Hitachi, NVIDIA to Launch Global AI Factory

Hitachi announces the creation of a Global AI Factory. This infrastructure, built on the NVIDIA AI Factory architecture, is designed to accelerate the development and implementation of Physical AI solutions on an industrial scale.

The initiative is based on the strategic collaboration between the two companies to unify Hitachi's expertise in Operational Technology (OT) with NVIDIA's accelerated computing platform. “Through the capabilities of NVIDIA's AI reasoning and Physical AI technologies, we will accelerate the development of digital twins and the optimization of physical assets," says Toshiaki Tokunaga, President and CEO, Hitachi.

The Global AI Factory is part of Hitachi's "Lumada 3.0" vision, an operating model focused on solving business and social challenges through digital and green transformation. Lumada aims to integrate Hitachi's industrial knowledge with AI technologies to convert data into measurable value, optimizing operational efficiency and reducing costs.

The collaboration, announced through a press release shared with media, centers on the field of Physical AI, an evolution of AI that moves beyond data analysis to interact directly with the physical environment. These systems are designed to perceive, reason, and act upon the real world, enabling a new level of automation and control in complex industries.

Industrial Applications of Physical AI

The solutions developed in the AI Factory will have direct applicability in multiple strategic sectors. Key applications range from advanced robotics, which involves implementing industrial robots for high-precision tasks like assembly, inventory management, and quality control supervision, to the development of autonomous vehicles. 

Furthermore, the technology enables the creation of digital twins — virtual representations of physical assets and processes — for simulation, real-time monitoring, and operational prediction to enhance decision-making. It also facilitates predictive maintenance systems that use sensor data to anticipate machinery failures, thereby preventing unscheduled production stoppages and minimizing repair expenses.

The AI Factory will operate on the Hitachi iQ technology platform, which provides the computing, storage and networking resources required for AI workloads. The technology ecosystem includes NVIDIA HGX B200 GPUs based on the Blackwell architecture, Hitachi iQ M-Series systems equipped with NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Server Edition GPUs, and the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform.

This hardware will be supported by NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, which facilitates the transition of AI models from development to production, and by NVIDIA Omniverse for creating industrial simulations and digital twins with high physical fidelity.

The infrastructure will have a presence in the United States, the European Union, and Japan, with interconnected data centers to ensure low latency and facilitate collaboration among global engineering teams. Solutions developed in this network are expected to have a direct impact in Latin America and Mexico, where Hitachi maintains operations in key industries such as automotive, energy, and manufacturing.

"AI factories are the engines of a new industrial revolution" that "convert corporate data into autonomous intelligence that impacts both software and the physical world," says Justin Boitano, Vice President of Enterprise AI Products, NVIDIA.