NVIDIA Opens Factory AI Program as Siemens Tests Agents in Germany

NVIDIA opened an early-access program for factory AI agents Oct. 21, widening its industrial software push as Siemens tests applications at a live German production site.

FOX, short for Factory Operations Blueprint, is a framework for creating agents that can visually inspect products, perform root-cause analysis and oversee equipment fleets. The software is designed to connect with factory design, product lifecycle, simulation, IT and operational systems. Access requires an NVIDIA Developer account, an application and approval.

Siemens is connecting FOX-built agents to its Intelligence Center X platform, an integration estimated to deliver 20% in cost savings. At Siemens’ Erlangen plant in Germany, the companies are also developing and testing applications in live production. One inspection workflow pairs Siemens’ Process Preparation X with Cosmos Data Factory to create simulated defect images for printed circuit boards, giving teams generated examples for preparing inspection systems.

The workflow reduces inspection calibration time by 40%. The circuit-board process is being demonstrated, with project goals of up to 85% less manual engineering to create inspection programs, more than 40% fewer false calls and a first-pass yield improvement above 5%. The calibration result measures a different outcome from these targets, which are not reported results.

Another Siemens application uses an agent to create production plans and check them against a factory digital twin. Agent-assisted planning is projected to reduce costs by up to 20%. Virtual production ramp-ups carry a separate target of reducing engineering effort by as much as 85%.

“The historic opportunity for Germany and Europe lies in bringing artificial intelligence out of the data centers and into the factories,” said Cedrik Neike, Siemens AG managing board member and president of Digital Industries.

NVIDIA’s other industrial examples cover virtual battery manufacturing and robotics. Audi is using an Omniverse digital twin to test battery-production concepts, while Schaeffler is linking digital twins of humanoid actuators with NVIDIA’s Isaac simulation tools. A planned German industrial AI cloud will use 10,000 Blackwell GPUs for manufacturing, engineering, simulation, digital twins and robotics, part of a broader European AI infrastructure buildout.

NVIDIA also made cuDSS generally available Oct. 21. The CUDA-X library accelerates engineering and scientific simulation calculations on GPUs, extending the company’s industrial offering from design work to factory operations. FOX remains in an application-based early-access phase.