by Gary Mintchell | Mar 28, 2025 | Business, News, Software
The last of four news items this week from Siemens concerns a large software acquisition. A high level Siemens executive told me years ago that the company had learned from earlier mistakes in order to more successfully integrate acquisitions. Events have proved him correct. This acquisition should be very interesting for their customers.
- Siemens extends leadership in simulation and industrial AI as it closes acquisition of Altair Engineering Inc.
- Acquisition strengthens position of Siemens as a leading technology company and expands its industrial software portfolio
- Addition of Altair technology to the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform will create the world’s most complete AI-powered portfolio of industrial software and further enhance the most comprehensive Digital Twin
- Acquisition is a cornerstone of Siemens’ ONE Tech Company program Siemens announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Altair Engineering Inc., a leading provider of software in the industrial simulation and analysis market, for an enterprise value of approximately USD 10 billion. With this acquisition, Siemens extends its leadership in simulation and industrial artificial intelligence (AI) by adding new capabilities in mechanical and electromagnetic simulation, high-performance computing (HPC), data science and AI. The addition of the Altair team and technology to Siemens will further enhance the most comprehensive Digital Twin and make simulation more accessible, so companies of any size can bring complex products to market faster.
“We welcome the Altair community of customers, partners and colleagues to Siemens. Adding Altair’s groundbreaking innovations to the Siemens Xcelerator platform will create the world’s most complete AI-powered design, engineering and simulation portfolio. Together, we will help our customers to innovate at the scale and speed that today’s complexity-driven world demands,” said Roland Busch, President Siemens AG and CEO of Siemens AG. “Through the ONE Tech Company program, we will extend our leadership in industrial software. This enables all industries to benefit from the revolution driven by data and AI.”
Integrating Altair’s capabilities in the areas of simulation, HPC, data science, and AI enhances the ability of Siemens to drive more efficient and sustainable products and processes. Now, all Siemens customers, from engineers to generalists, will have access to new simulation expertise, can optimize their high-performance computing processes, create new AI tools and perform data analytics to help accelerate innovation and digital transformation for companies of all sizes.
The acquisition of Altair is part of Siemens’ ONE Tech Company program and will meaningfully increase Siemens’ digital revenue share. This growth program enables Siemens to further expand its strong market position and reach the next level of performance and value creation. Through acquisitions like this, as well as R&D investments into areas including software, AI-enabled products, connected hardware and sustainability, Siemens is clearly prioritizing capital allocation to strategic growth fields.
With the completion of the acquisition of Altair as well as the recent expansions of Siemens’ factories in California and Texas, Siemens has now invested over USD 100 billion into the United States in the past 20 years.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 28, 2025 | Business, News
I have four items from Siemens shortly before Hannover Messe. An acquisition, Copilot, Xcelerator, and this one…to use their euphemism—Siemens to strengthen competitiveness in automation business and in electric vehicle charging business.
These are the highlights:
- Automation business: focus on growth markets and stronger customer orientation
- Electric vehicle charging business: concentration on fast-charging infrastructure for depots and fleets and for en-route charging
- Capacity adjustments worldwide and in Germany necessary at both businesses
- Planned measures in automation business to affect around 5,600 jobs worldwide, including about 2,600 in Germany; around 450 jobs worldwide to be affected in electric vehicle charging business, including about 250 in Germany
- No operational-related redundancies in Germany
- Continued strong commitment to Germany as a business location
Siemens has presented plans to further increase its global competitiveness to employee representatives. The plans affect units in the automation business at Digital Industries and the electric vehicle charging business at Smart Infrastructure. Changed conditions in key markets have made capacity adjustments necessary in both cases. For two years, the German market, in particular, has been declining. As a result, capacities in Germany will have to be adjusted. Operational-related layoffs in Germany are ruled out. The aim is to strengthen the future competitiveness of the businesses affected and enable investments in growth markets. Despite the planned adjustments, Siemens’ total headcount in Germany will tend to remain stable due to hiring in other, growing areas.
