The applications that are currently unique in the manufacturing industry use AI and digital twins to accelerate production ramp-up and enable more adaptive production planning. Both companies announced at CES in Las Vegas in January 2026 that they would build the world’s first fully AI-powered manufacturing sites. Since then, both companies have been co-developing and testing applications in live production at the Erlangen plant.

Erlangen serves as a living lab for industrial AI and a blueprint for scaling these capabilities across industries. Siemens and NVIDIA aim to make artificial intelligence the operating system of manufacturing, transforming how products are designed, manufactured and delivered across the entire value chain. Further applications are planned in the coming months.

“The historic opportunity for Germany and Europe lies in bringing artificial intelligence out of the data centers and into the factories – and applying it on an industrial scale,” says Cedrik Neike, member of the Managing Board of Siemens AG and President Digital Industries. “Today, together with NVIDIA at our Siemens Electronic Works in Erlangen, we are showing how this can be done. With an annual productivity increase of seven percent, Erlangen is one of the most advanced manufacturing plants in the world. At the same time, with around 3,000 customer visits every year, it is a global meeting place for industrial innovation. Here, the future of industry is not just discussed; it is becoming reality today.”

“Factories need to handle change as well as they handle repetition. AI and simulation make that possible,” said Rev Lebaredian, Vice President, Physical AI Simulation at NVIDIA. “At Erlangen, Siemens and NVIDIA are putting years of collaboration to work on the factory floor – training inspection systems before physical prototypes exist, designing and testing production plans in simulation before changing the real world. Together, we’re building a blueprint for autonomous factories everywhere.”

The joint Siemens and NVIDIA team developed the first new AI offerings in less than ten months, combining NVIDIA’s AI, simulation and accelerated computing technologies with Siemens’ industrial software, automation and manufacturing expertise. Testing the solutions directly in a production environment enabled the teams to develop solutions around real manufacturing requirements. These new technologies can deliver unprecedented improvements in areas such as production planning and product development.