NextFin News - In a move that signals the transition from digital representation to autonomous physical reasoning, Dassault Systèmes and Nvidia announced a long-term strategic partnership on February 3, 2026, to establish a shared industrial architecture for mission-critical Physical AI. The announcement, made by U.S. President Trump’s industry allies Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia, and Pascal Daloz, CEO of Dassault Systèmes, at the 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026 event in Houston, Texas, outlines a blueprint for integrating virtual twins with physics-based AI to redefine design, engineering, and manufacturing.
The partnership merges Nvidia’s accelerated computing infrastructure, AI libraries, and Omniverse platform with Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This collaboration aims to move engineering work into real-time digital workflows powered by "Virtual Companions"—agentic AI systems capable of exploring and validating prototypes within science-validated "World Models." According to Nvidia, the collaboration is the largest in the 25-year history of the two companies. A key component of the deal involves Dassault Systèmes deploying "AI factories" across three continents through its OUTSCALE sovereign cloud, utilizing Nvidia’s latest hardware to ensure data residency and intellectual property protection for global enterprises.
The technical depth of this partnership is evidenced by Nvidia’s adoption of Dassault Systèmes’ model-based systems engineering (MBSE) to design its own next-generation AI infrastructure, including the upcoming Rubin platform. This reciprocal relationship suggests that the complexity of modern AI hardware has reached a point where it requires the very simulation tools it helps to power. The integration spans four primary domains: advancing biology and materials research via BioNeMo and BIOVIA; AI-driven design using SIMULIA; autonomous production systems through DELMIA and Omniverse; and the deployment of Virtual Companions using Nemotron open models.
From an analytical perspective, this partnership marks the end of the "Generative AI" hype cycle and the beginning of the "Physical AI" era. While large language models (LLMs) have mastered human syntax, they lack an inherent understanding of the laws of physics—a critical deficit for industrial applications. By grounding AI in the science-validated simulations of Dassault Systèmes, the industry is moving toward what Daloz describes as "knowledge factories." In these environments, AI does not merely predict text but understands how a bridge reacts to stress or how a molecule interacts in a solution. This "trustworthy by design" approach is essential for high-stakes industries like aerospace and life sciences, where the cost of error is measured in lives and billions of dollars.
The economic implications are vast. Huang noted that building a 1-gigawatt AI factory currently requires approximately $50 billion, with dozens of such facilities under construction globally. The total investment in AI infrastructure is projected to reach between $85 trillion and $100 trillion over the next decade. By utilizing virtual twins to simulate these massive facilities before a single brick is laid, companies can reduce capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational risks significantly. Case studies presented at the event, including Lucid Motors and OMRON, demonstrate that early adopters are already seeing accelerated cycles from concept to production without sacrificing predictive accuracy.
Furthermore, the emphasis on "sovereign AI" through the OUTSCALE cloud reflects a growing geopolitical trend. As U.S. President Trump’s administration emphasizes domestic manufacturing and technological leadership, European and Asian manufacturers remain wary of data residency. By offering a sovereign cloud option that runs on Nvidia’s global standard hardware but adheres to local data privacy laws, Dassault Systèmes is creating a competitive moat that addresses the "data nationalism" currently reshaping the global tech landscape.
Looking forward, the success of this partnership will likely hinge on the efficacy of the "Virtual Companions." If these AI agents can truly master industrial context, the productivity of the 45 million users on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform could increase by orders of magnitude. We predict that by 2028, the "Physical AI OS" created by this partnership will become the de facto standard for software-defined manufacturing, effectively turning every factory into a living, self-optimizing organism. The convergence of high-performance computing and physics-based simulation is no longer a luxury; it is the prerequisite for survival in the generative economy.
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