Hitachi and NVIDIA Collaborate to Advance Site-Wide Autonomy and HMAX Evolution through Integrated Physical AI Control

- Development of an open and sovereign multi-agent orchestration technology to optimize entire operational sites: Integrating and controlling customer equipment, devices, and systems—including those from non-Hitachi manufacturers—to achieve site-wide autonomy.

- Connecting Hitachi’s social infrastructure intelligence foundation model "IWIM" with the cutting-edge open NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation model to enable safe and secure control: Through participation in the NVIDIA Cosmos Coalition, combining on-site domain knowledge and simulation technologies to pre-validate autonomous equipment and device control by high-precision, safe, and reliable Physical AI within digital twin environments.

- Social implementation support via Physical AI FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer): Collaborating with partners and customers in robotics, mobility, energy, and industrial equipment sectors to build a Physical AI ecosystem, continuously evolving and scaling "HMAX" through joint verification.

Hitachi, Ltd. (hereinafter "Hitachi") announces the development of a multi-agent orchestration technology in collaboration with NVIDIA to accelerate autonomy in manufacturing sites and social infrastructure operations, advancing the scale and evolution of HMAX by Hitachi (hereinafter "HMAX")—Hitachi’s suite of AI-powered solutions transforming social infrastructure. This collaboration will create a vendor-neutral, fully integrated model that links not only Hitachi’s products but also diverse existing equipment and devices from various manufacturers operating at customer sites. This model will be co-developed with customers and NVIDIA participating in the ecosystem, aiming to optimize and autonomize entire operational environments.

Hitachi and NVIDIA are working to achieve both open interoperability among diverse equipment and Agentic AI, and sovereignty that protects each company’s proprietary information assets. Specifically, Hitachi will leverage its social infrastructure intelligence foundation model, IWIM (Integrated World Infrastructure Model)*1, as a knowledge and reasoning base, integrating it with NVIDIA Agent Toolkit, NVIDIA NemoClaw/OpenShell secure runtime, and the open-source NVIDIA Nemotron model. Through this integration, both companies aim to build a "Multi-Agent Orchestration Platform" capable of securely and safely integrating and controlling multiple AI agents, even in mission-critical environments. To ensure safe autonomous operation of this control in the physical world, Hitachi will connect IWIM with NVIDIA’s NVIDIA Cosmos world foundation model, establishing a high-precision, secure, and reliable pre-validation environment on digital twins.

Going forward, using this "Multi-Agent Orchestration Platform" and the pre-validation environment on digital twins as core components, Hitachi will build a global Physical AI ecosystem. By inviting participation from diverse customers and partners—including those in robotics, mobility, energy, and industrial equipment industries—Hitachi will promote the formation of a cross-industry ecosystem. Discussions have already begun with multiple companies, including global leaders in industrial robotics, regarding participation in this ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, Physical AI FDE—combining the advanced digital engineering capabilities of GlobalLogic, Hitachi’s U.S. subsidiary, with Hitachi’s OT (Operational Technology) expertise—will support technological verification and digital transformation at customer sites, driving use case exploration and solution development.

Furthermore, the foundational technologies established through these technical validations, along with solutions co-created with the support of Physical AI FDE, will be continuously integrated to strengthen HMAX. Through this effective, open co-creation framework and HMAX, Hitachi will accelerate the social implementation of Physical AI in partnership with other companies, supporting digital transformation and sustainable growth across entire industries.

*1 IWIM is an intelligence foundation model announced by Hitachi in November 2025. Developed based on Hitachi’s long-accumulated multi-layered OT knowledge and deep understanding of physical phenomena, IWIM enables safe and highly reliable deployment of Physical AI in mission-critical social infrastructure. It provides integrated support for equipment and system design, construction, and operation, enabling appropriate judgment and control even under complex conditions, thereby achieving advanced optimization.

Background

In recent years, expectations are rising for Physical AI that integrates autonomous decision-making with physical actions at operational sites. However, realizing advanced Physical AI requires seamless connection and integrated control of diverse Agentic AI systems and heterogeneous robots and equipment. To interconnect such diverse edge environments, vendor-neutral global open software is essential. Additionally, a closed LLM environment that ensures sovereignty—preventing the leakage of each company’s proprietary information assets—is also required.

Hitachi has been advancing its AI Transformation (AX) by strengthening collaboration with NVIDIA, including participation in the NVIDIA Global System Integrator (GSI) program*2 and the construction of Hitachi’s AI Factory based on NVIDIA’s reference architecture*3. Building on these collaborative relationships and past achievements, Hitachi has decided to proceed with this development to achieve both open interoperability and sovereignty that protects its own domain knowledge. Moving forward, Hitachi will leverage its accumulated use cases from its customer-zero approach and its robust AI Factory environment to deliver effective solutions to real-world challenges in the Physical AI domain.

*2 June 6, 2025 press release: "Hitachi Expands Collaboration with NVIDIA to Accelerate AI Transformation for Global Customers" – Hitachi

*3 September 26, 2025 press release: "Hitachi Announces NVIDIA AI Factory to Accelerate Innovation in Physical AI" – Hitachi

HMAX Evolution through the Fusion of NVIDIA’s Advanced Technologies and Physical AI FDE

Since announcing HMAX—its suite of solutions leveraging NVIDIA’s technologies to accelerate customer AX—Hitachi has enhanced HMAX using NVIDIA IGX and NVIDIA Holoscan for sensor processing, and NVIDIA Metropolis for real-time video intelligence*5. Through this collaboration, HMAX will evolve into a suite of solutions capable of autonomously and cooperatively controlling and operating entire sites via the "Multi-Agent Orchestration Platform."

The fusion of Hitachi’s proprietary Physical AI FDE and NVIDIA’s latest technologies will bridge this evolution to real-world implementation. Physical AI FDE is a team of specialists with the capability to implement AI in complex physical environments. Combining GlobalLogic’s expertise in device hardware layers (edge