Siemens
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Siemens AG is a German multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in Munich and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe by revenue. The group designs, builds and operates products, services and software across industrial automation, smart infrastructure, rail mobility, medical technology, financial services and a growing portfolio of industrial software businesses. With roots reaching back to 1847 and a presence in roughly 190 countries, Siemens is a foundational name in electrification, factory automation and the broader practice of Industry 4.0.
Under chief executive Roland Busch, who took the role in February 2021, Siemens has positioned itself as one of the world's leading providers of industrial AI. Its strategy combines automation hardware (programmable logic controllers, drives, sensors) with a curated industrial software stack distributed through the Siemens Xcelerator platform, including the Siemens NX computer-aided design suite, Teamcenter product lifecycle management, Mendix low-code development tools and the Siemens EDA electronic design automation business that grew out of Mentor Graphics. These products underpin physics-based digital twin workflows that connect engineering data, factory operations and AI models.
Siemens reported revenue of approximately 75.9 billion euros for fiscal year 2024 (which ended September 30, 2024) and net income of about 9.0 billion euros, with roughly 312,000 employees worldwide. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker SIE and is a constituent of the DAX 40 index. It owns approximately 75 percent of Siemens Healthineers, the medical imaging and diagnostics business spun off via initial public offering in 2018, and was the parent of Siemens Energy before that division's spin-off in 2020. Siemens has expanded its industrial AI footprint through major acquisitions, including Mentor Graphics for $4.5 billion in 2017, Altair Engineering in a roughly $10.6 billion deal announced in 2024 and Dotmatics for $5.1 billion in 2025, alongside deep partnerships with NVIDIA, Microsoft and AWS.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founded | October 1, 1847 in Berlin as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske |
| Founders | Werner von Siemens, Johann Georg Halske |
| Headquarters | Munich, Germany |
| President and CEO | Roland Busch (since February 3, 2021) |
| Chairman of the Supervisory Board | Jim Hagemann Snabe (since 2018) |
| Industry | Industrial conglomerate, automation, software, medical technology, mobility |
| Revenue (FY2024) | approx. 75.9 billion euros (~$83 billion) |
| Net income (FY2024) | approx. 9.0 billion euros |
| R&D expenses (FY2024) | approx. 6.2 billion euros |
| Employees | approx. 312,000 (September 30, 2024) |
| Stock symbols | FWB: SIE; OTC: SIEGY |
| Index membership | DAX 40, Euro Stoxx 50 |
| Major subsidiaries | Siemens Digital Industries Software, Siemens Mobility, Siemens Financial Services, Siemens Healthineers (~75% owned, separately listed) |
| Website | siemens.com |
Siemens traces its founding to October 1, 1847, when Werner von Siemens and the precision mechanic Johann Georg Halske established Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske in a back courtyard workshop in Berlin's Schoneberger Strasse. The firm's first product was the Siemens pointer telegraph, an instrument designed by Werner von Siemens that displayed letters on a dial rather than relying on Morse code, making message transmission accessible to operators without specialized training. The company also pioneered the use of gutta-percha as cable insulation, a material that proved essential to long-distance telegraphy.
In 1848 the young firm completed Europe's first long-distance telegraph line, a 500-kilometer link between Berlin and Frankfurt am Main. Siemens & Halske grew rapidly into a transnational operation. A London office opened in 1850 under William Siemens (one of Werner's brothers, anglicized to Sir William), and a Saint Petersburg branch was established in 1853, building telegraph networks for the Russian government. The firm helped lay the Indo-European telegraph line that connected London with Calcutta in 1870 and contributed to several transatlantic cable projects through the cable-laying ship Faraday, launched in 1874.
Werner von Siemens's discovery of the dynamo-electric principle in 1866 made it possible to generate electric current at industrial scale without permanent magnets, opening the path to the modern electric power industry. This innovation underpinned the company's pivot from communications equipment to electric power. On May 31, 1879, at the Berlin Trade Exhibition, the firm demonstrated the world's first electric railway, an oval track on which a small Siemens locomotive carried 86,398 visitors at roughly 7 kilometers per hour over the run of the exhibition.
In 1903 Siemens & Halske merged its power-engineering division with Schuckertwerke of Nuremberg to form Siemens-Schuckertwerke (SSW), creating one of Germany's largest electrical manufacturers. The combined group built power stations, electric motors, locomotives and lighting systems across Europe, Asia and Latin America. A separate medical instruments business emerged in 1932 as Siemens-Reiniger-Werke (SRW), bringing X-ray equipment and other diagnostic devices into the Siemens family.
