Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui", Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Tatsuo Yasunaga) has acquired an equity stake in GRID Inc. ("GRID", Head Office: Tokyo, President: Hideki Nakamura), a developer and provider of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The growth of the IoT (Internet of Things*) has resulted in the gathering and storage of operational data in a variety of industrial sectors, and there is a growing need to analyze this data. Mitsui has been quick to identify this need, and is seeking to further develop its initiatives to provide IoT solutions to industry by entering into a capital alliance with GRID, which possesses AI core technology.

GRID is a leading AI venture company with a proven record in providing solutions for the social infrastructure sector and other sectors. Using its "ReNom" machine learning/deep learning framework developed in-house, GRID provides core technologies required for solutions designed to monitor the operational status of machines and equipment in a wide-range of industries, including "Condition Based Maintenance" designed to systematically optimize maintenance costs, operational optimization, and predictive failure detection solutions.

In April 2016, Mitsui acquired a stake in the US company OSIsoft, LL ("OSIsoft"), a global leader in the development and sales of IoT data management software for industrial customers, and together with various partners, Mitsui is building IoT solutions using data from the "PI System" software developed by OSIsoft. By combining OSIsoft's "PI System" IoT data management software and GRID's "ReNom", Mitsui will create and provide IoT solutions to solve the challenges faced by the business assets, partners and major customers of the Mitsui & Co. group across a wide range of industries, and will actively strive to enhance operational efficiency and build new business models.

* The IoT is made up of a wide range of things, not just computers and other information and communications equipment. By equipping various objects with the ability to communicate, they can be recognized automatically, operated remotely, or controlled, etc. by connecting to the Internet or communicating with one another.

Concept of ReNom System

About GRID

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