About
Hitachi was founded in 1910 by engineer Namihei Odaira, who built a 5-horsepower motor — Japan's first domestically produced electric motor — after studying at the Hitachi copper mine, which gave the company its name. The motor succeeded, and Hitachi grew into Japan's biggest industrial conglomerate, a sprawling group of hundreds of companies making everything from trains to hard drives to nuclear reactors. Today Hitachi has consolidated around 'social innovation': digital systems & services (IT infrastructure, Lumada IoT platforms, and financial services software), green energy & mobility (high-speed trains — its bullet trains run on Japan's Shinkansen and were exported to Britain and Taiwan — plus grid equipment and EV components), and connected industries (industrial automation, elevators — the world's largest elevator maker — and building systems). Its global logic division makes the hard disk drives inside data centers, and Hitachi Construction Machinery builds excavators. With about 270,000 employees and annual revenue near ¥9.7 trillion (US$65 billion), Hitachi has sold its semiconductor, battery, and metals businesses to become a digital-and-infrastructure champion. Its Lumada platform — combining operational technology with IT — is the company's answer to Industry 4.0, connecting the physical infrastructure of cities and factories to cloud analytics. For governments and utilities, Hitachi is the Japanese conglomerate that builds the systems society runs on.
Also known as: Hitachi
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Hitachi make?+
Hitachi makes high-speed trains (including Japan's Shinkansen), elevators (it is the world's largest elevator maker), hard disk drives for data centers, industrial automation, grid equipment and EV components.
Where is Hitachi based?+
Hitachi is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with about 270,000 employees and annual revenue near ¥9.7 trillion (US$65 billion).
Who founded Hitachi?+
Hitachi was founded in 1910 by engineer Namihei Odaira, who built Japan's first domestically produced electric motor. The company is named after the Hitachi copper mine.
How big is Hitachi?+
Hitachi employs about 270,000 people with annual revenue near ¥9.7 trillion (US$65 billion), and has consolidated around digital systems, green energy and connected industries.
