Siemens and Bentley initially plan to invest €50 million in the development of joint solutions for the infrastructure and industrial sectors in order to expand their respective offerings. As part of these activities, new cloud services for a connected data environment will be used to bring together the two companies' respective digital engineering models. In addition to the agreed collaboration, Siemens has acquired approximately €70 million worth of existing shares from Bentley's common stock as part of a corporate program that will run until Bentley Systems is listed on the stock exchange.

Siemens and Bentley Systems are already working together successfully in the Digital Factory and Process Industries and Drives Divisions, where they have already integrated corresponding software offerings. For example, Bentley reality modeling software technology has been integrated into Siemens Process Simulate to use laser-scanned point clouds in brownfield modeling.

Several Siemens divisions will be involved in the new investment initiatives. The key benefit is to bring together current data from the Siemens solutions via the complementary Bentley applications for design modeling, analytical modeling, construction modeling and asset performance modeling. The integrated and open engineering models, such as the "digital twin", enable better operational performance, visualization and reliability when viewed through an immersive 3D interface. The 2D models of the Siemens solutions are thus integrated into the realistic 3D models of Bentley Systems.

Siemens and Bentley Systems intend to work together in the fields of energy management, power generation, building technology and mobility where their expertise complements each other. For example, Bentley's applications for 3D modeling and structural analysis of industrial and infrastructure facilities complement Siemens' solutions and domain expertise in electrification and automation. Siemens and Bentley will each offer software from the partner and deliver complete solutions.

Founded in 1984, Bentley is headquartered in Exton, PA, USA, and employs more than 3,000 people in over 50 countries, generating annual sales of more than $600 million. Since 2009, the company has invested more than one billion USD in research, development and acquisitions.