Team Leader

Hitachi announces strategic partnership with Anthropic to strengthen "Lumada 3.0" through frontier AI. * Combining Hitachi's 110+ years of domain expertise with frontier AI will advance safe real-world deployment of physical AI and strengthen customer AI transformation * Deploying advanced AI across all business processes for approximately 290,000 employees to enhance productivity at scale * Developing 100,000 AI professional talent and co-creating new HMAX solutions leveraging proven outcomes from Hitachi's "Customer Zero" approach * Establishing the "Frontier AI Deployment Center", a global organization spanning North America, Europe, and Asia with an initial team of 100 experts SANTA CLARA, Calif, May 18, Tokyo, May 19, 2026 - Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, "Hitachi") today announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic PBC ("Anthropic"), a global leader in AI safety research and trusted AI models, to further strengthen the "Lumada 3.0" business model. As artificial intelligence evolves beyond cyberspace to directly influence real-world systems - otherwise known as physical AI - demand is rapidly growing for the safe and seamless deployment of AI in mission-critical environments. This alliance will combine Hitachi's deep domain knowledge built over more than 110 years, along with its expertise in IT, OT (operational technology), and products, with Anthropic's frontier AI capabilities. Together, the companies will accelerate the advancement of system engineering, operations, and cybersecurity for critical infrastructure sectors including energy, transportation, manufacturing, and finance. By enabling safer, more resilient, and intelligent operations of these infrastructures, the partnership will contribute to advancing AI transformation (AX) for customers and society at large. To maximize value creation for customers, Hitachi and Anthropic will also drive transformation within Hitachi's own organizations. Hitachi will deploy advanced AI, including Anthropic's Claude models, across all business processes for its approximately 290,000 employees worldwide to significantly enhance productivity. In parallel, the two companies will jointly develop and implement talent programs to cultivate approximately 100,000 AI professional talent. Hitachi positions this large-scale internal transformation as "Customer Zero", leveraging the insights and best practices gained to further advance HMAX by Hitachi - a next-generation suite of solutions that brings the power of AI to social infrastructure. As the core engine to drive value creation for customers in over 190 countries and to advance its own transformation globally, Hitachi will establish the "Frontier AI Deployment Center," a global organization spanning North America, Europe, and Asia. As its initial initiative, the Center will launch a joint team comprising Anthropic's Applied AI experts and Hitachi's specialists across IT, OT, products, and cybersecurity, bringing together the strengths and expertise of both companies. Going forward, Hitachi will leverage this Center as a foundation to establish best practices for enterprise-scale deployment, accelerate value creation at customers' frontlines, and contribute to the realization of a harmonized society through the safe and scalable implementation of frontier AI. Background. Artificial intelligence is rapidly evolving from a tool confined to digital domains into technologies that directly interact with and control real-world systems. This shift toward physical AI creates unprecedented opportunities to address pressing societal challenges, including labor shortages and increasing burdens on frontline workers in industries such as manufacturing, maintenance, and infrastructure operations. As a global leader in social innovation, Hitachi recognizes this transition as a significant mission. Hitachi is advancing its "Lumada 3.0" business model, which integrates data from globally deployed IT, OT, and products with deep domain knowledge and AI to solve societal challenges. However, as AI becomes deeply embedded in real-world infrastructure and operations, exceptional levels of safety, reliability, and trust are essential. Through this strategic partnership with Anthropic - provider of the advanced AI model Claude, which meets these requirements and has a strong track record in the enterprise domain - Hitachi will further strengthen its HMAX solutions, which embody its Lumada 3.0 business model and accelerate the empowerment of frontline workers. Strategic initiatives. 1. Accelerating AX through the Integration of Anthropic's Claude and Hitachi's Capabilities. By combining the advanced code generation and analysis capabilities of Anthropic's Claude with Hitachi's system engineering expertise in mission-critical domains, the partnership will deliver significant improvements in efficiency and quality across customers' system development and operations. This will strongly support customers' AX, enabling the rapid launch of new services and the advancement of data-driven business transformation in fast-changing market environments. Additionally, the partnership will enhance cybersecurity for critical infrastructure sectors such as finance, transportation, and power transmission and distribution. Through close collaboration between Hitachi's Cyber Center of Excellence and Anthropic, the companies will advance capabilities in cyber threat detection and response, fundamentally strengthening the cyber resilience of social infrastructure and providing a robust environment for the safe and secure deployment of AI. 2. Enterprise-wide transformation at Hitachi. Hitachi aims to become one of the world's largest enterprise adopters of Claude, deploying advanced AI across all business processes for approximately 290,000 employees. This includes: * Reducing development effort in software engineering * Enhancing efficiency in corporate functions * Automating maintenance and operational processes in hardware environments By extending AI adoption beyond engineers to business functions such as sales and planning, Hitachi will accelerate enterprise-wide transformation. In parallel, a large-scale talent development program will be launched to enable approximately 100,000 employees to become AI professional talent embedded in daily operations. Insights gained from this "Customer Zero" initiative will be continuously fed back into customer offerings. 