In other words, there will be layoffs.
Since the start of fiscal 2023, muted demand primarily in the key markets of China and Germany coupled with increased competitive pressures have considerably reduced orders and revenue in the industrial automation business. Global demand for automation technology is intact over the long term. However, the shift of growth away from current key markets such as Germany has made a structural adjustment of capacities necessary. Further measures to strengthen competitiveness of the automation business of Digital Industries include a realignment of sales activities, cross-unit collaboration in product development and a more flexible steering of the organization’s global factory network.
Siemens already announced the planned capacity adjustments at its automation business at its Annual Press Conference in November 2024. Digital Industries employs about 68,000 people worldwide. The planned reduction will affect about 5,600 jobs globally. A reduction of around 2,600 jobs is planned for Digital Industries in Germany. The related measures are to be implemented by the end of fiscal 2027.
In September 2024, Siemens also announced its intention to carve out its electric vehicle charging business in order to better leverage opportunities in the dynamic market for charging infrastructure. The market is currently characterized by strong price pressures and limited growth potential for low-power charging stations. For this reason, the business is focusing on market segments such as fast-charging infrastructure for depots and fleets and for en-route charging. In addition, the intention is to establish a more regional approach for markets with sometimes different charging standards to be able to serve the markets faster and in a more targeted manner. Worldwide, Siemens currently employs more than 1,300 people at its electric vehicle charging business. A total of around 450 jobs will be affected by the planned adjustment, including about 250 in Germany. The planned measures are to be implemented by the end of fiscal 2025.
A total of around 86,000 people currently work at Siemens in Germany. As far as possible, the people affected are to be offered opportunities for re- and upskilling. Job placement inside the company will also play a key role in implementing the measures. There are currently more than 7,000 open positions at Siemens, of which about 2,000 are in Germany alone. People employed at Siemens’ locations in Germany will also retire for age reasons.
Siemens remains strongly committed to Germany as a business location. Of the €2 billion in global investments that the company announced in 2023 to strengthen growth, innovation and resilience, about €1 billion is earmarked for Germany. This figure includes €500 million for Siemens’ new campus for research and high-tech manufacturing in Erlangen, Germany, where the company is establishing a global center for development and manufacturing and a springboard for technology-related activities to drive the industrial metaverse.
by Gary Mintchell | Mar 7, 2025 | Business, News
Something I’ve been observing. This administration is the most PR and media oriented administration we’ve had. Everything seems to be a media play.
Note the lineup of big companies announcing, ahem, $100 billion investments over some period of time in the US. This, of course, helps keep these companies out of the crosshairs of media sniping by the administration.
We know from past experience that some of these investments had been long planned, some were no more than announcements of something that might happen, and some that seemed serious never really happened.
With that context, I really don’t want to throw Siemens under the bus, but this announcement appears, shall we say, interesting. Also it’s in line with many other announcements since January. Oh, and the magic $100 billion figure.
Siemens announces $10 billion in additional investments in the US, with recent investments, Siemens surpasses $100 billion in total U.S. investment over the past 20 years.
- New and expanded factories in Texas and California expected to create over 900 skilled manufacturing jobs
- More than doubling production capacity of electric equipment to power critical American infrastructure such as AI data centers
- Biggest-ever investment in industrial software and AI with planned acquisition of Altair Engineering
- Siemens is ramping up investments in the U.S. to support and benefit from America’s industrial tech growth.
“The industrial tech sector is the basis to boost manufacturing in America and there’s no company more prepared than Siemens to make this future a reality for customers from small and medium sized enterprises to industrial giants,” said Roland Busch, President and CEO of Siemens AG.
The U.S. is already the largest market for the company, relying on American talent and American supply chains. The recent investments in the company’s U.S. manufacturing footprint and the planned acquisition of Altair, a Michigan-based software company, amount to more than $10 billion.
