Finally! This morning, Siemens announced that it completed the acquisition of Altair Engineering for an enterprise value of $10 billion.

Siemens’ CEO Roland Busch said, “We welcome the Altair community of customers, partners and colleagues to Siemens … Through the ONE Tech Company program, we will extend our leadership in industrial software. This enables all industries to benefit from the revolution driven by data and AI.”

ONE what? The press release explains, “The acquisition of Altair is part of Siemens’ ONE Tech Company program and will meaningfully increase Siemens’ digital revenue share. This growth program enables Siemens to further expand its strong market position and reach the next level of performance and value creation. Through acquisitions like this, as well as R&D investments into areas including software, AI-enabled products, connected hardware and sustainability, Siemens is clearly prioritizing capital allocation to strategic growth fields.” That language leads me to believe that more acquisitions are contemplated … Of course, they are. But this is a big one and will take time to digest.

In an email from Altair to its community, Siemens’ Bob Jones, EVP of Global Sales and Customer Success, and Nelson Dias, Altair’s Chief Revenue Officer, announced the closing and sought to reassure customers: “You can expect the same exceptional service and support that you have come to rely on from Altair. Our teams are working seamlessly to ensure a smooth transition, and you will continue to work with the familiar faces and experts you know and trust. At the same time, you will gain access to an even broader set of tools, resources, and expertise to elevate your business to new heights.” They also laid out exciting (and expected) intentions:

“As we move forward together, you can look forward to:

• Tighter integration between Altair’s simulation solutions and Siemens’ digital twin and product lifecycle management capabilities
• Added accessibility to simulation expertise across your organization through data science, high performance computing and AI-powered simulation capabilities
• Increased domain expertise in product lifecycle and manufacturing process data with robust data science capabilities
• Expanded access to cutting-edge technologies in areas like generative design and artificial intelligence
• Increased investment in research and development to drive continuous innovation
• Unparalleled global support and a shared commitment to your success”

What happens next? From a customer perspective, I’d imagine nothing much changes right now. The email from Siemens+Altair that I quote from above was followed a few minutes later by an Altair Simulation Community Highlight newsletter that doesn’t even mention that the deal has closed. If you go to the Altair website, you’ll see a banner on the homepage that reads “Altair has been acquired by Siemens, creating the world’s most complete AI-powered portfolio of industrial software for simulation, high performance computing, data science, and artificial intelligence as part of the Siemens Xcelerator platform. We are excited to join the Siemens family!” — but after that, it’s business as usual. Of course, behind the scenes, I’m sure there’s a lot going on — I especially look forward to seeing how Siemens takes advantage of Altair’s RapidMiner and HPC platforms, what it does with the Altair token scheme … so much!

One more thing: Unusually but not surprising right now, Siemens ended its news release this way: “With the completion of the acquisition of Altair as well as the recent expansions of Siemens’ factories in California and Texas, Siemens has now invested over USD 100 billion into the United States in the past 20 years.” I get it, but it bothers me. Science doesn’t have borders.