Siemens's role during the Nazi period and the Second World War remains the most controversial chapter in its history. The company manufactured electrical equipment, communications gear and components used by the German military. Forced laborers, including prisoners from concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Ravensbruck, worked in Siemens factories. In 1998 the company joined other German firms in establishing a compensation fund for surviving forced laborers, and in 1999 Siemens contributed to the German government's Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation, which paid restitution to former forced and slave workers. Postwar reconstruction was complicated by the loss of patents, the seizure of foreign assets and the destruction of much of the firm's manufacturing base.
On October 1, 1966 the three predecessor entities (Siemens & Halske, Siemens-Schuckertwerke and Siemens-Reiniger-Werke) merged into a single corporation named Siemens AG, headquartered in Munich and Berlin. The unified group entered the second half of the 20th century with a portfolio that spanned communications, power generation and transmission, industrial automation, medical equipment, household appliances and components.
Siemens spent much of the 1970s and 1980s diversifying further into computing, semiconductors, telecommunications, transportation systems and nuclear power. It became one of Europe's largest defense contractors through subsidiaries and joint ventures and built a leading position in mainframe computing through Siemens Nixdorf. Many of these businesses were later spun off or restructured. The semiconductor arm became Infineon Technologies AG in 1999 and was floated on the stock exchange in 2000. The mobile-phone handset business was sold to BenQ in 2005, followed by the bankruptcy of BenQ Mobile shortly afterward. Siemens VDO Automotive was sold to Continental AG in 2007 for approximately 11.4 billion euros, and the Osram lighting subsidiary was spun off and listed in 2013.
The period from 2006 through 2008 was dominated by a sweeping bribery scandal that resulted in a record international settlement (described in the Reception and controversies section below). The episode prompted a deep overhaul of Siemens's compliance program under chief executives Klaus Kleinfeld and his successor Peter Loescher.
Joe Kaeser, who became chief executive in 2013, launched the Vision 2020 strategy in 2014 to simplify the conglomerate's structure and concentrate capital on growth markets. In 2018 he extended this with Vision 2020+, eliminating the divisional layer and reorganizing the group around a small set of operating companies (Digital Industries, Smart Infrastructure and Gas and Power) plus strategic companies including Siemens Healthineers and Siemens Mobility. The new structure took effect on October 1, 2018.
Major portfolio milestones during this period included the initial public offering of Siemens Healthineers on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on March 16, 2018 (raising approximately 4.2 billion euros and becoming the largest German IPO since 2001) and the spin-off of Siemens Energy on September 28, 2020. Siemens shareholders received one Siemens Energy share for every two Siemens shares held, with Siemens AG initially retaining a minority stake that has since been reduced. Roland Busch succeeded Joe Kaeser as president and chief executive officer of Siemens AG on February 3, 2021, completing a leadership transition that had been planned for several years.
Under Busch, Siemens has accelerated its pivot toward industrial software and AI. The company launched the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform in June 2022, deepened its partnership with NVIDIA on industrial digital twins, partnered with Microsoft to bring generative AI to factory automation and announced the largest software acquisition in its history with Altair Engineering in 2024.
Siemens reports its industrial business across four operating segments plus Siemens Financial Services and Portfolio Companies. The figures below are based on the FY2024 results (fiscal year ended September 30, 2024) reported by Siemens AG.
| Segment | Focus | FY2024 revenue (approx.) | FY2024 profit margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital Industries | Industrial automation, motion control, SIMATIC controllers, industrial software (NX, Teamcenter, Solid Edge, Tecnomatix, Mendix, Siemens EDA), industrial AI | approx. 19.5 billion euros | 18.9% |
| Smart Infrastructure | Electrification, building technology, grid software, electric vehicle charging, Brightly Software | approx. 21.4 billion euros | 17.3% |
| Mobility | Rail vehicles, locomotives, signaling, electrification of rail networks, rail services | approx. 11.4 billion euros | 8.9% |
| Siemens Healthineers (separately listed; Siemens AG owns approx. 75%) | Medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, advanced therapies, Varian radiation oncology | approx. 22.4 billion euros | 14.2% |
| Siemens Financial Services | Equipment finance, project finance, leasing | approx. 1.0 billion euros (segment income contribution) | n/a |
| Portfolio Companies and Other | Innomotics (large drives, divested 2024), commercial vehicles, other businesses | varies | varies |
Digital Industries is Siemens's flagship industrial automation and software franchise. It combines the SIMATIC line of programmable logic controllers, SINAMICS drives and SINUMERIK numerical controls with a software stack that includes NX for computer-aided design, Teamcenter for product lifecycle management (PLM), Solid Edge for mainstream mechanical CAD, Tecnomatix for digital manufacturing simulation, the Mendix low-code platform and the Siemens EDA business inherited from Mentor Graphics. Smart Infrastructure focuses on electrification (medium- and low-voltage equipment, switchgear, transformer monitoring), building automation, fire safety, security and grid software. Siemens Mobility is one of the world's leading suppliers of trains, trams, locomotives and rail signaling and is responsible for marquee fleets such as the Velaro high-speed train family and Mireo regional trains.
