Switzerland’s Competition Commission (COMCO) has launched a preliminary investigation into Google’s removal of a feature that allowed Android users to choose their preferred default search engine during device setup, adding to mounting regulatory pressure on Big Tech across Europe.

The watchdog said on Tuesday it is examining whether Google’s decision to disable the “Choice Screen” in Switzerland while keeping it available elsewhere in Europe could amount to anti-competitive conduct under the Swiss Cartel Act.

The investigation marks the latest challenge for Google, whose search, advertising, and Android businesses have been under almost continuous regulatory scrutiny across Europe for years as authorities intensify efforts to curb the market power of the world’s largest technology companies.

Google said it was aware of the investigation.

“We look forward to cooperating fully with the authority to address their questions,” a company spokesperson said.

The Choice Screen allows users setting up a new Android smartphone to select their preferred default search engine instead of automatically using Google Search. According to COMCO, Google has removed that option for users in Switzerland, even though it remains available across countries in the European Economic Area (EEA).

As a result, Swiss users are automatically assigned Google Search unless they manually change the setting later.

The Swiss regulator said this could significantly reduce the visibility of rival search engines at a critical stage of the user experience.

“In digital markets, default settings play a decisive role,” COMCO said, noting that removing the option could weaken competition not only among search engines but also among other digital service providers that depend on online discovery.

The regulator added that Google’s approach creates unequal treatment between Swiss consumers and users elsewhere in Europe, where regulators have required greater consumer choice.

The preliminary investigation will determine whether Google’s conduct constitutes an abuse of its market position under Swiss competition law.

According to web analytics firm Statcounter, Google controls roughly 82% of Switzerland’s online search market, reinforcing regulators’ concerns about the company’s influence over internet search.

Europe’s Scrutiny of Big Tech Continues to Intensify

The Swiss investigation shows that regulatory pressure on Google and other major technology companies has shown little sign of easing, even after years of antitrust cases, record fines, and sweeping new digital regulations across Europe.

Google has been at the center of European competition enforcement for more than a decade. The European Commission has imposed billions of euros in fines against the company over practices involving Android, online shopping services and digital advertising, while requiring changes to how its products operate within the bloc.

The Android Choice Screen itself emerged from one of those cases after European regulators concluded that Google had illegally leveraged Android’s dominance to reinforce the market position of its search engine and Chrome browser.

More recently, scrutiny has expanded beyond traditional antitrust investigations.

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into force last year, imposes strict obligations on designated “gatekeeper” platforms, requiring companies such as Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and ByteDance to make their ecosystems more open to competitors and give users greater freedom over default services and pre-installed applications.

European regulators are also increasingly focusing on product design choices rather than simply pricing or acquisitions. Features such as default settings, app placement, browser selection, and interoperability have become central to competition enforcement because they can shape user behavior and entrench dominant platforms without consumers actively making those choices.

Google is far from alone in facing heightened oversight.

Apple continues to face multiple investigations over its App Store rules, browser policies and interoperability obligations under the DMA. Meta remains under scrutiny over its advertising practices, subscription models and data usage, while Microsoft, Amazon and TikTok owner ByteDance are also subject to ongoing investigations and compliance reviews across Europe.

Switzerland’s probe demonstrates that this tougher regulatory stance is spreading beyond the European Union itself. Although Switzerland is not an EU member, its competition authorities have increasingly aligned with broader European efforts to ensure digital markets remain contestable.

If COMCO finds evidence of anti-competitive behavior, Google could be required to restore the Choice Screen for Swiss Android users and potentially face further enforcement measures.

Taiwan’s United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) has begun mass production of silicon photonics wafers at its manufacturing facility in Singapore, marking a significant step in the race to build the next generation of AI infrastructure as demand for faster and more energy-efficient data transmission accelerates.

