Siemens is launching a substantial €2 billion investment strategy, aiming to expand its manufacturing capacity and foster innovation across the globe, in a bid to stay ahead in the race of digitalization, automation, and sustainability. The strategy includes a heightened focus on the industrial metaverse, an emerging frontier that promises to redefine the way industries operate.
According to the strategy disclosed, Siemens is set to construct high-tech factories, education centres, and innovation labs worldwide. While previous investments have been centred in the U.S and Germany, the new strategy marks a noticeable shift towards Asia, with new projects announced in Singapore and an expansion plan in Chengdu, China.
The company’s CEO, Roland Busch, underscored the move: “Our technologies address secular growth trends where our customers need our support to become more competitive, resilient and sustainable. Siemens is experiencing significantly above-market growth. Today we announce an investment strategy to boost future growth, drive innovation and increase resilience.”
The strategy is to be bolstered by an expected increase of around €0.5 billion in research and development (R&D) for the fiscal year 2023, targeting key technology areas including simulation, digital twins, artificial intelligence, and power electronics. This increased R&D funding comes on the heels of Siemens’ recent partnership with Microsoft and NVIDIA to speed up code generation for industrial automation and to build the industrial metaverse respectively.
Southeast Asia has been identified as a particularly promising region. In this regard, Siemens announced the construction of a new high-tech factory in Singapore. Developed using Siemens’ own digital twin and intelligent hardware technologies, the factory is expected to exemplify the cutting-edge possibilities of digitalization and high-tech manufacturing. This €200 million investment is expected to generate over 400 jobs.
Busch emphasized, “The investments underpin our strategy of combining the real and the digital worlds – as well as our focus on diversification and local-for-local business. We are clearly doubling down on our strong global presence to support growth in the most relevant markets in the world.”
In China, Siemens is making a €140 million (RMB 1.1bn) investment to expand its digital factory in Chengdu and a new digital R&D Innovation Center in Shenzhen, bringing the total new jobs to around 400.
Siemens’ global investment drive is also reflected in Europe and the U.S., with expanded production in Trutnov, Czech Republic, a €30 million investment in Frankfurt-Fechenheim, Germany, and a $220 million investment in a new rolling stock factory in Lexington, North Carolina.
The industrial metaverse, an interconnected network of digital twin technologies and AI, is at the heart of Siemens’ future growth and resilience plans. As Siemens takes a big bet on this emerging field, its success could redefine industrial processes and set new standards for the future.