3. Advancing HMAX through frontier AI. By combining its OT and product expertise with advanced AI, Hitachi will further enhance HMAX solutions. Claude's high-level reasoning capabilities will be integrated into HMAX to expand AI applications in mission-critical environments. This includes enhancing: * Intuitive equipment management through natural language interaction to minimize downtime * Optimization of maintenance operations through advanced algorithms to reduce costs These capabilities will directly contribute to greater resilience and sustainability for customer operations and infrastructure. 4. Accelerating value creation through the Frontier AI Deployment Center. The Frontier AI Deployment Center will serve as the core of Hitachi's AI collaboration ecosystem. Beginning with a joint team of approximately 100 experts - expected to scale to 300 over time - this organization will drive: * Co-creation of physical AI use cases * Deployment of advanced AI technologies in real-world settings * Development of next-generation solutions Comment from jun abe, executive vice president, head of Digital Systems & Services sector, Hitachi. "Through our Social Innovation Business, Hitachi has long contributed to the realization of a sustainable society. Today, as challenges facing frontline workers become more pronounced due to a shrinking workforce, we are very pleased that through this strategic partnership, Hitachi can jointly solve customer and social challenges by combining Anthropic's highly trusted AI technology with Hitachi's domain expertise in mission-critical areas and our IT, OT, and product capabilities. As a 'global leader continuing to innovate social infrastructure with digital technologies,' and by leveraging advanced AI ourselves as a practitioner, we will accelerate transformation at our customers' frontlines and promote true Digital Transformation in the real world, striving together to realize a harmonized society." Trademark Notice: All trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners. About Hitachi, Ltd. Through its Social Innovation Business (SIB) that brings together IT, OT(Operational Technology) and products, Hitachi aims to be a global leader in continuously transforming social infrastructure through digital, contributing to a harmonized society where the environment, wellbeing, and economic growth are in balance. Hitachi operates worldwide across four sectors - Digital Systems & Services, Energy, Mobility, and Connective Industries - as well as a Strategic SIB Business Unit focused on new growth areas. With Lumada at its core, Hitachi creates value by combining data, technology and domain knowledge to solve customer and social challenges. Revenues for FY2025 (ended March 31, 2026) totaled 10,586.7 billion yen, with 606 consolidated subsidiaries and approximately 290,000 employees worldwide. Visit Hitachi, Ltd. at www.hitachi.comopens in a new tab.

Hitachi energy unveils ecospace, its new digital sustainability platform.

Hitachi Digital Services: scaling the IIoT data backbone. April 09, 2026 Ganesh Bukka, Vice President & Global Head Industry 4.0 at Hitachi Digital Services, explains how IIoT and edge-to-cloud data can scale smart factories While talk of smart factories is everywhere, few have yet found success in scaling these technologies. To achieve this growth, manufacturers need to do more than just connect machines. Ganesh Bukka is Vice President & Global Head Industry 4.0 at Hitachi Digital Services and has cracked the code on moving from experiments to rollout. How do you define a smart factory today? A smart factory today digitalises the core of a traditional manufacturing environment by unifying the edge-to-cloud journey. Unlike conventional setups, it leverages real-time data from interconnected machines, systems and processes to optimise every stage of production - from supply chain operations through manufacturing and delivery. By creating a dynamic and responsive environment, smart factories enable manufacturers to adapt quickly to changing market demands, improve efficiency, reduce costs and consistently ensure product quality. At its core, a smart factory is an intelligent ecosystem where digital technologies seamlessly connect machines, processes and people to drive continuous improvement and business value. A strong example of this evolution is its Hagerstown Advanced Rail Digital Factory, where these principles have been put into practice to create a truly cutting-edge smart factory model. Another example is Hitachi's Omika Works factory, which was recognised by the World Economic Forum as an Advanced 4th Industrial Revolution Lighthouse. Where does IIoT fit within this ecosystem? IIoT sits at the foundation of the smart factory ecosystem. It acts as the connective layer that links machines, sensors, systems and people across the shop floor and enterprise. Without IIoT, there is no reliable flow of real-time operational data to power analytics, AI models, digital twins or sustainability platforms. In practical terms, IIoT enables data acquisition from critical assets, supports edge processing for low-latency decision-making and integrates operational data with enterprise systems such as MES, ERP and cloud platforms. It provides the visibility and contextualised data needed for predictive maintenance, quality optimisation, energy management and connected worker solutions. Ultimately, IIoT serves as the backbone of the smart factory, transforming standalone equipment into intelligent, connected assets and establishing the data foundation for AI, industrial edge computing and Industry 5.0 capabilities. Initiatives such as the Hagerstown Advanced Rail Digital Factory and Hitachi Omika Works, developed by Hitachi, illustrate how this connectivity translates into real-world operational transformation. What role do sensors play in the edge-to-cloud journey? Sensors are the starting point of the edge-to-cloud journey. They serve as the primary data generators within a smart factory, capturing real-time information on machine performance, environmental conditions, product quality, energy consumption and asset health. Without accurate and reliable sensor data, the rest of the digital ecosystem cannot function effectively. At the edge, sensor