Siemens + Altair = The Next Chapter in Design and Simulation

When Siemens AG announced its acquisition of Altair Engineering, Inc. in March 2025, it wasn’t just another big tech deal. For engineers, this marked the start of a new era in simulation and artificial intelligence-driven design. Tools like Simcenter, HyperMesh, Inspire and OptiStruct, which once existed in separate worlds have merged into a single, powerful ecosystem. 

High-performance computing, generative design and AI-driven workflows are no longer siloed. Instead, they’re accessible, connected and ready to help engineers tackle complex projects.

Siemens’ $10 billion acquisition of Altair also aligns the latter’s simulation, high-performance computing (HPC) and AI-driven design tools with Siemens’ Xcelerator platform. It strengthens the digital twin and helps companies bring complex products to market more efficiently. Altair’s expertise in structural simulation, generative design, manufacturing modeling and electromagnetic analysis complements Siemens’ CAD, PLM and system simulation portfolio. 

Iconic products like HyperMesh, Inspire and OptiStruct are integrated into Simcenter and Xcelerator, giving engineers more powerful tools while keeping familiar workflows. At the same time, Altair’s workload management solution HPCWorks aligns with Simcenter X cloud computing to improve the efficiency of large-scale parallelized simulations. According to Jean-Claude Ercolanelli, senior VP of simulation and test solutions at Siemens, culture and people were key to the smooth integration.

Both companies bring technical depth, entrepreneurial energy and a focus on innovation, he adds, making the integration both fast and natural. Siemens and Altair customers benefit in different ways: Siemens users gain Altair’s specialized tools and AI-driven capabilities, while Altair customers gain from the acquirer’s scale, reach and broader software portfolio.

In this Insider Q&A, Jean-Claude Ercolanelli discusses how the Altair acquisition expands Siemens’ simulation portfolio, enhances AI-driven tools, and gives engineers a more connected, powerful environment for design and testing.

Q: Why was Altair an attractive acquisition target for Siemens? 

A: Altair was an attractive acquisition for us because it brings technology that fits right alongside what we already offer in Simcenter, allowing us to build an even more integrated and comprehensive portfolio. They have deep expertise in structural analysis, generative design and manufacturing simulation, and their HyperMesh and HyperWorks tools are well known in the industry. So from a technology standpoint, it felt like a very natural complement to our portfolio.

Altair also has a strong background in high performance computing, data science and machine learning. Those are areas that matter a lot as we work to make the digital twin more powerful and more accessible through the Xcelerator platform.

And honestly, it was clear on both sides that we shared a similar view of where simulation is going. It wasn’t one company chasing the other. It was more a recognition that we could do something bigger together – truly shaping the future of engineering simulation and helping customers move faster as products and development cycles get more complex.

Q: Siemens’ portfolio with its own set of CAD design tools, simulation tools like NX and PLM tools, they already have a lot of very rich portfolio in itself. Did Altair’s technology fill a gap?

A: Siemens already has a strong simulation portfolio with Simcenter, so this wasn’t about filling a gap. It was about adding strengths that help the portfolio advance faster, solidifying our competitive advantage and market leadership. We lead in areas like computational fluid dynamics, system simulation and multidisciplinary analysis. Altair brings capabilities that build on that, especially in structural simulation, generative design and AI-driven methods.

Their well-known mesh technology in HyperMesh and the HyperWorks suite fits naturally with how many engineers work. They also add advanced electromagnetic tools at low and high frequencies, which complement what we already offer, allowing us to provide the most complete toolset.

Altair strengthens areas that are growing quickly, like AI-based simulation and advanced optimization. Together, the combined technology helps us deliver a more complete toolset inside Simcenter and across the Xcelerator platform.

Q: When these acquisitions happen, cultural mesh between the two companies is very important. How would you describe Siemens culture, Altair’s culture and was there a good fit between the talent and people across the teams?

A: Absolutely. In fact, the people fit has been one of the best parts of this integration. There’s a shared excitement about what we can build together, and the past few months have moved fast because of that energy. Both teams care about innovation, engineering quality and customer success, so collaboration started almost immediately.

We’d already been working together before the acquisition, which made the cultural alignment clear early on. Siemens is a large global technology company, and it has a structured, process driven culture that comes from decades of engineering work. At the same time, the software organization has an entrepreneurial feel that continues to grow as the portfolio expands.