Industrial AI is the strategic centerpiece of Siemens under Roland Busch. The company's approach combines a curated portfolio of in-house software, partnerships with leading cloud and AI providers and a series of acquisitions in simulation, EDA and life-sciences software.
Siemens launched the Siemens Xcelerator open digital business platform on June 29, 2022. Xcelerator combines a curated portfolio of IoT-enabled hardware, software and digital services with a partner ecosystem and a marketplace for third-party offerings. The platform is built around the principles of interoperability, openness and modular as-a-service consumption, and it functions as the umbrella under which Siemens markets its industrial software, including the Industrial Operations X family aimed at factory operations and the Building X suite for smart buildings. Electrification X, launched in 2023, extended the same approach to electrical infrastructure and grids.
Siemens Digital Industries Software is the global brand for the company's product engineering tools. NX is a parametric and direct CAD/CAM/CAE platform widely used in aerospace, automotive and machinery design. Teamcenter is one of the leading PLM systems and serves as the data backbone for digital twin applications across many of the world's largest manufacturers. Solid Edge offers entry-level mechanical CAD and Tecnomatix simulates manufacturing processes from robotics cells to entire factory layouts. The Mendix low-code platform, acquired in 2018 for $730 million, is used by enterprise customers to build industrial applications without traditional coding skills.
On November 14, 2016 Siemens announced an agreement to acquire Mentor Graphics Corporation for $37.25 per share in cash, an enterprise value of $4.5 billion. The deal closed on March 30, 2017 and made Siemens one of the leading suppliers in the electronic design automation market alongside Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems. Mentor's products covered integrated circuit design and verification, printed circuit board layout and electrical systems for vehicles. In 2021 Siemens rebranded the business as Siemens EDA within the Digital Industries Software portfolio.
Siemens announced its partnership with NVIDIA on June 29, 2022, in conjunction with the launch of the Xcelerator platform. The collaboration connects the NVIDIA Omniverse platform for 3D simulation and collaboration with Siemens Xcelerator to enable physics-based, photorealistic industrial digital twins. The partnership has been expanded multiple times. At Hannover Messe 2024 the two companies showed integrated workflows that connect Teamcenter X data with Omniverse rendering, and at CES 2025 they announced new tooling to accelerate generative AI for engineering workflows. Subsequent expansions have framed the collaboration as building an "industrial AI operating system" combining NVIDIA Omniverse, CUDA-X libraries and Siemens's domain models. Siemens has also stated that its Industrial Electronics factory in Erlangen, Germany is intended to serve as a blueprint for an AI-native manufacturing site developed jointly with NVIDIA.
Siemens and Microsoft jointly unveiled the Siemens Industrial Copilot at Hannover Messe in April 2023. The Copilot integrates Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service with Siemens's industrial software, allowing engineers to generate, debug and optimize code for SIMATIC programmable logic controllers in natural language, accelerate the creation of human-machine interface visualizations and shorten simulation cycles. Schaeffler AG, a German automotive supplier, was an early adopter. In subsequent updates the partnership has expanded the Copilot to additional engineering domains and has placed Microsoft Azure at the center of Siemens's Industrial Foundation Model effort.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a key cloud partner for Siemens, hosting the Mendix low-code platform and supporting elements of the Siemens Xcelerator marketplace. Siemens uses AWS as one of several hyperscalers for its cloud-native software offerings, in line with its multi-cloud strategy.
Siemens is co-developing what it calls Industrial Foundation Models (IFMs) using Microsoft Azure infrastructure. These are large-scale generative AI models trained or fine-tuned on industry-specific data such as control code, engineering drawings, manufacturing process data and machine telemetry. The models are designed to understand the language of engineering, generate or modify control code, suggest manufacturing processes and connect to robotic simulators and factory layout tools. The Industrial Copilot family is the principal user-facing application of these models, with offerings tailored to engineering, operations and maintenance. Siemens has also expanded its predictive maintenance and manufacturing AI tooling on the back of these models.
