Hitachi Rail has become the first transportation company in the world to adopt NVIDIA’s new IGX Thor platform, integrating the high-performance AI system into its HMAX digital asset management platform to deliver real-time data processing for trains, signalling, and infrastructure.
The new industrial-grade solution will provide up to eight times higher AI compute power and twice the connectivity compared to previous systems, enabling real-time sensor processing, AI reasoning, and functional safety across complex railway environments.
Enhancing real-time AI at the edge
By incorporating NVIDIA IGX Thor, Hitachi Rail will be able to process vast quantities of data directly at the network edge — onboard trains or within infrastructure — without relying on delayed off-site analysis.
Without edge capability, the company estimates that some data processing could take up to ten days at maintenance facilities. The new system allows immediate insights, transmitting only the most relevant information to operational control centres.
This improvement dramatically increases the speed and accuracy of predictive maintenance, helping rail operators enhance efficiency, safety, and reliability across their networks.
“AI and data are transforming railways,” said Giuseppe Marino, Group CEO of Hitachi Rail. “By adopting NVIDIA IGX Thor, we are bringing the world’s most powerful industrial-grade, real-time AI performance directly to the edge, enabling operators to better optimise their railways and infrastructure. This capability will strengthen reliability, efficiency and optimisation for passengers and operators alike.”
Supporting Hitachi’s wider AI strategy
The move aligns with Hitachi Group’s global strategy to harness AI and digital technologies through its Lumada 3.0 solutions. Hitachi Rail launched HMAX in September 2024 as a digital asset management suite for trains, signalling, and infrastructure, designed to centralise monitoring, analytics, and predictive capabilities across rail systems.
The adoption of NVIDIA’s IGX Thor platform strengthens HMAX’s ability to analyse real-time data and deliver actionable insights across transport networks. The system’s industrial-grade design ensures it can operate safely and reliably in mission-critical rail environments.
A growing digital footprint in North America
The announcement follows Hitachi Rail’s opening of its $100 million digital factory near Washington, D.C., in September 2025. The facility, which delivers next-generation metro trains for North America, also serves as a model for “physical-world AI” — the integration of intelligent digital systems with real-world manufacturing and infrastructure.
Through this new initiative, Hitachi Rail will offer customers advanced AI-driven optimisation tools capable of transforming day-to-day operations and long-term maintenance strategies.
Partnership with NVIDIA
NVIDIA IGX Thor is designed as a powerful edge-computing platform that delivers both AI inference and safety-critical processing. It supports high-speed connectivity, long-term enterprise-grade reliability, and scalability for industrial applications — qualities that make it particularly suited to the complex demands of transport systems.
Hitachi Rail’s early adoption of the platform positions it as a technology leader in applying real-time AI to transport operations, with the potential to accelerate digital transformation across the wider mobility sector.
Hitachi Group said the collaboration with NVIDIA is part of its broader ambition to apply advanced digital and AI solutions across multiple sectors, operating globally under its “One Hitachi” approach.
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