Way back in 1968, a little band called The Beatles sang:
You say you want a Revolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world.
In 2026, want it or not, we’re in the early days of an AI revolution. To kickstart the second day of 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026, we said we had a real solution and showed the plan.
That plan? Industry world models that combine the power of virtual twins with accelerated computing.
“The 20th Century was really about the industry using and producing objects,” said Dassault Systèmes CEO Pascal Daloz in his opening remarks. “In this new century, industry is producing knowledge and know-how, and the knowledge and know-how are generating the objects. This is where the true value lies. This is where the power is.”
Daloz invited special guest NVIDIA Founder and CEO Jensen Huang to the stage to announce a long-term strategic partnership to combine Dassault Systèmes’ virtual twin technologies with NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure, open models and accelerated software libraries to establish science-validated industry world models and new ways of working through virtual companions on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.
The partnership ushers in an era of real, industrial AI where it’s no longer enough for AI to simply predict or generate. It must understand the real world, the laws of physics and causality, and validated industrial knowledge to become a force multiplier.
“Physical AI is the next frontier of artificial intelligence, grounded in the laws of the physical world,” Huang said in a press release issued after the announcement. “Together with Dassault Systèmes, we’re uniting decades of industrial leadership with NVIDIA’s AI and Omniverse platforms to transform how millions of researchers, designers and engineers build the world’s largest industries.”
For 40 minutes, Daloz and Huang shared details of the partnership with the crowd of SOLIDWORKS and 3DEXPERIENCE platform users. Huang joked that all of Dassault Systèmes’ “IAs” – referencing brands like SIMULIA, DELMIA, ENOVIA and BIOVIA – will be “built on top of NVIDIA.” They described the new industry world models as the largest collaboration in the companies’ more than 25 years of working together.
Daloz and Huang described examples of how the collaboration will be a game-changer for sectors in which scientific validation, trust and scale are essential. They shared testimonials from Dassault Systèmes’ customers in:
- Advancing biology and materials research (Bel Group)
- AI-driven design and engineering (Lucid, National Institute of Aviation Research)
- Virtual twins of factories (OMRON)
To explain how virtual companions that supercharge 3DEXPERIENCE platform users will be supported by the partnership, Daloz and Huang spoke directly to the SOLIDWORKS users in the audience. They described working alongside an AI companion to perform tasks and retrieve information while the human acts as the manager, architect and creator.
“The opportunities to reinvent how you think about design and creativity is going to be revolutionary for everybody,” Huang said.
Watch the video to see the full conversation between Daloz and Huang. Our press release has a more detailed explanation of the Dassault Systemes-NVIDIA partnership. And pop over to the SOLIDWORKS Blog for more coverage of the Day 2 general session, including SOLIDWORKS product updates and customer success stories.
READ MORE
- 3DXW26 Day 1 recap: AI’s the engine. We’re the drivers
- Dassault Systèmes collaborates with NVIDIA to showcase the future of storytelling with generative AI
- How Dassault Systèmes is building tomorrow’s business with AI in 2025
Virtual companions are AI-driven capabilities that assist professionals by leveraging validated world models and industrial knowledge. They support a new way of working, by augmenting human expertise rather than replacing it and enabling more informed and reliable decision-making.
“Knowledge” and “know-how” are terms Dassault Systèmes uses to describe a company’s corporate knowledge and ability to apply it. While knowledge is static and describes the theoretical understanding of a subject, know-how is dynamic and describes the discipline of putting knowledge into action.
3D UNIV+RSES are science-based environments that bring together modeling, simulation, data science and AI. They represent the seventh generation of innovation in Dassault Systèmes’ 40-plus years
Patrick BallPatrick is a Senior Communications Manager on the Corporate Publishing team here at Dassault Systèmes. An experienced journalist, marketer, speechwriter and storyteller, Patrick's words have appeared on pages and stages around the world.