The economic research and consulting company EconSight has published its latest Digitalization Atlas. In this, it examines the patent activities of companies in advanced digitalization technologies across the various regions of Switzerland, with the aim of highlighting where local technology clusters can be found.

According to the results, the canton of Basel-Stadt is one of the three largest clusters for advanced digitalization technologies in Switzerland. With these technologies, EconSight means artificial intelligence, encryption, big data, cloud computing and virtual reality. In total, companies and research facilities in the canton of Basel-Stadt have filed 202 patents in these areas.

According to the Digitalization Atlas, the technological focus of Basel-Stadt is artificial intelligence, with 75 percent of advanced digitalization patents within this field. This trend is above all driven by the Basel-based pharma giant Roche. In Switzerland, Roche holds the highest number of patents in artificial intelligence (115 patents). Roche is followed by Zurich technology company ABB (108 patents) and, by quite some margin, Google’s parent company Alphabet (40 patents).

Roche remains the clear leader even when all five technology categories are taken into account. With 149 patents, the Group ranks third behind the Western Swiss company Kudelski (213 patents) and ABB (196 patents).