Siemens's Corporate Technology organization is the company's central research arm. It operates research and innovation ecosystems in Germany, the United States, China, India and other countries, with focus areas that include simulation and digital twins, data analytics and AI, connectivity and edge computing, the future of automation and cybersecurity. The Siemens AI Lab in Munich, established in 2017, serves as an internal incubator for AI use cases across the group's businesses. Siemens AG reported research and development expenses of approximately 6.2 billion euros in fiscal 2024.
Siemens's portfolio strategy under Roland Busch has emphasized the acquisition of leading industrial software and AI companies to expand the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio.
| Acquisition | Date announced | Price | Strategic rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mentor Graphics | November 14, 2016 (closed March 30, 2017) | approx. $4.5 billion | Electronic design automation; rebranded Siemens EDA in 2021 |
| Mendix | August 2018 (closed October 2018) | approx. $730 million | Low-code application development platform |
| Brightly Software (formerly Dude Solutions) | June 27, 2022 (closed August 3, 2022) | $1.575 billion upfront cash, plus up to $300 million in earn-outs | Cloud-based asset and facility operations management |
| Altair Engineering | October 30, 2024 | approx. $10.6 billion ($113 per share cash) | Simulation, high-performance computing, data science and AI software |
| Dotmatics | April 2, 2025 (closed July 2025) | approx. $5.1 billion (acquired from Insight Partners) | Scientific R&D software for life sciences |
The Altair Engineering deal, announced on October 30, 2024, is the second-largest acquisition in Siemens's history after the 2014 Dresser-Rand purchase by the legacy energy business. Altair shareholders received $113.00 per share in cash, a 19 percent premium to the closing price the day before media speculation began about a possible deal. The transaction was fully cash-financed from Siemens's balance sheet and brings Altair's HyperWorks simulation suite, RapidMiner data-science platform and PBS Works HPC scheduling tools into the Siemens Xcelerator portfolio. Siemens has projected that revenue synergies will exceed $500 million per year mid-term and surpass $1 billion per year long-term.
The Dotmatics deal, announced April 2, 2025 and acquired from Insight Partners, extends the same playbook into life sciences. Dotmatics provides scientific R&D software used by pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms; Siemens has framed the acquisition as a way to apply its industrial AI and simulation expertise to drug discovery, formulation and clinical workflows. The company indicated that Dotmatics was expected to generate more than $300 million in revenue in fiscal 2025 and that the deal expanded Siemens's total addressable market for industrial software by approximately $11 billion.
Siemens also holds a substantial minority stake in Bentley Systems (NASDAQ: BSY) that was initially acquired in 2016. The two firms operate a joint innovation investment program in infrastructure software, with combined funding that has been increased to approximately 100 million euros, and have collaborated on PlantSight digital twin services for plant operations.
| Business | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Infineon Technologies | 1999 spin-off, 2000 IPO | Semiconductor business; now an independent listed company |
| Siemens Mobile (handsets) | 2005 | Sold to BenQ; BenQ Mobile filed for insolvency in 2006 |
| Siemens VDO Automotive | 2007 | Sold to Continental AG for approximately 11.4 billion euros |
| Osram Licht | 2013 | Lighting business spun off and listed; Osram later acquired by ams in 2020 |
| Siemens Healthineers | March 16, 2018 IPO | Listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange; Siemens AG retains majority stake (~75%) |
| Siemens Energy | September 28, 2020 spin-off and IPO | Power generation, transmission and Siemens Gamesa wind business; Siemens AG initial stake has been reduced over time |
| Innomotics | 2024 | Large electric motors and drives; sold to KPS Capital Partners |
Siemens Healthineers and Siemens Energy remain the two largest legacies of this restructuring program. Healthineers continues to be consolidated into Siemens AG's reported results, while Siemens Energy operates as a fully independent listed company since the 2020 spin-off.
Siemens describes innovation as the foundation of its industrial leadership. Across fiscal 2024, the company invested approximately 6.2 billion euros in research and development, equivalent to roughly 8 percent of revenue. Investment is concentrated in five core technology areas: simulation and digital twins, data analytics and AI, connectivity and edge computing, the future of automation and cybersecurity. Siemens operates 16 Research and Innovation Ecosystems globally, including major hubs in Munich, Princeton, Beijing, Bangalore and Berkeley, that combine in-house engineering with academic and start-up partnerships.
