Ladies and gentlemen, a very warm welcome to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Siemens AG, Jim Hagemann Snabe.
[Foreign language] Meine sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, liebe Aktionärinnen-
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed shareholders.
[Foreign language] Als Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrates-
As Chairman of the Supervisory Board, I hereby open the 2026 Annual Shareholders' Meeting of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, and assume the chairmanship in accordance with the articles of association.
[Foreign language] Im Namen des Aufsichtsrats und Vorstands-
On behalf of the Supervisory Board and the Managing Board, and also on my own behalf, I welcome you, esteemed shareholders and your representatives, as well as all the journalists in attendance, as well as everyone else who is following our Annual Shareholders' Meeting on the internet today.
[Foreign language] Meine sehr geehrten Damen und Herren-
Ladies and gentlemen—
[Foreign language] Ich freue mich jedes Jahr auf unsere Hauptversammlung-
I look forward to our ASM and to the corresponding dialogue with you every single year.
[Foreign language] in einer Zeit tiefgreifender-
Especially in times of profound change and increasing uncertainty, this exchange is the best way to gain orientation together and find the right path towards the future.
[Foreign language] zu finden. Die Hauptversammlung wurde durch Bekanntmachung-
The Annual Shareholders' Meeting was convened in due form and time by the announcement and the notice in the Federal Gazette on December 10th, 2025 .
[Foreign language] Protokoll der Hauptversammlung
The notarial minutes of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting will be taken by Notary Public Mr. Jens Kirchner, who is sitting here on stage, and whom I also warmly welcome.
[Foreign language] Ebenfalls herzlich-
I would also like to extend a very warm welcome to the members of the Supervisory Board, as well as the Managing Board, who are all present here today.
[Foreign language] weiteren stellvertretenden Vorsitzenden des Aufsichts-
In accordance with Section 21, Paragraph 1 of our Articles of Association, I've asked Werner Brandt, the other Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board, to represent me as chairman of the meeting in the event of my absence, even if it is only for a very short time.
[Foreign language] Hier im Versammlungsraum anwesend, Frau Luderer-
Also present here in the room are Mr. Luderer and Mr. Wiedersich as proxies appointed by the company.
[Foreign language] Versammlungsraum sind die Bereiche der Olympiahalle-
The meeting room comprises those areas of the Olympiahalle here in Munich that are cordoned off by the entrance and the exit controls, and are open to shareholders. This also includes the adjoining rooms and the smoking area. We're broadcasting the entire Annual Shareholders' Meeting live in German with simultaneous English interpretation via the ASM Internet service.
[Foreign language] Ihr jeweiliger Sprachfassung-
You can select your preferred language version right there.
[Foreign language] Den Online-Zugang erhalten Sie durch Eingabe Ihrer Aktionärsnummer-
By entering your shareholder number and your individual access number or your self-assigned access password, you will be able to access the online service.
[Foreign language] Einleitenden Ausführungen-
My introductory remarks, as well as those of Mr. Busch, will also be broadcast to the public via the company's website.
[Foreign language] Sie werden aufgezeichnet und sind-
They will furthermore also be recorded and made available there at a later point in time.
[Foreign language] Im Übrigen dienen die aufgestellten Kameras und-
Furthermore, the cameras and microphones set up here are used for transmission to the monitors and speakers in the meeting building right here and to our back office.
[Foreign language] Wortprotokoll der gesamten-
A stenographic transcript of the entire ASM will not be produced. Only the speeches of the shareholders and their representatives will be transcribed, temporarily recorded, and then deleted in order to record the questions asked and prepare the answers correspondingly.
[Foreign language] Störungen im Ablauf der Hauptversammlung-
Now, in order to avoid disruptions during the proceedings of the ASM, I kindly ask you to switch off your cell phones here in the arena, as well as up in the stands.
[Foreign language] Außerdem bitten wir Sie, kein Bild-
We also ask you to refrain from making any video or audio recordings of the ASM or the broadcast on the ASM Internet service.
[Foreign language] Die Aktionäre und ihre Bevollmächtigten üben ihre-
Shareholders and their proxies exercise their rights of participation right here on site.
[Foreign language] Wenn Sie sich zu Wort melden-
If you would like to speak or submit a motion, please contact the speakers' registration desk in good time.
[Foreign language] Teilnehmer im Servicebereich für-
Participants in the service area for wheelchair users and people with walking disabilities on the entrance level should contact our staff members there.
[Foreign language] dort. Diese helfen Sie Ihnen-
Those staff members will absolutely be able to help you and be happy to do so.
[Foreign language] werden später mit Hilfe von Tablets, also mobile-
Later, voting will be conducted using tablets, meaning mobile recording devices. You need your ASM card for this.