Altair brings a similar mix. It’s highly technical, very agile and has the same kind of entrepreneurial mindset our teams have. That combination made the transition feel natural for both sides and set a strong foundation for what we’re building now.

Q: The initial acquisition announcement said many of Altair's iconic products like Inspire will be integrated into Siemens Xcelerator portfolio. Can you give us more details on that?  

A: The integration of iconic products like Inspire, HyperMesh, and OptiStruct into Simcenter and the Xcelerator platform is a cornerstone of our strategy. This isn't just about coexistence; it's about creating seamless end to end workflows. 

For example, generative design capabilities from Inspire will be directly accessible within Simcenter, allowing engineers to rapidly explore design options and then seamlessly move to detailed simulation and validation. We are focused on maintaining familiar workflows while enhancing them with new, powerful capabilities, ensuring engineers can leverage the best of both worlds without disruption.

Q: Altair's offering includes turnkey HPC solutions like Altair HPCWorks, but Siemens also offers Simcenter X cloud HPC. Are they overlapping products or not?

A: They’re related, but they’re not overlapping. Altair HPCWorks focuses on workload management. It handles scheduling and resource allocation across whatever compute setup a company uses, whether that’s on premises, in the cloud or in a hybrid environment. It helps teams use their available compute capacity in a more organized and efficient way.

Simcenter X provides the actual cloud compute environment for running large simulation jobs. So if engineers want to run a large Simcenter STAR-CCM+ model in parallel, Simcenter X gives them the scalable capacity to do it. 

The two pieces work together. HPCWorks manages the compute resources, and Simcenter X delivers the power for large-scale simulation. Together they create a smoother and more coordinated HPC workflow for engineering teams.

Q: Can you share Siemens’ own implementation of AI-driven tools and how they work in their simulation and design workflow? 

A: We’re putting a lot of effort into AI-driven tools, because we believe AI is key to boosting user productivity and driving innovation, making advanced simulation more accessible and efficient. We’re especially focused on virtual assistants that support engineers during design and simulation. 

These assistants can guide someone through a complex setup, suggest meshing strategies and highlight design changes based on performance targets or past project data. That helps newer engineers move faster and reduces routine work for experienced users.

We’re also using AI for data analysis, quicker prediction and automating repetitive tasks. In generative design, AI can explore a much wider set of options than an engineer could cover on their own. That makes advanced simulation more accessible across a team.

Q: How does this acquisition benefit both Siemens’ customers and Altair’s customers?

A: It benefits customers on both sides. Siemens customers gain access to Altair’s well known tools in structural simulation, generative design, electromagnetics and advanced modeling. Those capabilities are being integrated into Simcenter and the Xcelerator platform, which gives engineers a more complete and more powerful workflow for building and validating designs.

Altair customers gain the reach and stability of Siemens, along with access to a broader portfolio that includes CAD, CAM, PLM and manufacturing solutions. They also gain a stronger digital thread and more options for cloud, HPC and AI-driven workflows. Ultimately, both groups get a unified and more capable simulation environment that helps teams move faster, handle more complex problems and bring better products to market, delivering compelling ROI.

Q: What does Siemens’ simulation roadmap look like for 2026 and beyond? 

A: The roadmap focuses on two priorities: deeper AI integration and a unified simulation experience across the combined portfolios. You’ll start to see this quickly. For example, AI-driven physics capabilities will appear in Simcenter in the coming release cycle, and we’ll keep expanding AI support for setup, prediction and exploration across more tools.

A critical part of our roadmap involves updating how customers access simulation. We are moving toward a simplified, single licensing approach that offers simulation tokens across the full set of combined simulation tools. This directly addresses customer feedback and will make it significantly easier for teams to flexibly use what they need without managing separate systems, ultimately reducing cost of ownership and providing a transformative user experience.  

Another major part of the roadmap is harmonizing the technologies so they work as one environment. That includes short-, mid- and long-term plans to align solutions, workflows and data models. 

Finally, we’re strengthening the digital thread so data moves cleanly from concept to design to simulation to validation and into real-world operation. At this point, the pace is fast and the direction is clear: We’re building a unified, intelligent simulation platform that helps customers move from idea to validated design in the most frictionless way possible, truly shaping the future of engineering simulation.

For more information visit Altair.com/Siemens-Forward-Together

Jean-Claude Ercolanelli
Senior VP of Simulaton and Test Solutions, Siemens