Hitachi highlights speed-to-power initiatives and North America expansion to support AI acceleration at CERAWeek 26

• Recent and planned investments of more than $2 billion in North American supply chain, and technology development to address fast-growing energy demand
• Collaborations with AI leaders such as NVIDIA help drive advances in grid and data center optimization to power the AI Era
• Launch of HMAX Energy, a pioneering AI-powered service and solution suite to help safeguard critical energy infrastructure

Houston, March 23, 2026 – This week at CERAWeek 2026, Hitachi Energy, the global technology leader in electrification, will spotlight how the company is addressing the acceleration of global electrification and the critical role of modern grid infrastructure. During this flagship event organized by S&P Global, Hitachi Energy leaders will explore how the rapid growth of AI, data centers and industrial electrification is reshaping electricity demand and driving a new era of investment in power systems.

As electrification expands rapidly across industries, electricity has become the key enabler of economic development and technological innovation. However, expanding grid capacity and modernizing infrastructure to meet fast-growing demand have emerged as the defining challenges of this decade.

Powering the AI Era

The explosive growth of artificial intelligence is transforming electricity demand patterns. Future AI “factories,” large-scale data centers, are expected to consume gigawatt-scale electricity comparable to that of medium-sized cities, making power infrastructure a critical bottleneck for digital expansion. 

To address this challenge, Hitachi is collaborating with NVIDIA to develop next-generation power architectures for AI data centers. The companies are designing and digitally simulating an advanced 800-volt DC power system capable of delivering dramatically higher power density while improving efficiency and reducing infrastructure footprint.

This speed-to-power initiative uses NVIDIA’s Omniverse simulation platform and architecture to enable developers to create digital twins of the entire electrical chain, from the grid to the data center rack, allowing thousands of operational scenarios to be tested before physical deployment. This approach accelerates the design and deployment of the gigawatt-scale infrastructure needed to support the next generation of AI computing. 

Expanding North American manufacturing with over US$2 billion investments

Meeting rapidly rising electricity demand requires a significant expansion of grid infrastructure and manufacturing capacity. Hitachi Energy is making industry-leading investments across North America to strengthen supply chains and accelerate delivery of critical electrical equipment.

Hitachi Energy is executing a historic investment of more than $1 billion in the United States, including a $457 million large power transformer facility in South Boston, Virginia, alongside expansions across multiple transformer and high-voltage equipment manufacturing sites across the country. In Canada, the company has committed around $300 million (USD)) to expand its transformer manufacturing facility in Varennes, Québec (most recently announcing an additional $195 million USD investment) to significantly increase production capacity for large power transformers used in long-distance transmission). The company is also dramatically growing its Services capabilities in the region, with both organic expansion and a strategic partnership with Blackstone/Shermco. Together, these investments will strengthen North America’s manufacturing base and services capabilities to help meet the growing demand for equipment required to modernize the grid and support new industries such as AI-driven computing.

Across North America, Hitachi Energy employs more than 7,000 people and plans to create over 1,500 new jobs within the next three years, reinforcing domestic manufacturing capacity and strengthening energy security across the region.

Introducing HMAX Energy: A pioneering AI-powered suite of services and solutions for critical energy infrastructure  

Today, Hitachi Energy is also launching HMAX Energy, a new AI-powered suite of services and solutions designed to increase operational efficiency, strengthen grid reliability, and securely extend asset life across the energy value chain, including utilities, renewables industries and data centers. The electrification of many industries and the rise of new power-intensive sectors are accelerating the need to expand and modernize the power grid - the one trillion-dollar investment of our time. Together with aging grid infrastructure and supply chains under severe pressure, the sector is facing major constraints. As a result, increasing availability and extending the lifetime of existing assets has never been more critical, making service partnerships more important than ever. HMAX leverages deep-domain expertise and leading AI capabilities to:

• Plan - Optimizing asset lifecycle and operational efficiency with data-driven insights: 
  • Enabling operations and maintenance teams to make informed decisions and plans based on AI-powered data model recommendations. 
• Predict - Detecting issues early with asset monitoring: Analyzing connected assets and environmental data to identify early signs of wear and flag unusual behavior. 
• Prevent - Acting proactively to reduce risk and extend asset life: Regular health checks and AI-enhanced performance and simulation models, supported by expert field teams, maximizing the remaining life of critical equipment. 

Enabling the Next Phase of Electrification

Electrification is rapidly reshaping the energy landscape across North America, driven by industrial transformation, digitalization and the rapid growth of energy-intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), electricity demand is now accelerating again after nearly two decades of relatively flat growth, with data centers emerging as one of the fastest-growing sources of new demand. In the United States alone, data centers accounted for more than 4% of total electricity consumption in 2024, a share expected to grow significantly as AI computing expands. 

The broader impact is substantial. The IEA estimates that in advanced economies, data centers could account for more than 20% of total electricity demand growth through the end of the decade, underscoring how digital infrastructure is becoming a major driver of power consumption. 

As electricity demand accelerates, expanding and modernizing grid infrastructure, while ensuring resilience, affordability and sustainability, will be essential to maintaining economic competitiveness and supporting future innovation. Through investments in manufacturing, digital intelligence and next-generation power technologies, Hitachi Energy is helping build the infrastructure required to power the electrified economy.

These trends are also transforming how utilities and equipment manufacturers work together. As demand for critical grid components surges globally, the industry is moving beyond traditional transactional procurement toward long-term strategic partnerships.

Framework agreements that align long-term demand with production planning are becoming essential to accelerate infrastructure deployment and address global supply constraints. For example, as E.ON in Germany was willing to acquire over 20,000 transformers, Hitachi Energy signed a framework agreement worth up to $700 million to supply many of those transformers for Germany’s electricity grid, securing dedicated production capacity to support faster grid expansion and modernization. Such partnerships create predictability, enabling the industry to scale manufacturing, shorten lead times, and deliver the equipment needed to power the electrified economy. 

Meet the Hitachi Energy Executives at CERAWeek

Hitachi Energy executives will contribute to a variety of panel discussions and presentations during CERAWeek 2026

• Monday, March 23: In a session organized by the Financial Times, Anthony Allard, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Hitachi Energy, Marc Spieler, Senior Managing Director - Global Energy Industry, NVIDIA and Jeremy Knop, Chief Financial Officer, EQT will join moderator Jamie Smyth, Energy Editor for the FT, for a discussion on critical themes shaping the intersection of energy infrastructure and the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence: AI Data Centers, Efficiency and technology breakthroughs, such as the 800-volt DC power system, and Infrastructure investments.
• Tuesday, March 24: Electrons at Scale: Powering the AI frontier (featuring Bruno Melles, Managing Director, Transformers BU, Hitachi Energy); Digital and AI Technologies Accelerating Energy Transition and Electrification (featuring Shashank Samant, Executive Chairman, Hitachi Americas & EMEA); and Hitachi Energy | Using AI to Unlock Hidden Value in Energy Infrastructure (featuring Jamie Stapleton, VP, Digital Service Solutions, Hitachi Energy)
• Wednesday, March 25: Innovations to Enhance Grid Capacity (Featuring Massimo Danieli, Managing Director, Grid Automation BU, Hitachi Energy)
• Thursday, March 26: Large Load Growth: Reshaping the future of power (featuring Niklas Persson, Managing Director, Grid Integration BU, Hitachi Energy); System Design: Engineering a flexible and reliable grid (featuring Anthony Allard, Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Hitachi Energy); AI for Grid Optimization: From demand forecasting to asset management (featuring Massimo Danieli)