[Foreign language] either bereit-
This was either sent to you after you registered for the ASM, or you received it at the admission counter upon presentation of your admission ticket.
[Foreign language] Bitte bewahren Sie Ihre ASM-
Please, keep your ASM card safe until the voting begins.
[Foreign language] Sollten Sie noch HV-Karten haben-
If you still have ASM cards that you have not yet presented for registration.
[Foreign language] Holen Sie diese.
Please, do that now.
[Foreign language] über Eintrittskarten verfügen, für die Sie keine HV-
Also, if you have ASM cards that you do not have entry cards for.
[Foreign language] Halt von HV-
Please.
[Foreign language] Anlassschaltern
Exchange them at the admissions counter till you receive your ASM cards. Only shares registered in this way are present officially and can participate in the voting process.
[Foreign language] Abstimmungsverfahren.
I will explain the details of the voting procedure later, of course.
[Foreign language] erläutern. In the ausliegenden Informationsbroschüre finden Sie.
The information pamphlet available here contains further information on registering your ASM cards, registering to speak, and requesting to speak, as well as the voting procedure. Written votes, proxies, and instructions can still be submitted or changed via the ASM internet service until the time I will specify later during the voting process.
[Foreign language] Dasselbe gilt für solche Erklärungen per Brief, E-Mail oder-
The same applies to such declarations sent by letter, email, or fax to the address specified in the section Registration in the notice of the ASM.
[Foreign language] Ein- und Ausgangsbereich der Hauptversammlung können Vollmachten-
Proxies and instructions to the proxies appointed by the company can also be submitted to the proxies at the entrance and exit areas of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting until that time.
[Foreign language] Als sie die Hauptversammlung vorzeitig-
If you wish to leave the ASM early, please present all ASM cards in your possession at the exit control.
[Foreign language] Auch hierzu, so wie-
For more information on this and on issuing proxies in this case, please refer to the explanations in the information brochure and on the back of your ASM card.
[Foreign language] Das Teilnehmerverzeichnis wird bis zum Ende-
The list of attendees will be continuously updated until the end of the ASM.
[Foreign language] Es steht in Kürze zur Verfügung-
It will be available shortly and can be viewed by shareholders and shareholder representatives on monitors at the information stands in the upper corridor.
[Foreign language] Die Präsenz werde ich Ihnen später-
I will, of course, also announce the attendance numbers later.
[Foreign language] Meine Damen und Herren, ich komme nun-
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm now moving on to agenda item number one of the agenda: the presentation of the annual and consolidated financial statements with combined management report for Siemens AG and the group as of December 30th, 2025, and the supervisory board's report on the 2024/2025 fiscal year.
[Foreign language] Die Abschlüsse samt Lagebericht.
The financial statements and management report have been audited by PwC GmbH, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Frankfurt am Main, and have been issued with an unqualified audit opinion.
[Foreign language] Versehen worden. Vorstand und Abschlussprüfer-
The Managing Board and the auditors have explained the financial statements in detail to both the Audit Committee as well as the Supervisory Board.
[Foreign language] Erläutert. Der Aufsichtsrat-
The Supervisory Board has approved the financial statements after review.
[Foreign language] Der Jahresabschluss der Siemens AG-
The annual financial statements of Siemens AG have thus been adopted.
[Foreign language] Lassen Sie mich Ihnen nun einen Überblick über die globale-
Let me now give you an overview of the global developments that have shaped Siemens in the past year, as well as the work of the Supervisory Board.
[Foreign language] Dabei werde ich mich auf die wesentlichen Themen-
I will focus on key issues. Further details can be found in the Supervisory Board report, which has been available on our website since the Annual Shareholders' Meeting has been convened, and is also available here in the meeting room.
[Foreign language] Meine Damen und Herren.
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed shareholders.
[Foreign language] In einer-
We live in extraordinary times.
[Foreign language] Auf der letzten Hauptversammlung sprach ich-
At last year's Annual Shareholders' Meeting, I spoke of a historic inflection point
[Foreign language] Feststellen.
Today, we can say this inflection point has become normal.
[Foreign language] Wir leben in einer Zeit, in der-
We live in an age when geopolitical tensions are shaking the foundations of globalization and are forcing us to rethink sovereignty and value chains.
[Foreign language] Parallel dazu erleben wir eine-
At the same time, we are experiencing a technological disruption that, driven by Artificial Intelligence, extends far beyond the fascination with large language models. It's redefining the competitiveness of entire industries.
[Foreign language] An solchen Wendepunkten-
At such inflection points, one has the choice between two courses of action.
[Foreign language] Defensive Haltung einnehmen.
One can adopt a defensive posture and limit oneself to securing the status quo, or-
[Foreign language] Man geht in die Offensive-
One can take the offensive and leverage innovation to develop new solutions and actively shape the future.
