Microsoft, Hitachi Partnership Tackles GenAI and Sustainable IT Services

A Microsoft-Hitachi partnership will extend beyond AI to include sustainability services and IT solutions in the energy and mobility markets, the two companies said. The relationship involves Hitachi Lumada -- an IoT (Internet of Things) platform that helps customers to gain data-driven insights.

Hitachi, in partnership with Microsoft, will:

• Embed Microsoft cloud, Azure OpenAI Service, Dynamics 365, Copilot for Microsoft 365 and GitHub Copilot into Lumada solutions for key industries such as energy and mobility.
• Train more than 50,000 GenAI Professionals on such platforms as GitHub Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service.
• Help customers with their energy transitions -- from energy generation to transmission, distribution and customer delivery. That focus involves Hitachi Energy's Enterprise Software Solutions platform.
• Work work toward zero carbon initiatives -- starting with a data center project in Europe -- though timing and specific details of that project were not disclosed.

In a prepared statement about the relationship, Hitachi President and CEO Keiji Kojima said: “Hitachi has been driving transformation by applying AI across the Hitachi Group to improve productivity and will invest 300 billion yen（2.1 billion USD) in GenAI to capture new growth opportunities in FY2024."

Kojima added: "Hitachi and Microsoft have already been working on a variety of co-creation projects including the development of next-generation digital solutions for the manufacturing and logistics fields and the development of a field-extended metaverse that runs on Microsoft Teams. Under this new agreement, we are excited to further accelerate social innovation by expanding our efforts to social infrastructure areas such as energy and mobility, and by applying generative AI, to improve the productivity of frontline workers, which will become even more important in the future. By combining our capabilities, we can help solve the issues faced by our customers and society, and contribute to a more sustainable future.”

Concluded Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: “We are entering a new era of AI with the promise to deliver transformative business outcomes across every role and industry. Our expanded partnership with Hitachi will bring together the power of the Microsoft Cloud — including Microsoft Copilot — with Hitachi’s industry expertise to improve the productivity of 270,000 Hitachi employees and help address customers’ biggest challenges, including sustainability.”

Hitachi: Multiple Sustainable IT Services Initiatives

Various Hitachi businesses now offer sustainability-focused services. Examples include:

• Hitachi Vantara -- the infrastructure, data management and digital solutions subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. -- in September 2023 unveiled multiple Sustainability Solutions and Services to help customers address understand and reduce the carbon footprint from physical and digital operations -- including IT infrastructure.
• Hitachi Energy partnered with Google Cloud and acquired COET, a developer of power equipment for electric mobility, rail and industrial use cases. On another partnership front, Hitachi Energy and Google Cloud are developing multiple cloud software products and services to help customers accelerate the global energy transition toward green and renewable sources.

Meanwhile, Microsoft's sustainability strategy extends to numerous partners.