Caterpillar, one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial equipment, has expanded its partnership with Nvidia to integrate AI into its customer solutions and manufacturing systems.

As part of the partnership, Caterpillar will deploy the Nvidia Jetson Thor platform to enable real-time AI inference across its construction, mining, and power equipment. The company contends that this will lay the foundation for next-generation autonomy and intelligent in-cab experiences.

According to the companies, the platform will include an intelligent operator assistant that will provide customers with personalized insights. In addition, construction and mining machines will be equipped with AI-driven recommendations, which Caterpillar claims can process billions of data points in milliseconds to navigate complex, variable job-site conditions.

“As AI moves beyond data to reshape the physical world, it is unlocking new opportunities for innovation - from job sites and factory floors to offices,” said Joe Creed, CEO of Caterpillar. “Caterpillar is committed to solving our customers’ toughest challenges by leading with advanced technology in our machines and every aspect of business. Our collaboration with Nvidia is accelerating that progress like never before.”

As part of the deal, Caterpillar also debuted the Cat AI Assistant, which was built using Nvidia Riva open speech models that provide personalized recommendations on equipment, parts, maintenance, and more.

Finally, the company announced it will use an Nvidia AI Factory to automate and accelerate key manufacturing processes, including forecasting and scheduling. Caterpillar is also building digital twins of its factories on Nvidia Omniverse libraries and OpenUSD, which it will use to design, simulate, and optimize layouts and production processes before building in the real world.

“For a century, Caterpillar has built the industrial machines that shaped the world, said Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO. “In the age of AI, Nvidia and Caterpillar are partnering across the full spectrum – from autonomous construction fleets to the AI data centers powering the next industrial revolution.”

In addition to its partnership with Nvidia, Caterpillar also announced a wholesale drive to deploy autonomous technology across its worldwide construction operations. The company announced it would introduce “intelligent machines” across several product lines, including excavators, loaders, haul trucks, dozers, compactors, and site-optimization solutions.

“By embedding autonomy into construction workflows, we’re reshaping the industry to achieve safer jobsites, better jobs, and easy precision that redefines productivity for the modern jobsite,” said Caterpillar CTO Jaime Mineart.

Caterpillar has increasingly targeted the data center sector as an offtaker for its power generation equipment over recent years. In August of last year, the company partnered with Hunt Energy as part of a multi-year initiative to deliver upwards of 1GW of generation capacity for data centers in North America. The first project is expected to launch in Texas. The companies did not provide a deployment timetable.

The company has also been a long-term provider of backup generators for the data center sector. Last January, it partnered with Microsoft on a successful demonstration project, which succeeded in powering a data center via hydrogen fuel cells for 48 hours to test its viability as a sustainable backup solution.