[Foreign language] Zu gestalten. Siemens geht-
Siemens has chosen to take the second, as it's done ever since its founding.
[Foreign language] Damals, im Zeitalter der-
Already back then, in the age of industrialization, the world faced profound disruption.
[Foreign language] Und wie damals-
As it did back then, Siemens is rigorously focusing again today on innovation in order to develop critical infrastructures, expand human capabilities, and strengthen global cooperation.
[Foreign language] Heute stehen wir am nächsten großen Wendepunkt.
Today, we have arrived at the next major inflection point.
[Foreign language] Das Zeitalter der-
We are entering the age of digital intelligence, in which artificial intelligence will be a key driver of new innovations.
[Foreign language] Früher haben Innovationen unserer körperlichen-
In the past, innovations enhanced our physical strength. Today, they're expanding our intellectual abilities.
[Foreign language] Mit KI können wir-
AI is enabling us to better apply our knowledge and to solve problems that previously seemed unsolvable.
[Foreign language] Dabei geht es darum, nicht nur Prozesse-
It's making not only processes, but also entire industries and societies more efficient, smarter, and more sustainable.
[Foreign language] Dieser Wandel vollzieht sich-
This transformation is proceeding in two major phases.
[Foreign language] Die erste Phase begann-
The first phase began with large language models.
[Foreign language] Zum ersten Mal-
For the first time, machines could interpret and generate human language.... This development has truly transformed everyday life, how we write, how we learn, how we collaborate. But so far, it has been limited to the screen, in documents, in chats, in emails, in images, and videos. Now, we are entering the second phase of artificial intelligence, a decisive moment for Siemens. AI is moving from the screen into the real world. It is entering factories, buildings, power grids, hospitals, and entire transportation systems. All the critical infrastructure components that shape our everyday lives. This is the phase where AI will begin to deliver real added value by merging digital intelligence with the physical world. And this is where Siemens has a clear advantage. Because if you want to be a leader in industrial AI, you will need more than pure language models.
You have to master the logic of physics and automation. You have to understand data from the physical world and use it to build large knowledge models that not only speak about the world, but also interact with it in truly real time. AI, for the real world, massively optimizes processes, reduces emissions, and increases reliability. It enables us to identify and solve problems at an early stage, even before they arise, and thus to create concrete, sustainable solutions for Siemens and our customers. Siemens has been rigorously preparing itself for this very moment. Under the determined leadership of Roland Busch and his team, Siemens has reached three key milestones in the last five years. The first milestone was all about clarity and focus: to transform a highly diversified industrial conglomerate into a focused technology company.
The spin-off of Siemens Energy enabled Siemens to orient its strategy toward innovation-driven growth. By consciously reducing its scope and increasing its depth, Siemens laid the basis for making its businesses faster, more profitable, and more sustainable, as well as future-oriented. And I've often said that speed beats size. And speed beats size, let me just repeat it, and it's exactly what Siemens has gained by sharpening its focus. The second milestone was the development of a strong digital core. Siemens has massively expanded its software expertise. From fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2025, the company has invested EUR 17 billion in targeted software acquisitions, and an additional EUR 29 billion in its own R&D activities. The result is a company that doesn't only build machines, it also provides digital intelligence for the real world. And this strategy has been effective.
In the same period, Siemens achieved an average growth rate of 8% per year, considerably more than the 2% it averaged in the decade before. As a result, Siemens has also laid the groundwork for the next phase of our transformation, One Tech Company. This is the third milestone. AI changes a fundamental principle. Yes, speed is still a key factor, but with AI, size also counts. Big data and global platforms are also vital, and One Tech Company is the answer. The steps announced in November are targeted preparation for the further transformation of the company. They enable Siemens to expand its leadership role in industrial AI through stronger synergies, and at the same time, set the standards for the next industrial age. With this approach, Siemens is opening the next chapter.
We're combining the speed we've gained by sharpening our focus with the scalability of industrial big data that we need for AI in the real world. This orientation towards speed and size is already bearing fruit. In 2025, I have to say it was not an easy year for the global economy, and still, Siemens delivered strong results with solid growth, high profitability, and a very strong free cash flow. Roland will discuss these and further successes in the fiscal year 2025 in greater detail in a moment.
[Foreign language] So komme ich nun auf die Arbeit des Aufsichtsrates.
Let me now turn to the work of the Supervisory Board. Because, ladies and gentlemen, the Supervisory Board's task is clear: to guide, review, and ensure that the company is well-positioned to actively shape the future. Our activities in fiscal 2025 focused, in particular, on the further execution of the company's growth strategy. At our meetings, we concerned ourselves intensively with the company's technology and sustainability strategies, as well as the personnel strategy for the Managing Board. Let's first take a look at our technology strategy. Here, we focus on the accelerated transformation toward digitalization and on the growth opportunities created by technological innovation. We focused on the introduction and the implementation of the One Tech Company program, the progress at Siemens Xcelerator, our open digital business platform, and growth opportunities in the area of artificial intelligence.
