Freedom24, the retail brokerage arm of Nasdaq-listed Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC), will open a Geneva office in the first quarter of 2027. Moving beyond its core retail investment platform, the broker is positioning the new branch to secure partnerships across Switzerland’s financial and academic sectors, specifically around applied AI, confidential computing, and data governance.
- The move is slated for Q1 2027, with the broker currently staffing a local team to lay the groundwork for the expansion.
- It is also pursuing strategic partnerships with premier Swiss research institutions focused on applied AI and related technologies.
“Geneva brings together several strengths that are particularly relevant to our long-term strategy: international finance, institutional trust and exceptional intellectual capital,” said Evgenii Tiapkin, CEO of Freedom24.
Linking European R&D with Central Asian Infrastructure
According to the company, the Swiss expansion is tightly tied to broader infrastructure investments in Central Asia.
Parent company Freedom Holding is currently developing its “Freedom AI Super Cluster” in Kazakhstan using NVIDIA B300 technology. The computing project is slated to launch with 4 MW of capacity in Q2 2027, with plans to scale to 50 MW by year-end. This new infrastructure sits on top of the group’s existing 6,000-kilometer optical telecommunications network and cloud services division.
Freedom24 intends to use the Geneva office as a conduit between this expanding digital infrastructure and Swiss research institutions, explicitly naming ETH Zurich and EPFL as potential collaborators.
“Switzerland has outstanding research, engineering talent and access to capital, while Kazakhstan is developing significant AI computing capabilities,” said Tiapkin, noting the goal is to help move emerging tech from the research phase into commercial applications.
A Long-Term Play
The company is currently staffing a local team and actively integrating into the regional tech ecosystem, with Freedom representatives slated to participate in EPFL Investor Day in Lausanne later this month.
Addressing the regulatory environment, Tiapkin emphasized that the broker is taking a measured approach to the market. While the immediate focus is on establishing research and technology partnerships, any future localized financial services will be developed strictly under applicable Swiss regulatory frameworks.
