Volkswagen Group Invests up to One Billion Euros in AI

Overview

Volkswagen Group announced plans to invest up to one billion euros by 2030 in AI-driven vehicle development, industrial applications and high-performance IT infrastructure, expecting efficiency gains and cost avoidance of up to four billion euros by 2035. More than 1,200 AI applications are already active across the Group. In vehicle development, Volkswagen is building an AI-powered engineering environment with partner Dassault Systèmes to shorten product development cycles to 36 months or less. On the shop floor, the Digital Production Platform connects more than 40 sites with AI applications for production optimization. The Group is also expanding its private cloud infrastructure to keep sensitive data processing within Europe.

The challenge

Volkswagen wants greater speed, quality and competitiveness across its entire value chain, from vehicle development to production, and aims to make vehicles and innovations available to customers faster in an increasingly competitive global technology race. It also wants a more resilient, digitally sovereign position by keeping sensitive data storage and processing within Europe.

The solution

Volkswagen Group intends to invest up to one billion euros by 2030 in AI-driven vehicle development, industrial applications and high-performance IT infrastructure. In vehicle development it is building an AI-powered engineering environment with partner Dassault Systèmes to support engineers through virtual testing and component simulations, aiming to help shorten the product development cycle to 36 months or less. On the shop floor, its proprietary Digital Production Platform (DPP), a "factory cloud" connecting more than 40 sites, introduces AI applications to optimize manufacturing processes, energy and material use, and reduce costs and CO2 emissions. The company also launched the WE & AI initiative in spring 2024, one of its largest internal education programs, and is expanding its Group-wide private cloud infrastructure to keep more sensitive data processing within Europe. It is also exploring a Large Industry Model (LIM), an industrial AI model trained on real manufacturing, design and process data from voluntarily participating companies, potentially organized along the lines of the Catena-X data-exchange platform.

Reported business value

Volkswagen expects efficiency gains and cost avoidance opportunities of up to four billion euros by 2035. More than 1,200 AI applications are already active across the Group, with several hundred more in development or nearing implementation. The AI-powered engineering environment with Dassault Systèmes aims to make the product development cycle at least 25 percent (around 12 months) faster than today. The WE & AI training initiative has reached more than 130,000 employees worldwide to date.