Hitachi has unveiled a growth strategy built around Physical AI, which it defines as AI-enabled systems that understand real-world conditions and autonomously make decisions and take action. President and CEO Toshiaki Tokunaga presented the strategy at the Hitachi Social Innovation Forum 2026 JAPAN in Tokyo on September 3, citing Japan's projected labor shortage of 11 million workers by 2040 and the growing strain on infrastructure operations. Hitachi announced four new HMAX services for data centers, cybersecurity, data integration and AI governance, adding to offerings for mobility, energy, industry and finance. The HMAX Data Center service centrally manages servers, power systems and cooling equipment; it will launch first in North America, with a Japanese rollout planned for January 2027. Hitachi said its railway-originated HMAX platform has reduced maintenance costs by 15%. The company is positioning its field operations expertise across IT, operational technology and products as a differentiator from companies such as NVIDIA, whose NVIDIA Omniverse platform focuses on digital-twin and other earlier-stage applications. The strategy also includes a Physical AI FDE Service, in which experts work with customers to implement the technology in operational settings.