This week, Siemens is unveiling two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities for electrical products in Fort Worth, Texas, and Pomona, California. The $285 million investment is expected to create over 900 skilled manufacturing jobs. The equipment produced will support critical sectors such as the commercial, industrial and construction markets while powering AI data centers all over the country to support America’s leadership in the industrial AI revolution. With that Siemens is more than doubling its production capacity of electric equipment to power critical American infrastructure such as AI data centers.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 11, 2025 | Business, News
This corporate reshuffling should not have surprised anyone. Honeywell may be the last of the now “old-fashioned” conglomerates. No one could argue the famous “synergies” justification for keeping these divisions together.
In brief from the news release:
- Honeywell Automation will be a pure play automation leader with global scale and a vast installed base
- Honeywell Aerospace will be a premier technology and systems provider enabling the future of aviation globally
- Advanced Materials, previously announced to be spun, will be a leading provider of sustainability-focused specialty chemicals and materials
- Separation of Automation and Aerospace to be completed in a manner that is tax-free to Honeywell shareholders in the second half of 2026
We are mostly interested in what happens with Honeywell Automation. GE had been like a “twin brother from different mothers” company. It sold part of its old automation business to Emerson. It kept software including the legacy industrial iFix which overlayed Intellution and Cimplicity, plus an MES. But GE buried that business within GE Energy. I seldom hear from them anymore.
Honeywell had launched a software business a few years ago with much hoopla. I attended a conference a couple years ago. Since then I’ve not been able to get any news or information. I heard from a marketing person who was newly installed (after letting go of the agency) in the Security group. She said she’d put me in touch with an unnamed source in automation. Never heard from her again. Haven’t had a word from Connected Enterprise.
Once before Honeywell put many projects on hold while GE pursued a takeover. Maybe they have been on hiatus while the board figured out the future direction of the entire company.
The legal and logistics and personnel work to be done pushes the date into 2026. It’ll be interesting to hear from the company in the upcoming months. They have scheduled a Honeywell User Group (HUG) for this summer. Perhaps we’ll learn more then.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 17, 2025 | Automation, Business, News, Technology
While competitors seem to be either retrenching or maintaining the status quo, Siemens used a large presence at the CES show in Las Vegas to promote its invigorated presence.
- Siemens brings Industrial AI to the Edge of the factory floor for secure access to large language models
- Aviation startup JetZero chooses Siemens Xcelerator platform to enable development of groundbreaking blended wing aircraft
- New “Siemens for Startups” program and collaboration with Amazon Web Services AWS to democratize industrial technology for small companies
- Siemens collaborates with NVIDIA to deliver physically based visualization for product lifecycle management
- Siemens and Sony corporation deliver immersive design using innovative mixed-reality headset and NX Software
Industrial AI
Siemens is showcasing its vision for the future where data, AI and software-defined automation will converge to enable unprecedented flexibility, optimization and continuous improvement across the world’s industries, for companies of any size. This ambition is at the heart of Siemens’ presence at CES 2025, the world’s most influential tech event. Siemens – the global leader in industrial software –demonstrated how its technologies are empowering customers to take bold leaps in industrial innovation.
“Industrial AI is a game-changer that will create significant positive impact in the real world across all industries. Industrial AI allows us to harness the vast amounts of data generated in industrial environments and turn it into insights that drive real business impact. We are adding new industrial AI capabilities across the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio to enable our customers to stay competitive, resilient and sustainable in an increasingly complex world,” said Peter Koerte, Member of the Managing Board, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Strategy officer, Siemens AG.
