Summary: As artificial intelligence becomes integrated into everyday life, concerns about privacy, data sovereignty and energy consumption are growing across Europe. Eurie, a new AI assistant launched by Swiss provider Infomaniak, promises an alternative: data that never leaves Switzerland, models that are not trained on user input, and a data center that recycles all its waste heat to heat thousands of homes.
From AI enthusiasm to data sovereignty anxiety
Across Europe, people are increasingly relying on AI tools to write emails, summarize documents or translate sensitive files. At the same time, it is widely understood that much of this data flows to large technology companies based in the United States or China, often under legal regimes allowing broad access to public authorities. European policymakers have repeatedly warned that this creates structural dependencies and strategic vulnerabilities, particularly when a handful of U.S. companies provide most of Europe’s cloud infrastructure and when key AI services are controlled abroad.
In this context, so-called “sovereign” AI has become a political and commercial mantra. European Union institutions are talking about digital sovereignty and the need to diversify cloud and AI supply chains, while national governments are looking for suppliers who can guarantee local control, strict privacy protection and compliance with European data protection standards. The EU’s new Artificial Intelligence Act establishes a risk-based regulatory framework for these systems, aiming to ensure that they are secure, transparent and respectful of fundamental rights. Switzerland, although not a member of the EU, is part of this broader European debate and hosts several initiatives that present themselves as privacy-friendly alternatives to Big Tech.
How Euria works: privacy by design, not by slogan
Euria is Infomaniak’s response to these concerns. According to the company’s own technical documentation and its dedicated wizard portal at euria.infomaniak.com, all processing, storage and hosting of Euria takes place exclusively in Infomaniak’s data centers in Switzerland, without external subcontractors or transfers abroad. User conversations are encrypted at every step and the company commits that prompts and files are used only to fulfill the current request, and not to train its models or for advertising purposes.
For particularly sensitive use cases, such as clinical notes, legal projects or confidential administrative documents, Euria offers an optional “ephemeral mode”. When this mode is activated, discussions are not stored, no logs are kept and the content cannot be retrieved — including by Infomaniak itself. This is explicitly intended for users who must respect strict professional secrecy obligations, such as doctors, lawyers, public administrations or researchers handling unpublished documents.
Functionally, Euria aims to match the versatility of well-known general-purpose AI tools. At launch, it already supports voice queries and audio transcription, image analysis, translation, interpretation of PDF, Word and Excel files, web search and complex reasoning. He can also integrate into Infomaniak’s collaborative ecosystem, helping to draft emails, working on documents stored in the company’s cloud drive and helping teams organize projects. Practical guides, like Infomaniak’s tutorials on using Euria in kDrive or in its webmail writing assistant, show how the tool is integrated into daily workflows.
Under the hood, Infomaniak relies on a mix of successful models, including European and open source systems, but routes all requests through its own Swiss infrastructure. The company explicitly warns users that no AI is infallible and encourages them to verify results before relying on it in high-stakes contexts such as medical, legal or financial decisions. In this sense, Euria presents itself as a privacy-friendly tool and not as an infallible oracle.
Transforming waste heat into a social benefit
What makes Euria unique is not only where and how it processes data, but also what happens to the energy it consumes. Infomaniak operates a new generation data center in the canton of Geneva designed to recover 100% of the electricity it consumes. All heat produced by servers, cooling systems and support equipment is captured by an air-water exchange system and injected into the local district heating network.
According to company figures, once the facility reaches full capacity, the data center will provide enough thermal energy to heat up to 6,000 homes in winter and provide the equivalent of 20,000 hot showers per day, while preventing the combustion of thousands of tonnes of CO₂ from natural gas each year. Infomaniak presents this as proof that with good design, data centers can support the energy transition instead of simply adding to electricity demand. More details on this energy model are presented in the company’s public information on its sovereign cloud infrastructure.
Independent researchers from Swiss academic institutions have begun to document this model so that it can be replicated elsewhere. Their work highlights that metrics traditionally used to assess data center efficiency, such as power consumption efficiency, are no longer enough on their own; new indicators measuring the amount of energy reused for other purposes are becoming equally important.
A European alternative in a contested AI landscape
Euria’s launch comes at a time when European leaders are warning that the continent risks “missing the boat” on AI if it continues to adopt AI slowly and if it continues to buy most of its technology abroad. At the same time, they warn that simply importing AI solutions from established suppliers will increase Europe’s dependence on foreign entities and could expose critical sectors to geopolitical pressure.
For governments, public services and regulated professions, the question is therefore not only which AI system is most powerful, but also who controls the infrastructure, under whose jurisdiction the data falls and whether the provider can withstand foreign legal requirements. Euria is clearly positioned in this space: an AI assistant run by an employee-controlled company, with data centers and staff based in Switzerland, committed to complying with both the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act.
Beyond privacy, the environmental dimension also matters. AI systems are energy-intensive, and their rapid expansion has raised concerns about electricity and water consumption in data centers around the world. By combining renewable electricity with comprehensive heat recovery and dry cooling solutions that avoid the use of additional water, Infomaniak says Euria can provide advanced AI services while minimizing environmental impact and creating tangible local benefits.
European Times has already examined the broader risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence, including the impact of deepfakes and AI-generated content on democratic debate and individual rights, for example in its article on digital identity and Danish deepfake legislation (read the article here). In this broader context, initiatives explicitly linking AI deployment to human rights standards, environmental responsibility, and community benefits will likely attract increasing attention.
Promise, limits and the need for scrutiny
Euria alone will not resolve Europe’s broader structural dependence on foreign digital infrastructure. Hosting data in Switzerland also does not automatically eliminate all legal or technical risks. As with any AI system, users must always verify results, apply professional standards, and ensure that their own internal policies regarding data protection and privacy are followed.
Nevertheless, Euria offers a concrete example of what a more sovereign and sustainable AI model could look like in practice: clear rules on data use, transparent hosting within a defined jurisdiction, integration with local cloud services and a serious attempt to combat the climate impact of intensive computing. It also illustrates how small European players can innovate by combining technological performance and strong ecological and social commitments.
For citizens, professionals and public authorities who are hesitant to entrust their most sensitive information to opaque systems controlled remotely, the emergence of tools like Euria suggests that another path is possible. The key question now is whether such initiatives can scale, remain independent and inspire similar approaches across Europe – or whether they will remain niche alternatives in a landscape still dominated by global giants.
How to access Euria
Euria can be used free of charge via a web interface on euria.infomaniak.com without needing an existing Infomaniak account. For individuals, a low-cost subscription to the Infomaniak collaborative suite (my kSuite+) allows more intensive use of the assistant as well as secure cloud storage. For businesses and public organizations, Euria is integrated into the kSuite Pro professional environment, which includes email, file storage, messaging, videoconferencing and shared calendars, all hosted on Swiss infrastructure. This provides a unique environment in which sensitive data can be created, processed and archived without leaving the European legal area.
As European institutions continue to refine AI regulation and debate how to reduce strategic dependencies, solutions combining privacy, technological autonomy and environmental responsibility will likely play an increasingly visible role. Whether Euria becomes a model for others or a distinctive Swiss exception will depend on the choices of regulators, public administrations and users across the continent.
Tags:EurieInfomaniakSovereign AISwiss AI Assistantdata privacyRGPD complianceData protection in Switzerlanddigital sovereigntyEuropean AI policygreen data centerswaste heat recoveryrenewable energyDistrict heating in Genevacloud computing in EuropeAI and human rights
Originally published in The European Times.
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