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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

DENSO Opens Satellite R&D Hub in Montreal, Canada

01/11/2019
Japan-Based DENSO, the world's second largest mobility supplier, together with Canadian, Québec and Montréal government officials, opened a satellite research and development lab in Montréal, Canada.

According to company officials, as part of its "second founding," DENSO is opening satellite R&D labs around the world to accelerate advanced R&D within the automotive industry. Research activities in Montréal will focus on innovations in advanced technology like artificial intelligence.

Montréal was selected as the location for the newest satellite R&D lab due to its unique, interconnected and collaborative AI ecosystem, officials said. This new initiative will create high-value-add jobs in the mobility space within the Greater Montréal region and will support DENSO's overall global R&D activity.

"DENSO has had a presence in Canada for 46 years. Moving forward, we are glad to deepen our relationship with Canada by starting this lab with the great city and people of Montréal to build the community and the future of mobility," said Kenichiro Ito, Chairman of DENSO's North America Board of Directors and chief executive officer of DENSO's North American Headquarters.

"We know that to quickly create and develop the best AI and mobility solutions, we must tap both local talent and global expertise. That is why DENSO is strategically investing in research labs all over the world that are entirely dedicated to agile research and development through global collaboration," Ito said.

To expedite innovation, DENSO announced its long-term plan in 2017 to broaden advanced R&D capabilities outside of Japan. Company officials said the Montreal, Canada location represents this activity.

"We believe that in the next few years, artificial intelligence will lead to productivity gains of up to 1.4% per year globally. In Québec, this means our nominal GDP would increase by over $4 billion every year. Montréal has the highest concentration of AI researchers in the world. The fact that a company of DENSO's caliber saw that and decided to set up its new research center here is a great source of pride. But it also sends out a very strong signal. All investors with AI projects must know it: Montréal is THE place to do business," said the Premier of Québec, François Legault.

Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montréal and President of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal, added, "Greater Montréal has become one of the world's most attractive AI hubs due to the highest concentration of deep learning researchers. We applaud DENSO's decision to recognize the talent and innovation in Montréal as well as attest to our ability to attract promising investments to our region. This announcement will be a turning point for the city's positioning in the mobility of the future."

DENSO said it has a rich history of building hardware for the automotive market, but the industry is at a transformational moment, in which automated driving, cloud computing and artificial intelligence are the next frontier. Understanding this important shift, DENSO is expanding into software-based solutions and developing advanced technologies that will guide the future of mobility.

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