The Siemens AI Lab and the Siemens Technology research organization (the successor to Corporate Technology) co-develop AI capabilities that flow into Industrial Copilot, NX, Teamcenter and the Industrial Foundation Model effort. Siemens also conducts research on quantum computing through partnerships with academic institutions and other industrial partners and contributes to standards bodies in industrial communications, such as TSN (Time-Sensitive Networking) and OPC UA.
Siemens defines its environmental, social and governance commitments under a framework called DEGREE, which stands for Decarbonization, Ethics, Governance, Resource efficiency, Equity and Employability. The company has committed to reaching a net-zero carbon footprint across its own operations by 2030, with intermediate targets of a 55 percent reduction by 2025 and a 90 percent reduction by 2030 (compared with a 2019 baseline). Siemens has reported reaching its 2025 target a year early, achieving a 60 percent reduction in CO2-equivalent emissions, and has committed approximately 650 million euros for its own decarbonization through 2030.
Beyond its own footprint, Siemens markets its industrial AI, building automation and grid software as enablers of customer decarbonization. The company publishes an annual Sustainability Report quantifying customers' avoided emissions through the use of Siemens products and reports against the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
Siemens has been involved in several major controversies during its long history. The most consequential in modern times was a sweeping bribery scandal that came to light in 2006. Investigations by the United States Department of Justice, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office concluded that Siemens had operated systematic slush funds used to bribe foreign government officials in pursuit of business. On December 15, 2008 Siemens AG and three foreign subsidiaries pleaded guilty to violations of the books-and-records and internal-controls provisions of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay $800 million in U.S. fines and disgorgement; combined with German fines, the total settlement reached more than $1.6 billion, the largest corruption-related settlement on record at the time. The investigation identified at least 4,283 improper payments totaling roughly $1.4 billion across projects in countries including Argentina, Bangladesh, Venezuela, China, Israel, Nigeria and Russia. Following the settlement, Siemens overhauled its compliance program and replaced much of senior leadership.
Siemens's role during the Nazi era and the Second World War, including the use of forced and slave labor in its factories, has been the subject of historical research and public reckoning. In 1998 Siemens was among the first German companies to acknowledge its role and to participate in compensation initiatives, and in 1999 it contributed to the German government's Remembrance, Responsibility and Future Foundation, which paid restitution to surviving victims.
More recent controversies have included antitrust scrutiny of acquisitions in industrial software, debates about the role of Siemens Energy's wind business in the wider Siemens Energy group's financial difficulties, and political criticism of the company's coal-mining contract with Adani in Australia in 2019, which Siemens ultimately retained but which prompted the company to deepen its sustainability commitments.
Siemens is led by a Managing Board (Vorstand), responsible for day-to-day management, and overseen by a Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat) under the German two-tier governance system. The composition of the Managing Board in fiscal 2024 was as follows.
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Roland Busch | President and Chief Executive Officer (since February 3, 2021) |
| Ralf P. Thomas | Chief Financial Officer; head of Controlling and Finance |
| Cedrik Neike | Member of the Managing Board; CEO of Digital Industries |
| Matthias Rebellius | Member of the Managing Board; CEO of Smart Infrastructure |
| Judith Wiese | Member of the Managing Board; Chief People and Sustainability Officer |
| Veronika Bienert | Chief Executive Officer of Siemens Financial Services |
The Supervisory Board is chaired by Jim Hagemann Snabe, the former co-chief executive of SAP, who has held the role since 2018 and joined the board in 2013. In 2024 his term was extended for a further two years from February 2025. The Supervisory Board has 20 members, half elected by shareholders and half by employees, in line with German codetermination law.
Siemens AG is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol SIE and on the OTC Markets in the United States as SIEGY in the form of American Depositary Receipts. The company is a constituent of the DAX 40 index of the largest companies listed in Germany and the Euro Stoxx 50 index of major eurozone equities. As of mid-2025, Siemens AG's market capitalization was in the range of $200 to $230 billion.
Selected financial highlights for fiscal year 2024 (year ended September 30, 2024):
| Metric | FY2024 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | approx. 75.9 billion euros |
| Orders | approx. 78.7 billion euros |
| Profit from Industrial Business | approx. 11.4 billion euros |
| Industrial Business profit margin | 15.5% |
| Net income | approx. 9.0 billion euros |
| Free cash flow (continuing and discontinued operations) | approx. 9.5 billion euros |
| Basic earnings per share | approx. 11.20 euros |
Siemens has paid an uninterrupted annual dividend for many decades. Its dividend for fiscal 2024 was 5.20 euros per share, payable in February 2025.