Siemens is bringing Industrial AI directly to the shop floor with the new Siemens Industrial Copilot for Operations, enabling AI tasks to run as close as possible to machines. This facilitates rapid, real-time decision making for shop floor operators and maintenance engineers, boosting productivity, operational efficiency and minimizing downtime. The Siemens Industrial Copilot ecosystem is continuously evolving to offer AI capabilities across the industrial value chain and into sectors including discrete and process manufacturing, infrastructure, and mobility. This suite of copilots can enhance human-machine collaboration across all experience levels, helping to accelerate development times and innovation cycles. The Siemens Industrial Copilot will be integrated with the Industrial Edge ecosystem, which has been enhanced with AI for deploying, operating and managing AI models within the production environment.
Blended Wing Aircraft Concept JetZero
JetZero Selects Siemens Xcelerator Platform
During Siemens’ press conference at CES 2025, the company announced an agreement with JetZero, a pioneering aviation startup working to build the future of sustainable air travel, to collaborate on the development and production of JetZero’s revolutionary blended wing aircraft. The innovative blended wing design aims to improve fuel efficiency by 50 percent, reduce noise and deliver the promise of zero carbon emissions by 2035. JetZero will leverage the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform to design, manufacture and operate their new aircraft.
JetZero is planning to build “Factory of the Future”, a new greenfield factory in the United States where they intend to tightly integrate Siemens’ automation hardware, software and services to help it achieve its remarkably ambitious vision encompassing electrification, automation and digitalization of both the aircraft and its production. The JetZero aircraft and its associated manufacturing operations will be simulated virtually using comprehensive digital twins – enabling the company to de-risk the manufacturing process, validate the approach and scale processes long before any ground is broken or jets take to the skies.
“Siemens is giving us the confidence to take a leap, not just a step, in revolutionizing air travel,” said JetZero CEO Tom O’Leary. “Their digital twin and industrial metaverse technologies will be instrumental in helping us design, build and operate the world’s first fully digital aircraft, delivering a better experience for passengers and airlines while also reducing fuel consumption by 50 percent.”
Siemens democratizes industrial tech for startups
Siemens’ presence at CES also highlighted the company’s commitment to enabling startups and companies of all sizes to use its industrial metaverse technologies. Through the new Siemens for Startups program, innovators of any size have access to the intelligence, ecosystems and technologies they need to turn their big ideas into world-changing innovations. Siemens is providing access to venture partnering and clienting services along with dramatically reduced cost access to software and hardware from the Siemens Xcelerator open business platform. In addition, Siemens is collaborating with Amazon Web Services to offer AWS credits, business development resources and access to the AWS Activate program for technical and go-to-market support.
Collaborating with NVIDIA to bring photorealism to PLM
Together with NVIDIA, Siemens announced new additions to the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform, including the Teamcenter Digital Reality Viewer powered by NVIDIA Omniverse, which brings large-scale, physically based visualization directly into the product lifecycle management (PLM) system. This capability also enables teams to collaborate in a secure, digital twin environment using their live 3D data, reducing errors and data discrepancies while streamlining workflows and decision-making.
“Our continued collaboration with NVIDIA will be transformative for our customers, empowering them to virtualize and visualize product and plants like never before. Bringing together the best-in-class capabilities of each company, we’re equipping customers with the tools they need to make informed decisions, optimize their operations and accelerate their digital transformation,” said Koerte.
Enabling immersive engineering with Sony
In collaboration with the Sony Corporation, Siemens is delivering a new solution for immersive engineering that brings together Siemens NX software for product engineering with a breakthrough head-mounted display from Sony to enable content creation for the industrial metaverse. Now available for pre-order and shipping beginning in February, Siemens’ new Immersive Engineering toolset brings the power of mixed reality to the product engineering and manufacturing community, enabling high-fidelity mixed reality and 3D-focused collaboration.
“In the era of digital twins, Siemens and Sony have collaborated closely to bring NX Immersive Designer to market. With 4K OLED Microdisplays, intuitive controls and the comfortable design, closely integrated with Siemens’ advanced software, we firmly believe this new immersive engineering solution will pave the way for the future of engineering.” said Seiya Amatatsu, Incubation Center, XR Technology Development Division, Sony Corporation.
