The Greater Zurich Area AG and its partners helped a total of 89 companies to establish a business presence in the Greater Zurich Area last year. In comparison with 2022, the number of new companies brought to the region has therefore fallen by 20, as the Greater Zurich Area AG writes in a press release. “The past year was shaped by geopolitical uncertainties, inflation and a general mood of crisis, which directly influenced investment activities”, as Sonja Wollkopf Walt, Managing Director of the investment promotion agency, explains in the press release. “Despite a fall in the number of businesses establishing a presence here, we remain cautiously optimistic about the future”, she adds.
The number of jobs created by the new companies in the first year of operation also failed to match the value recorded in the prior year. This was due to the reduction in companies arriving in the Greater Zurich Area. Over the course of the next five years, a total of 1,463 new jobs are to be created. This corresponds to an increase of 13 percent compared with the plans of the companies that established a presence in 2022. In addition, 62 percent of the companies that arrived in 2023 operate in the focus sectors defined by Greater Zurich Area AG, while nearly three in every ten of the new companies are planning to establish headquarters in the Greater Zurich Area.
In terms of highlights in 2023, the investment promotion agency cites Boston Dynamics AI Institute opening an office in Zurich. This flagship project is primarily based on the activities of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in the area of Artificial Intelligence, according to the press release. The reporting year is additionally described in the press release as a “breakthrough” year in terms of technology in the field of Artificial Intelligence.