Against this backdrop, the Supervisory Board approved two acquisitions in particular: Altair Engineering Inc., a supplier of software for industrial simulations and analysis, and Dotmatics, a supplier of research and development software in the life sciences field. All these developments and decisions are helping us achieve one goal: a Siemens that, as One Tech Company, combines data and technologies to make our customers faster and more competitive. For this reason, the Supervisory Board has also supported the decision to deconsolidate Siemens Healthineers. One Tech Company, One Tech Company lives from close technological and operational synergies, shared platforms, data, and innovation cycles. With Siemens Healthineers, these synergies can be realized only to a limited extent.
That is why we are convinced that Siemens is no longer the right majority shareholder for this business in the future, and that both companies can better unleash their respective strengths if each pursues its own strategic trajectory. This decision will enable us to link two clear goals together: value and flexibility for you, our shareholders, and the accelerated implementation of our One Tech Company. We're currently working on the specific implementation of the planned spin-off. This move also includes a review to determine if we'll hold an extraordinary shareholders' meeting in 2026. Now, as in previous years, our discussion also focused on sustainability, not as an obligation, not as a side issue, but as a strategic business opportunity. With our company-wide DEGREE framework, we're linking the environment, social responsibilities, and governance to a clear logic for success. The DEGREE approach makes effectiveness measurable.
By 2024 already, Siemens had reached seven of its 14 DEGREE targets ahead of schedule. That's why in fiscal 2025, we formulated 14 additional targets for 2030. In our discussion, the primary focus was on the portfolio's positive impact. More than 90% of our businesses enables customers to achieve positive sustainability-related impacts, showing that sustainability is, in fact, good business. For this reason, the Supervisory Board considers sustainability to be one of the Siemens' biggest growth opportunities and supports the Managing Board in its efforts to vigorously seize them. The third focus was on personnel strategy, the people, because it is not just a company's strategy that determines its course, but above all, the leadership team and its people. In fiscal 2025, the Supervisory Board made key decisions regarding the composition of the Managing Board.
These decisions included the early reappointments of Veronika Bienert and Peter Körte to the new five-year terms of office to begin on April 1st, 2026. Their reappointment provided planning security and clearly signaled the Supervisory Board's commitment to strong and reliable leadership. With the extension of Veronica, we are preparing an orderly transition at the head of the finance organization. Dear Ralf, although we are not saying goodbye to you today, I'd still like to express my deepest thanks to you. You have shaped Siemens for more than three decades now, and as CFO, successfully accompanied a time of extraordinary change reliably, clearly, and with strategic foresight.
[Foreign language] And not least, you have maßgeblich-
Last but not least, you have made a significant contribution to the strength of the company today.
[Foreign language] Es gibt nur ein Wort dafür.
There's only two words for it: world-class.
[Foreign language] Mit deiner Unterstützung gestalten wir nun einen Übergang-
With your support, we are now shaping a transition that is not abrupt, but seamless.
[Foreign language] Ich danke dir ganz besonders-
I'd like to thank you very much for your active support in the selection and further development of your successor, Veronica Bienert. Veronica Bienert will take over responsibility as Chief Financial Officer on April 1, 2026. She combines deep financial expertise with diverse corporate experience in our business units and regions.
[Foreign language] Ein solcher Übergang-
Such a transition is best compared with a relay race.
[Foreign language] Die nächste Läuferin wartet-
The next runner doesn't just wait at the beginning of the track, they're already in motion, matching pace to take the baton in full rhythm so that the team can run into the next phase of transformation with full strength and speed.
[Foreign language] Peter Körte spielt eine Schlüsselrolle-
Peter Körte then plays a key role in the company's current transformation, in particular, the strategic direction and the expansion of Siemens's AI portfolio.
[Foreign language] Der Aufsichtsrat hat beschlossen, dass
The Supervisory Board has therefore also decided that he will take over responsibility for Smart Infrastructure on the Managing Board from Matthias Rebelius on July first, 2026.
[Foreign language] Matthias Rebelius-
Matthias Rebelius will be leaving the Managing Board at his own request upon expiration of his contract, as agreed.
[Foreign language] Auch hier bereiten wir den Übergang-
Here, too, we are preparing the transition in a coordinated manner built on trust. Dear Matthias, thank you very much for your impressive contributions to Siemens' success over the past decades.
[ Foreign language] Deine Zeit
Your time at the helm of Smart Infrastructure has been marked by extraordinary successes, supported by your clear and strategic leadership. You can be particularly proud of the 21 consecutive quarters of improved results.
