innovations in the local ecosystem. They all emphasized the importance of Google for Switzerland as a business location. For example, many former Google employees have since founded their own start-ups in Switzerland or become professors at renowned universities. To date, 115 companies have been founded by former Google Switzerland employees and over 1,700 jobs have been created.

A look back at the beginnings

A highlight of the anniversary was the exchange with Google pioneers Urs Hölzle, Ralph Keller and Reto Strobl, who laid the foundations for Google Switzerland in 2004. Hölzle, founding father of the Zurich site and Google's eighth employee, explained how Zurich became the first development site outside the USA: "It was clear that the search engine would become a global project." The decision in favor of Zurich was made by four European Google employees - none of them were Swiss, but the central location and proximity to the universities were convincing.

The personal stories of ETH graduates such as Reto Strobl and Ralph Keller also illustrated the special spirit of the early years. Reto Strobl, now Director Video Ads, told how his wife drew his attention to a television report about Google. Ralph Keller, now Google Lens Team Lead, recalled how an article in the NZZ about Google Zurich sparked his interest. The first meeting with Urs Hölzle took place at Olten station - the start of a team that consisted of five people at the time.

From Ikea furniture to a global snowball

The first years at Limmatquai were characterized by improvisation: server racks did not fit through the stairwell, and the door to the server room had to remain open because otherwise it got too hot. Reto Strobl remembers how they had to buy furniture from Ikea in their private car on a Friday afternoon and assemble it themselves. But these pioneering days laid the foundations for later successes.

With the acquisition of YouTube and the Lucerne-based company Endoxon - whose technology forms the basis for Google Maps - Zurich began to gain international importance. The move to the Hürlimann site in 2008 also provided the necessary space for further growth.

Urs Hölzle spoke of a "snowball effect" that made Google Zurich one of the company's most important development locations. Today, two decades later, Zurich is not only seen as a driver of innovation for Google, but also as a central location for the development of future technologies such as artificial intelligence.

One step ahead of attackers

In addition to looking back, the participants at the event also took a look into the future. Everyone agreed that this will be shaped by developments in the field of AI. Martin Bäuml and Sabine Lehmann, Google Gemini Team Leads in Zurich, presented Gemini, Google's most powerful AI model. They explained how it creates a constantly growing ecosystem of products and technologies for users, companies and developers. In a live demonstration, they showed how natural interaction with Gemini can be. Daniel Fabian, head of the Google Red Team, emphasized how AI can revolutionize cybersecurity - for example, through the early detection of attacks and the detection of vulnerabilities. At the same time, he warned of the potential for abuse such as disinformation and targeted attacks. "We are currently one step ahead of the attackers - we must seize this opportunity," said Fabian.

Exploiting the potential of AI

Artificial intelligence is already playing a decisive role in Switzerland's economic development. The use of generative AI can increase Switzerland's annual gross domestic product by 80 to 85 billion Swiss francs (up to 11 percent) over the next ten years. This is according to the results of the study commissioned by Google this year. Study "The economic potential of AI for Switzerland"which was supported by economiesuisse. Monika Rühl, Director of economiesuisse, referred to the study once again and emphasized that Switzerland has a strong innovation ecosystem and is in a leading position in Europe to exploit the potential of AI for sustainable economic growth. "We are well positioned and must ensure that we make the most of this advantage. We need to get on the AI bandwagon, as it won't wait for us," says Rühl. 

Successful research collaborations

Google also became aware of the innovative Swiss research and development environment, including its outstanding educational institutions, at an early stage. ETH Zurich was one of the most important reasons why Google chose Switzerland as a development location 20 years ago. Since then, the company has maintained a close exchange with the Zurich university and also with EPFL in Lausanne. Many employees studied at the ETH. And some of them move from Google to ETH Zurich to teach or continue their research there. For example, at the ETH AI Center. According to ETH President Joël Mesot, this brings together the best experts from various disciplines to work on innovations and challenges such as climate change, health and demographic change. ETH and Google have been actively collaborating for many years on research projects that have established Switzerland as an international center of innovation.

Inventing together

At the end of the event, Christine Antlanger-Winter, Country Director of Google Switzerland, summarized once again why the technology company values Switzerland so highly as a business location: "Google has strong ties with Switzerland. The local innovation environment has inspired Google ever since. Close collaboration and exchange with our partners from science, education and industry are very important to us. Collaboration is very important at Google - both internally and externally. We invent together. This is a value that Google and Switzerland share. Innovation is in the DNA of Switzerland as much as it is in the DNA of Google."

More information: https://about.google/intl/de_ch/google-in-switzerland/