#Japan #Tokyo #NVIDIA #Hitachi #Physical AI

Hitachi's Global AI Factory: A Leap into the Future of Physical AI

On October 3, 2023, Hitachi, Ltd. unveiled its plans to establish a global AI Factory, leveraging NVIDIA's AI Factory reference architecture. This innovative and centralized infrastructure is designed to turbocharge the development and implementation of Physical AI solutions across Hitachi's core business sectors.

The backbone of this AI Factory includes the Hitachi iQ, powered by NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs in the NVIDIA HGX B200 system, as well as the Hitachi iQ M Series with NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Server Edition GPUs. Additionally, it incorporates the NVIDIA Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform. This strategic initiative bolsters Hitachi's vision to create and implement AI that interacts with the real world, addressing complex challenges in sectors like mobility, energy, industry, and technology.

With the launch of this unified AI Factory, Hitachi will provide its global teams with a robust, integrated AI computing infrastructure, enabling the execution of applications and AI workflows developed on NVIDIA's comprehensive AI platform. This includes the "NVIDIA AI Enterprise" for production environments and the "NVIDIA Omniverse," which allows for the creation of physically accurate digital twins at industrial scales.

This infrastructure will enable rapid development and training of advanced Physical AI models that can gather and interpret information from physical environments using cameras and sensors. By inferring steps to make decisions based on the gathered data, Hitachi aims to innovate its AI-driven solutions.

Toshiaki Tokunaga, Hitachi's President and CEO, stated that utilizing the Hitachi iQ based on NVIDIA RTX PRO servers will accelerate innovation at Hitachi, enhancing AI inference and Physical AI capabilities. This, he believes, will fortify the optimization of physical assets, including social infrastructure, as well as unlock new potentials for productivity across various business activities.

Hitachi's AI Factory represents a strategic distribution across the U.S., EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), and Japan. This setup facilitates seamless collaboration among engineers, ensuring low-latency access to powerful computing resources. This interconnected network will foster the creation of diverse Physical AI solutions, elevating efficiency, productivity, and safety within industries.

Junn Abe, Executive Vice President of Hitachi and Head of the Digital Systems & Services Business Unit, emphasized that the strategic collaboration between Hitachi and NVIDIA serves as a crucial engine for tackling complex real-world issues and accelerating social innovation. Previously, their collaboration has led to game-changing solutions in railway operations through Hitachi Rail's HMAX, AI solution portfolios like Hitachi iQ, and the liquid-cooled AI data center supporting Hitachi's generative AI common infrastructure. The establishment of this global AI Factory will enable operations as a true 'One Hitachi', fostering synergies that accelerate innovations in Physical AI, exemplified by HMAX.

The formation of this AI Factory is a fundamental step towards realizing Hitachi's Lumada 3.0 vision. Lumada is Hitachi’s unique business model designed to co-create digital transformation solutions to resolve business and societal challenges by leveraging Hitachi's extensive domain knowledge and technological expertise. By integrating AI and transforming data into value, the initiative supports reductions in operational costs and inefficiencies.

Hitachi remains committed to delivering innovative solutions in the industrial AI field, using its unique strength to fuse IT, OT (operational technology), and product expertise as seen in its engineering design capabilities, products, and consulting services that comprise Lumada 3.0.

Justin Boitano, Vice President of NVIDIA's Enterprise AI Products segment, noted that AI Factory is set to drive a new industrial revolution by transforming corporate data into intelligence that functions autonomously within both software and the physical world. The AI Factory infrastructure will offer an innovative platform for developing and deploying both enterprise AI and Physical AI, utilizing NVIDIA's accelerated computing solutions.

About Hitachi Ltd.

Hitachi is committed to fostering a harmonized society where environmental sustainability, human well-being, and economic growth coalesce. Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB), which leverages IT, OT, and product technologies, Hitachi is dedicated to generating value from data to solve challenges faced by clients and society at large. The company operates globally in various sectors, including digital systems and services, energy, mobility, and connected industries, with anticipated revenues of 9.7833 trillion yen for the fiscal year ending in March 2025. Hitachi boasts a consolidated group of 618 subsidiaries and approximately 280,000 employees worldwide. For more information, please visit www.hitachi.co.jp.