[Foreign language] Kannst du stolz sein. Das ist auch Weltklasse.
That's world-class, too.
[Foreign language] Heute ist aber kein Moment-
Now, today is not a moment to say farewell, but an opportunity to express my deepest respect and gratitude. We are very pleased that you will continue to advance and accelerate the implementation of One Tech Company until the end of this fiscal year.
[Foreign language] Auf der Aufsichtsrat-
Now, also, the Supervisory Board is developing further.
[Foreign language] Birgit Steinborn, meinen Dank-
I would like to first express my deepest thanks to Birgit Steinborn. Ms. Steinborn has been a member of the Supervisory Board since 2008, and first deputy chairwoman since 2015.
[Foreign language] Sie wird demnächst in den Ruhestand gehen.
Now, soon, she'll be retiring, and as a result, has resigned her position, effective at the end of today's Annual Shareholders' Meeting.
[Foreign language] Birgit.
Dear Birgit-
[Foreign language] Du hast mit deinem Erfahrung-
With your experience, your humane perspective, and your commitment, you've decisively shaped and enriched the Supervisory Board's work over the past years.
[Foreign language] Auch als Vorsitzende des-
In your capacity as chairwoman of the Central Works Council, you have, with your clear moral compass, also provided vital support for Siemens' further development. On my own behalf, and on that of the entire Supervisory Board, I'd like to thank you for your outstanding work and for our close, trust-based cooperation. We wish you all the best for the future.
[Foreign language] Zeitgleich freue ich mich sehr, dass-
At the same time, I'm very pleased that we have a strong successor as the head of the Central Works Council with Tobias Bömler. Here, too, the transition was forward-looking and seamless.
[Foreign language] Seit Tobias 2000-
Ever since Tobias joined the Supervisory Board in 2020, I've greatly valued our cooperation, which I've always experienced to be constructive and, again, built on trust. Thank you very much, Tobias, for that.
[Foreign language] Außerdem soll Stefanie-
In addition, Stefanie Langfeld is to be appointed a new member of the Supervisory Board by way of court order. We're looking forward to the prospect of welcoming her to the Supervisory Board.
[Foreign language] Was die zukünftige Besetzung des Aufsichtsratsvorsitzes-
The Supervisory Board is making the necessary preparations for selecting my future successor as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Mark Schneider. Mark Schneider was elected to the Supervisory Board in fiscal 2025.
[Foreign language] Als mein designierter-
Since then, he has, as my designated successor, worked intensively to familiarize himself with our business and strategic opportunities and priorities, and has made valuable contributions to our discussions.
[Foreign language] Ich bin überzeugt, dass-
I'm convinced that Mark is the right person to succeed me as Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
[Foreign language] Die endgültige Entscheidung...
... The entire Supervisory Board, of course, will make the final decision in due time, and by February 2027 at the very latest.
[Foreign language] Gemeinsam werden wir den Übergang reibungslos gestalten.
Together, we'll work to ensure a seamless transition and to continue to rigorously support Siemens' transformation.
Here.
Here, too, we are preparing the succession collaboratively and with a shared aspiration to lead Siemens securely into the next phase.
[Foreign language] Unsere technologische Ausrichtung weiter zu stärken, haben wir auch-
To further strengthen our technological orientation, we've also refined the structure of our committees. The previous Innovation and Finance Committee has been transformed into the Innovation and Technology Committee. This move will strengthen our focus on those topics that will further shape Siemens and ensure its success in the years ahead as One Tech Company.
[Foreign language] Der Ausschuss unterstützt den-
The Innovation and Technology Committee will support the Managing Board in identifying developments at an early stage, in assessing them correctly, and in rigorously exploiting them.
[Foreign language] Meine Damen und Herren, lassen Sie mich-
Let me now conclude with a personal remark, ladies and gentlemen.
[Foreign language] Ich war schon immer der Überzeugung, dass-
I've always been convinced that companies must constantly reinvent themselves in order to remain relevant.
[Foreign language] Und auch, wenn das-
Also, when this approach requires short-term investments.
[Foreign language] Schon Werner von Siemens hat das ganz-
Werner von Siemens saw this matter in much the same light when he said, "I won't sell the future for short-term profit.
[Foreign language] Was mich bei Siemens am meisten beeindruckt-
What most impresses me about Siemens is its ability to radically transform itself, while at the same time delivering solid financial results.
[Foreign language] Nur ganz wenige-
Only very few companies can master this balancing act, particularly under the difficult market conditions that we have experienced in the last five years.
[Foreign language] Das zeigt-
Now, this achievement shows that Siemens has the right strategy and, above all, the right team to execute it successfully.
[Foreign language] Ich möchte daher meinen Dank-
For this reason, I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who's made this success possible.