The company, Taiwan’s second-largest contract chipmaker after TSMC, said Tuesday that the wafers are designed to meet surging demand for high-speed optical interconnects used in artificial intelligence clusters and hyperscale data centers, where the rapid movement of data has become as critical as computing power itself.

The milestone puts UMC in the position to participate in one of the semiconductor industry’s fastest-growing segments, as AI companies invest hundreds of billions of dollars in expanding data centers capable of training and running sophisticated models.

UMC said it worked with Singapore-based fabless semiconductor company SILITH Technology to move the silicon photonics platform from development to production in just 18 months, highlighting the industry’s urgency to commercialize technologies capable of addressing AI’s growing bandwidth bottlenecks.

The company also announced plans to make its proprietary 12-inch silicon photonics manufacturing platform available to customers by 2027, allowing chip designers to develop customized products using its fabrication process.

The announcement underlines how innovation in the semiconductor industry is increasingly focused not only on producing faster processors but also on improving how those processors communicate with one another.

As AI models continue to grow in size, traditional electrical connections between processors are becoming a major constraint on performance. Silicon photonics replaces conventional electrical signals with optical signals transmitted through light, enabling significantly faster data transfer while consuming less power and generating less heat.

The technology is becoming increasingly important for AI training clusters that can contain hundreds of thousands of GPUs operating simultaneously.

Without faster interconnect technologies, many of the performance gains delivered by next-generation AI chips risk being limited by the speed at which data can move between processors, storage systems and networking equipment.

That has made silicon photonics one of the semiconductor industry’s highest-priority technologies alongside advanced chip packaging and high-bandwidth memory.

Market researchers at Polaris Market Research estimate the global silicon photonics market will reach approximately $3.71 billion in 2026, supported by rapid growth in AI computing, cloud infrastructure, telecommunications and high-performance computing.

UMC’s investment also reinforces Singapore’s growing role as a strategic manufacturing base within the global semiconductor supply chain. The city-state has become an increasingly attractive location for advanced chip manufacturing thanks to its political stability, strong intellectual property protections, skilled workforce, and proximity to major Asian electronics supply chains.

The expansion comes as global semiconductor companies seek to diversify manufacturing footprints beyond traditional production centers amid rising geopolitical tensions and supply-chain disruptions.

Several major Taiwanese semiconductor firms have expanded operations in Singapore in recent years.

King Yuan Electronics has increased its presence in the country, while Vanguard International Semiconductor, backed by TSMC, recently partnered with Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors to build a $7.8 billion wafer fabrication plant there.

The clustering of semiconductor manufacturers, suppliers, and design firms is gradually strengthening Singapore’s position as one of Asia’s most important chip production hubs outside Taiwan.

UMC’s manufacturing milestone comes as the company enjoys improving business conditions. Citi analysts recently upgraded their outlook for the second half of 2026, forecasting a 13% quarter-on-quarter increase in second-quarter revenue alongside a recovery in gross margins as semiconductor demand strengthens.

Recent operating results also point to improving momentum. UMC reported June revenue of NT$23.12 billion ($719.2 million), up 22.85% from a year earlier, while cumulative revenue for the first six months of the year increased 11.28%.

Despite the positive developments, UMC shares fell nearly 5% during Tuesday’s trading session in Taiwan before recovering part of the decline to close about 1.6% lower, suggesting investors may have been taking profits following recent gains or reacting to broader weakness across semiconductor stocks.

UMC’s latest investment shows that the AI boom is expanding opportunities well beyond companies that manufacture processors, with the race moving beyond chips to connectivity.

As hyperscalers, including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Google, continue investing heavily in AI infrastructure, demand is rising across the semiconductor ecosystem, from memory chips and advanced packaging to networking equipment and optical communications.

Analysts note that the industry’s next phase of growth will depend on technologies that allow vast numbers of AI processors to operate together efficiently. In that environment, silicon photonics is emerging as a foundational technology rather than a niche application, positioning manufacturers such as UMC to benefit from one of the fastest-growing areas of AI infrastructure.