Hitachi and Google Cloud Expand Strategic Alliance to Accelerate Real-world Deployment of Physical AI Through FDE and Advanced Cybersecurity Solutions

Hitachi, Ltd. announced the expansion of its strategic alliance^*1 with Google Cloud to support customers by accelerating the real-world deployment of physical AI and cybersecurity solutions to protect against AI generated threats. Garnering increasing attention, physical AI is a technology that connects AI-driven analysis and decision-making—derived from frontline data—to concrete actions such as autonomous control and operation of various devices and equipment. Continuously repeating this cycle enables optimal AI decision-making and execution tailored to each specific situation. Through the real-world deployment of physical AI, Hitachi is driving the transformation of social infrastructure.

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Combining Hitachi’s deep domain knowledge, GlobalLogic’s engineering strength, and Google Cloud’s advanced AI and engineering resources represents an innovative approach to accelerating AI transformation in real-world environments.

To realize this critical mission, through the strategic alliance, Hitachi will establish and globally deploy Hitachi’s Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) model that leverages its strengths in IT, OT, and products cultivated through Lumada, together with Google Cloud’s advanced AI.

FDEs are specialists that embed directly with customers, providing end-to-end support. Their work can include everything from identifying management challenges, to early validation of value through building proof-of-concepts (PoCs), to agile implementation to helping deploy projects into operations. Hitachi’s DNA includes a long history of practicing “on-site-oriented engineering,” working closely with customers to identify and solve challenges together, from discovery through resolution—an approach with strong similarities to the FDE model. Hitachi’s consultants and AI Transformation (AX) experts with deep expertise across a wide range of industries, together with Hitachi’s U.S. subsidiary GlobalLogic’s AI-native software engineers, will collaborate with Google Cloud’s leading engineers to support customers.

The teams will work closely with Hitachi’s Frontier AI Deployment Center to further enhance HMAX by Hitachi, a next-generation suite of AI-powered solutions that helps drive social infrastructure innovation, by leveraging Gemini Enterprise, an advanced agentic platform that brings the best of Google AI to employees. Leveraging the enhanced HMAX as a core platform, the two companies will help frontline workers through the autonomous execution of complex operations. Furthermore, a data platform that allows domain knowledge gained from FDE activities to be reused as assets will enable Hitachi to deliver value to a wide range of customers at scale.

In the field of physical AI, where AI directly connects with the real world, more robust security than ever before is essential. AI is also changing the cybersecurity landscape. Adversaries are actively leveraging AI models to accelerate vulnerability discovery and automate exploit generation at an unprecedented scale. In fact, research from Mandiant M-Trends 2026^*2 by Google Cloud reveals that AI advancements have compressed cyberattack timelines significantly. To mitigate these risks, Hitachi’s Cyber Center of Excellence will partner with Google Cloud to deliver Google Cloud Security, including its Google AI Threat Defense^*3 platform alongside Hitachi’s mission-critical domain knowledge to support customer security operations.

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