Japan's Omron acquires U.S. industrial PC manufacturer OnLogic... Accelerating AI in industrial settings

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Cho Sung-mi = Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 13th that Japanese control equipment company Omron will acquire American industrial computer manufacturer OnLogic for 100 billion yen (about 841.3 billion won) and expand its physical artificial intelligence (AI) business.

Omron is a company that mainly produces sensors and controllers, and plans to combine OnLogic's industrial computer and AI technology, which is responsible for factory facility control and data processing.

OnLogic Computer uses data collected from industrial robots and manufacturing equipment to advance it into AI and supports productivity improvement for companies that use Omron control devices.

By processing data collected from production facilities through sensors, etc. directly on computers within the factory, communication delays that occur when going through the cloud can be reduced and costs can be saved.

Analysis results can be quickly reflected in facility control, suppressing the occurrence of defective products and preventing the possibility of information leakage that occurs when confidential industrial data is transmitted externally.

Omron will incorporate OnLogic's parent company, InterLogic of the United States, as a complete subsidiary, and other companies under Interlogic, in addition to OnLogic, will join the Omron Group.

Through this, the plan is to utilize OnLogic's North American sales network.

According to Japanese research firm Fujijizai, the global market size for industrial PCs is expected to grow to 310 billion yen (approximately 2.6 trillion won) in 2028, a 20% increase from 2024.

Major manufacturers include Germany's Siemens, Taiwan's Advantech, and Japan's NEC and Fujitsu.

The Japanese government predicts that the global AI robot market will reach 60 trillion yen (approximately 504.8 trillion won) in 2040, and aims for Japanese industry to account for about one-third of this.

Meanwhile, Nikkei reported that the number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving Japanese companies reached 3,883 as of last month this year, the highest ever for the same period.

Of these, 326 were acquired by overseas companies, an increase of more than 20% compared to last year, which was the previous highest.