Introducing Designcenter for product engineering
Koerte was joined on stage at CES by Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO, Siemens Digital Industries Software, to unveil Siemens’ new Designcenter software suite, which brings together its portfolio of design and engineering software including Solid Edge and NX software in one unified offering so that companies of any size can design and collaborate using the industry-leading Parasolid modeling kernel.
“A lot of companies make their design software available to small businesses or to the very largest enterprises. Designcenter is unique in that it is truly open and accessible for everyone – companies of every size can scale with the same solution set, their data in the same format – without interruption,” said Hemmelgarn.
Technology to transform the everyday
At the Siemens booth in the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, Siemens is showcasing how its technology transforms the everyday, for everyone, these examples include:
Spinnova is a Finnish technology company that enables circularity in textile manufacturing with sustainable and chemical-free fabric production using Siemens’ Digital Twin technologies and factory automation.
Wayout International , a Swedish water technology company developing a proprietary drinking water production solution to improve personal health and well-being in daily life using Siemens’ edge computing, digital twin technologies and Insights Hub, the industrial IoT as a service solution from Siemens.
Desert Control is a Norwegian startup aiming to revolutionize sustainable agriculture and urban greening in regions suffering from desertification, fostering agricultural prosperity and healthy green space using Siemens’ Industrial Operations X.
Arc is an American company focused on the electrification of the marine industry and making boating more modern, enjoyable, and sustainable using Siemens’ NX, Teamcenter and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ software.
Learn more about Siemens’ presence at CES 2025.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 8, 2025 | Business
I’ve read Om Malik’s writing on technology for probably 20 years. I remember him at the old Red Herring magazine and the online news source GigaOm. Lately he’s taken a broader outlook.
I left manufacturing and marketing to join the trade media a little more than 25 years ago. We studied media from the point-of-view of selling writing in my university writing classes. The Columbia Journalism Review decorated my mailbox for a few years. Actually being a part of the media was eye opening. A new boss came along in 2010. He told me I was the old print guy. He was going to take us forward. Notwithstanding I’d started blogging in 2003 and podcasting in 2007. I left to go online only in 2013.
Malik reflects some of that evolution:
The old media has consistently misunderstood digital transformation, and it’s no surprise that we have a media ecosystem still trapped in old monetization models, where “interruptions” have only grown more aggressive. What began as occasional magazine ads has evolved into a constant barrage across all platforms—from billboard-cluttered webpages to podcast sponsorship breaks and algorithmic social feeds designed for ad delivery.
Not afraid to take on the big (but shrinking?) social media platforms:
Social media platforms, built around algorithmic feeds and advertising models, have reduced content discovery to a game of clicks, likes, and engagements. Mass-market media has followed suit, optimizing for sensationalism rather than depth. All of it, from podcasts to news apps, interrupts users constantly with ads, pushing all of us to exhaustion.
Wow, did I ever discover this next point. When I was in management training early in the career, they taught me sales people should sell and never be managers unless trained. Then an old friend laughed at me when I expressed shock in the magazine business, “Gary, who runs magazines? Sales people! What’s a long-term outlook for a sales person? Two months?”
In reality, the seeds of media’s destruction are built into its architecture, because outlets must feed advertising systems, not the audience. The media establishment disregards why audiences visit them, and it’s no surprise the system has reached its limits. Too many advertisements, too many interruptions, and too much “content” mean that, as an end customer, you are decoupled from media brands.
Looking more broadly:
The internet was originally envisioned as a place for connection, collaboration, and discovery. But over time, it has been distorted by business models that prioritize engagement metrics over meaningful interaction. Discovery has long been the open web’s greatest challenge, with search engines turning it into an SEO game and social platforms creating algorithmic echo chambers. AI platforms are making discovery almost irrelevant.
Amen to that. Thanks, Om.