[Foreign language] Jeder Fortschritt wäre ohne unsere 320-
No progress would have been possible without our 320,000 colleagues. They demonstrate every day what sets our company apart.
[Foreign language] Neugier-
Curiosity, know-how, and the willingness to continuously think in new ways.
[Foreign language] Ihre Kreativität-
The commitment of our people, their creativity, and their aspiration to always find better solutions are the decisive factors in our success. Thank you.
[Foreign language] In einer Zeit, in der-
In a time when technology plays a central role, we're concentrating more than ever on people.
[Foreign language] Denn nur wenn wir Menschen-
Because only when we place people at the center of what we do, will we also continue to attract and develop the best talents in our industry. At the end of the day, they are the ones who will shape our future. Now, my special thanks also goes out to the entire Managing Board team under the leadership of Roland Busch.
[Foreign language] In einer Zeit-
In an age of technological transformation and geopolitical uncertainty, they've led and changed Siemens with clarity, a sense of responsibility, and great commitment.
[Foreign language] Unverändert. Dafür Ihnen allen-
For all these things, I'd like to thank you very much to them all.
[Foreign language] Meinen Kolleginnen und Kollegen-
I am also very grateful to my colleagues on the Supervisory Board. Our constructive and trust-based collaboration has helped and supported-
[Foreign language] Von Siemens
... and accelerated Siemens' transformation.
[Foreign languiage] Diese Zusammenarbeit schätze ich.
This collaboration is something I greatly value. Thank you very much for that.
[Foreign language] Zum Schluss möchte ich mich direkt an Sie wenden.
Now, in closing, I would like to address a few remarks directly to you, the shareholders of Siemens. You've entrusted your capital to us, and we consider it our greatest obligation to use it responsibly.
Foreign language] Mit der One Tech-
With the One Tech Company program, our strategic direction is more clear than ever before. We are ensuring that Siemens will become even more relevant in order to actively shape the future and create long-term value for you as shareholders.
[Foreign language] Meine Damen und Herren-
Ladies and gentlemen-
[Foreign language] Die Welt steht an einem Wendepunkt.
... the world is at an inflection point.
[Foreign language] Die Industrie und Gesellschaft-
The decisions we're making today will determine how industry and society will function tomorrow, and Siemens is ideally positioned to shape that future.
[Foreign language] Wir gestalten das Zeitalter-
We are shaping the age of digital intelligence with AI for the real world.
[Foreign language] Wir entwickeln-
We create technology to transform the everyday for everyone, fast, responsibly, and sustainably.
[Foreign language] Haben Sie herzlichen Dank!
Thank you very much for your trust and your unwavering support for our company's-
[Foreign language] Unterstützen
... entire transformation efforts.
[Foreign language] Diesen Weg gemeinsam-
Let us continue, and indeed advance at even greater speed on this journey together.
[Foreign language] Darf ich nun-
With that, I would like to hand over now to the President and CEO of Siemens AG. Roland, the floor is yours.
We must still keep them a bit entertained, so they can- Let's go back in time together, back to a world without electricity. Back then, vehicles were horse-drawn, steam powered our machines. Then came electricity, a key technology that changed everything. An industrial revolution. Siemens was there from the very beginning. We scaled electricity, power grids, locomotives, trains, machines, and their controls. That's what made Siemens great. Today, we're scaling a new key technology. This time, it's about intelligence, artificial intelligence. AI is changing how we develop products, how we construct buildings, how we operate infrastructure. AI makes systems learning-capable: networks, cities, industries, entire economies. The beginning of a new industrial revolution, and once again, Siemens is at the forefront. Welcome, esteemed shareholders, to Siemens' 2026 Annual Shareholders' Meeting. What's happening in the world today in industry is historic.
Siemens is very close, much closer than other companies, to the implementation of AI's industrial applications to the real world. We're at the cutting edge, if you will, where intelligence becomes effective. And this is paying off for our customers, for Siemens, and for you. Let's take a look at our results for fiscal 2025. The figures, on a like-for-like basis, are strong. Orders were up 6% to EUR 88.4 billion. At Digital Industries, they grew even more, by 8%. Our total order backlog amounted to EUR 117 billion. Mobility was a standout, with EUR 52 billion. And the success story is continuing. Last week, we received an order from Copenhagen for the world's largest rail system with automated train operation, 226 driverless suburban trains. Our revenue increased 5% to EUR 78.9 billion.
Our electrification business performed exceptionally well, achieving revenue growth of 16%. Industrial business hit a record high of EUR 11.8 billion in profit, with a profit margin of 15.4%. Smart Infrastructure was a particular highlight. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the team increased Smart Infrastructure's quarterly margin year-over-year for the twentieth time in a row, and in the first quarter of the new fiscal year, they did it again for the 25th, 21st time. Moving to net income. Net income, net income rose 16% to EUR 10.4 billion. That, again, is a historic record, the third one in a row. We set another record for free cash flow, EUR 10.8 billion. That's the highest it's ever been. Basic earnings per share totaled EUR 10.71.
