BHGE, C3.ai Announce AI Joint Venture

Baker Hughes, a GE company, and C3.ai, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI) software, announced a joint venture designed to deliver digital transformation technologies to the oil and gas industry.

This joint venture combines BHGE’s extensive oil and gas technology domain expertise with C3.ai’s unique AI software suite and solutions, creating new opportunities for the sector. AI in the oil and gas segment is designed to help improve overall performance by ingesting massive quantities of data, becoming intelligent about specific operational environments and predicting problems before they occur so that operators can improve planning, staffing, sourcing and safety.

“The oil and gas industry is rapidly evolving, and digital technology is critical to achieving increased levels of productivity, efficiency and safety for ourselves and for our customers,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, BHGE chairman and CEO. “This agreement is a mutual recognition of the technology leadership we each bring to the table and a willingness to work in new ways that deliver the best possible outcomes for our customers. Integrating our strong digital capabilities and oil and gas industry expertise with C3.ai’s unique AI solutions, we will accelerate the overall digital transformation of this industry.”

The companies will immediately market and deploy C3.ai’s AI technology, including the C3 AI Suite and applications, into oil and gas businesses. BHGE and C3.ai said they will also leverage BHGE’s existing digital portfolio to collaborate on new integrated AI applications specific to oil and gas, and offer combined teams of oilfield and AI expertise deployed directly into customer environments to deliver AI solutions that meet specific business needs. Simplifying the approach to AI with this combined offering will help customers focus on what matters most – running their oil and gas business safely and efficiently.

“The oil and gas sector is undergoing a digital transformation to improve efficiencies and increase safety, while simultaneously reducing environmental impact,” said Thomas M. Siebel, CEO, C3.ai. “These changes will be driven through advanced AI use cases deployed across the entire oil and gas value chain. BHGE is a technology-first company with deep expertise, a global footprint and strong relationships across the industry. Combining its strengths with the unique industrial AI capability of C3.ai, we will deliver transformative change to one of the world’s most important industry sectors.”

Under the terms of the agreement, BHGE has taken a minority equity position in C3.ai, which is based in Redwood City, Calif., and will have a seat on C3.ai’s board of directors. BHGE will also accelerate its own use of AI, deploying the C3 AI Suite across its business to enable new BHGE AI applications that improve core operations and better serve customers with AI-enabled products and services.