Japan’s Hitachi has announced a strategic partnership with Anthropic to accelerate the deployment of advanced AI across industries including energy, transportation, manufacturing, and finance.
The alliance combines Hitachi’s more than 110 years of expertise in operational technology, IT systems, and industrial infrastructure with Anthropic’s Claude AI models. Together, the companies aim to advance what they call “physical AI” – artificial intelligence capable of supporting and interacting with real-world systems where safety, reliability, and resilience are essential.
The partnership further strengthens Hitachi’s “Lumada 3.0” strategy, which integrates AI, operational technology, and data to modernize industries facing labor shortages and growing cybersecurity risks.
As part of the collaboration, Hitachi plans to deploy advanced AI such as Claude into business processes used by approximately 290,000 employees worldwide, with the company stating it aims to become “one of the world’s largest companies that implement the use of Claude.” The company will also launch a talent development initiative aimed at training around 100,000 employees as AI professionals across engineering, sales, planning, and operational roles.
“Specifically, we will use Anthropic’s Claude to accelerate business reform in all occupations, including non-engineers, such as sales and planning departments,” Hitachi said in a statement.
Central to the initiative is the launch of the “Frontier AI Deployment Center,” a global organization spanning North America, Europe, and Asia. The centre will begin with about 100 experts from both companies, with plans to gradually expand to around 300 specialists focused on AI deployment, cybersecurity, operational technology, and industrial systems.
The collaboration will also enhance Hitachi’s HMAX platform by integrating Claude’s reasoning capabilities to support predictive maintenance, natural language equipment management, and operational optimization designed to reduce downtime and improve efficiency.
Cybersecurity will be another major focus. Hitachi’s Cyber Center of Excellence will work alongside Anthropic to strengthen cyber threat detection and response capabilities for critical infrastructure sectors.
Jun Abe, Executive Vice President and Head of Digital Systems & Services at Hitachi, said the partnership would help address operational challenges while accelerating AI adoption across industries worldwide.
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