This figure excludes the effects of purchase price allocation, accounting, and the special effects of the Altair and Dotmatics acquisitions, as well as the sale of Innomotics. All in all, we have a real record-setting year behind us, and we're off to a strong start in the current fiscal year. Today, we actually raised our outlook. All these successes have been made possible by the strong performance and dedication of our approximately 320,000 colleagues and coworkers. To all of you, a huge thank you. You, our shareholders, should also benefit from these results and these records. We're proposing to increase the dividend by EUR 0.15 a share to EUR 5.35. This will be the fifth increase in a row. The Siemens share performed strongly. Our share price climbed from EUR 181 to EUR 229.
That's an increase of 26% in fiscal 2025. Siemens was also a profitable long-term investment. If, for example, you bought a Siemens share on September 30, 2020, it would have generated a total return of 143% by the end of fiscal 2025. That return includes the share price increase, plus the reinvested dividends. During the same period, the DAX grew only 87%. We thus clearly outperformed it. In a nutshell, our strategy is successful. We combine the real and the digital worlds. Siemens is stronger today than ever before, and we create value for you, our dear shareholders, for our customers, for society, and for the environment, and always with the highest integrity. We're pleased with these record results, but we're aiming even higher. Now it's time for the next level of growth.
We've repositioned ourselves to achieve it with our company program, One Tech Company. I presented the program to you a year ago. Its goals are: stronger customer focus, faster innovations, higher profitable growth. The program is helping us tackle the key questions: What businesses do we operate? And how do we operate them? First, the portfolio. In other words, what businesses? A lot has happened in the last few years. Siemens Energy has become an independent company, and it's very successful. I'm very pleased with this development. We've completely closed the chapter on our portfolio companies. We've been making strategic acquisitions for many years. We made two major acquisitions in fiscal 2025, Altair Engineering and Dotmatics, a total investment of $15 billion in software and AI. We're the global leader in industrial software. In November, we informed you about an important decision regarding Siemens Healthineers.
We plan to reduce our majority stake and transfer 30% of our shares in Siemens Healthineers to you, the shareholders of Siemens AG. In other words, a spin-off. In the next step, we want to reduce our stake, our stake over the medium term to the level of a purely financial investment. Why are we taking this step? Why are we taking it now? After all, Siemens Healthineers is a success story. The decisive factor for us is that the synergies between the two companies are weakening more and more. Markets, regulations, digitization, the environments in which we operate and the way we position ourselves in them are increasingly diverging. Withdrawing from the healthcare market will significantly increase the Siemens Healthineers' free float. It will make Siemens Healthineers more attractive for the capital market, and it will make Siemens AG an even more focused technology company.
As announced, we'll provide you with more information early in the second quarter of this calendar year. After the spin-off, you'll own shares in both companies. Siemens will continue to manage this investment responsibly. Your interests will remain protected. Siemens will be more focused with a clearly defined portfolio. That's the one key mainstay. The other is, how do we operate our businesses? It all has to do with structures and processes, with how we operate, but also with how we measure success. Going forward, it means acting more consistently together as one company, specifically in areas where size is a real advantage, where it helps us create optimal conditions for our businesses. In this connection, we've identified several large areas: one integrated data fabric, one technology fabric, and one sales fabric for one tech company. Let's take a closer look at this. Moving over to data first.
We break down walls, we make data available in real time, feed it into our AI models, and share it within the company and with our customers and partners. Nine companies have joined us in launching a data alliance. Here are two of them.
For Voith, we believe that only secure and scalable data collaboration, yeah, unlocking the full potential, especially for industrial AI in manufacturing and production, yeah. By joining forces with industry leaders, we aim to accelerate innovation, improve efficiency, and shape the future towards a data-driven production, yeah?
For that, you need to come to a joint model, to a joint sharing of data between the different processes, and this is the reason why we said we need to join that alliance to bring together all that data, enhance the data with AI, to come up with the next big jump in productivity for our customers.
Data is the basis for industrial AI, but you have to do something with it. You have to structure it, process it, and use it. We're doing these things in a very targeted manner with the huge amounts of data already at our disposal: engineering and design data, as well as data from manufacturing processes, buildings, and the operation of our products. We're also cooperating with partners who share their data with us in order to benefit from it themselves. To make this possible, we're building one strong technology fabric for all our businesses and our customers. For example, software as a service or SaaS, that is software that we offer via the cloud. Customers pay only for the features they actually use, and receive updates fully automatically. We've been very successful with SaaS. More than 24,000 customers now rely on this model.