data is processed locally to enable low-latency, mission-critical decisions - such as anomaly detection, quality inspection or safety alerts. This ensures rapid response times and minimises downtime. As the data moves to the cloud, it is aggregated, contextualised and analysed at scale to power advanced analytics, AI models, digital twins and enterprise-level optimisation. In essence, sensors are the foundation of the edge-to-cloud architecture - they transform physical operations into digital insights, enabling real-time control at the edge and strategic intelligence in the cloud. What key success factors have you seen enable smart factory initiatives to scale? Manufacturing Digital has all seen pilot projects that demonstrated real potential but never scaled beyond individual sites. These experiences have reinforced an important lesson: efficiency and connectivity alone are not enough. What truly enables smart factory initiatives to scale is a holistic approach - one that brings IT and OT together, prepares and upskills the workforce, strengthens cybersecurity and builds maturity around data, governance and operating models. Manufacturing Digital has seen this approach deliver real results with global manufacturers, including a large automotive client where Manufacturing Digital successfully scaled smart factory capabilities across multiple sites, demonstrating what true smart factory impact looks like in action. How do you approach retrofitting older assets with IIoT connectivity? Retrofitting older assets with IIoT connectivity starts with a pragmatic, value-driven mindset. Because most brownfield environments were never designed for connectivity, the first priority is identifying high-impact use cases - such as predictive maintenance, energy monitoring or quality improvement - where measurable outcomes can be achieved. From a technical standpoint, this typically involves deploying non-intrusive sensors, edge gateways and protocol converters to capture machine data without interrupting operations. Edge devices normalise legacy protocols, enable local processing for low-latency decision-making and securely transmit contextualised data to enterprise or cloud platforms for scalable analytics. Cybersecurity must be embedded from the outset, especially when integrating legacy equipment that lacks modern safeguards. Equal emphasis should be placed on data contextualisation - mapping assets, structuring tags and integrating with manufacturing and enterprise systems so that captured data becomes actionable rather than merely available. Ultimately, successful retrofitting is less about connecting everything immediately and more about prioritising value, minimising operational disruption and establishing a scalable pathway into the broader smart factory ecosystem. How are advanced analytics and AI changing modern factories? Advanced analytics and AI are transforming modern factories by enabling a more human-centric, resilient and sustainable operating model, while moving intelligence closer to the industrial edge. Instead of relying solely on centralised systems, manufacturers are increasingly adopting Industrial Edge AI to make real-time, mission-critical decisions at the point of operation - reducing latency, improving accuracy and minimising downtime. At Hitachi, Manufacturing Digital has been investing significantly across these areas and its solutions bring this transformation into real-world operations. For example, its Automated Quality Inspection system at the Hagerstown Advanced Rail Digital Factory combines human-AI collaboration with industrial edge technologies to improve quality outcomes and operational efficiency. Manufacturing Digital also partnered with a global automotive leader on a Manufacturing Digital Transformation (MDT) programme, implementing a connected factory platform by identifying and integrating critical equipment and sensors to enable predictive and adaptive analytics. In parallel, Rita ONE, its sustainability suite, helps manufacturers embed ESG objectives directly into day-to-day factory operations. How critical is the underlying IIoT architecture to data streams? The underlying IIoT architecture is central to the reliability, scalability and business value of smart factory data streams. While sensors generate data, architecture determines whether that data is secure, contextualised, real-time and actionable. A well-designed foundation enables seamless ingestion from heterogeneous assets, normalises legacy and modern protocols, supports edge processing for low-latency decisions and integrates smoothly with cloud platforms and enterprise systems such as MES and ERP. It also embeds cybersecurity, governance and scalability by design, ensuring consistency as deployments expand across plants. This was evident in an MDT programme delivered for a global automotive leader, where a robust IIoT architecture enabled standardised data models, scalable analytics and measurable operational improvements across multiple facilities. Could you share a few success stories from smart factory implementations? Manufacturing Digital has delivered several impactful smart factory implementations across industries. For a global FMCG client, Manufacturing Digital deployed an AR- and ML-based solution that significantly improved frontline worker productivity and execution efficiency. At its Hagerstown Advanced Rail Digital Factory, Manufacturing Digital has driven IT-OT-AI innovation using GenAI-powered quality inspection, computer vision, the Spot robot and industrial metaverse capabilities, creating a highly advanced digital manufacturing environment. Manufacturing Digital has also helped clients advance their sustainability goals through Rita ONE, its ESG and sustainability reporting solution. In another engagement with a multinational tyre manufacturer, Manufacturing Digital leveraged advanced AI/ML models to implement advanced process control, enabling the prediction of critical quality metrics and improved process stability. Additionally, Manufacturing Digital has delivered Digital Twin-based factory simulations using the NVIDIA Omniverse platform, enabling manufacturers to model, optimise and de-risk factory operations before deploying changes in the physical environment. Executives. * Ganesh Bukka Vice President & Global Head Industry 4.0. Company portals.