7 out of 10 are new customers, and nearly 9 out of 10 are small to medium-sized enterprises. We offer nearly all our software in the marketplace on Siemens Xcelerator, our open digital business platform. Around 700 software offerings, as well as networked hardware and digital services. We build the infrastructure for these software offerings, technologies for login, update distribution, and cybersecurity only one time, and we use this infrastructure uniformly for all Siemens software offerings, one time for everything. The same logic applies to our sales fabric. For example, in the past, each of our businesses maintained its customer data separately. Today, every Siemens customer has exactly one digital customer number. We can now see in real time what each customer wants and buys. With the help of data analysis and AI, we can also identify what our customers aren't buying yet, but absolutely should buy.
To sum it up, there'll be standard tools for everyone, consistent digital sales systems, more time for our customers. One data architecture, one technology fabric, one sales fabric for the next level of growth. This is precisely where things get really interesting and very concrete for you. We're not only growing, our growth is accelerating. In 2019, we promised you 4%-5%. We delivered. In 2021, we raised our growth forecast range to between 5% and 7%. We delivered. Last November, we announced our new medium-term ambition. By the way, this figure already excluded Siemens Healthineers, revenue growth of 6%-9%. It's an ambitious target. How will we achieve it? We'll use four growth levers. We'll intensively expand our digital business. We'll invest in growth regions.
We'll focus more strongly on growth industries, and we'll further expand our leadership position in industrial AI. Let's look at these levers one by one. First, digital business. This business includes software, digital services, and consulting services. In 2025, our revenue in this area totaled EUR 9.4 billion. We expect to double it by 2030. Much of our digital business is generated via Siemens Xcelerator, our digital marketplace. Examples of what our customers can also find in our marketplace are virtual industrial controls. Audi wants to introduce these controls to all its factories. Around 20 customers are already in the test phase. Buildings, data-driven optimizations help customers reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. Virtual signals for trains, that is interlockings in the cloud.
We've already installed these systems in many countries and cities, Norway, Finland, Austria, and Barcelona, and now also in the Singapore Metro. Power grid optimization. Grid operators can increase their capacity by up to 30% without investing in new hardware. That's how customers profit from our digital technologies. The second lever are the growth regions. Siemens is active in nearly every country. Our global setup enables us to cushion the impact of tariffs and trade restrictions. Many of our competitors can't do that. We're investing where the world is growing. Let's take a brief look now at these growth regions. The U.S. is our biggest market. We've invested more than $100 billion in the U.S. over the past 20 years. Our customers in the U.S. want to strengthen their critical infrastructure, bring production back to the country, and further expand AI.
In the last two years, we've invested nearly $1 billion in new production capacity for trains and electrical products, among other things. In China, we're developing more and more products locally, and very quickly to boot. We often refer to this as China speed. To illustrate to you what this means and what these products look like, I've brought a couple with me, so you can see the products that your company manufactures. Let me begin with an industrial control. The technical term for it is the Smart PLC, the electronic brains of a production line. Every production line has zones with motors and actuators, and this highly specialized PLC control everything in manufacturing. It's repetitive. Tasks are pre-programmed, and they repeat them time and again. There is no AI in this device yet.
This specific product, which was developed in China, calculates 40x faster and has a memory that's almost twice as big, so we can control 5 axes instead of 2. It's a modular concept, and this at costs that have been reduced by 10%. What's the upshot? In the first quarter, 28% revenue growth. The buck doesn't stop here. Now I apologize for my rudimentary explanations. Rudimentary explanations. We're moving from the brain to the muscle. This is a drive, the S200. Let me try and explain it to you. It is about servo motors. Servo motors are motors that can run slowly or fast, depending on the amount of power they're supplied. These devices provide the electricity, sometimes less, sometimes more. It's very dynamic, and to make sure it works dynamically, we have power electronics built in.
But who tells this device when the motor needs power? This brings us back to the industrial control. The control, the actuator, and the servo motor, which we manufacture ourselves, by the way, create manufacturing systems that automate manufacturing lines using robot arms, for example. The device is very compact. It moves robot arms very precisely. We have a 15% drop in costs compared to the predecessor model, and it closes the gap in our portfolio. Revenue growth in Q1, 200%. And because I saw Matthias out of the corner of my eye, let me add one more product. We can do these things as well. This is a switch. 3MT8 is the product name. You don't have to remember it. It's for low voltage. It switches elevators, heating controls.
It's smaller, it has a new software, it's easier to install, and 10% lower costs. Here, once again, 58% revenue growth in the first quarter alone. We're gearing up. We're launching more than 20 additional products this year, developed in China for the local market, and in the future, also for countries outside China. To sum up, China and the U.S., and a country that's becoming increasingly important, India, which is building a modern infrastructure. Since 2025, we've been producing locomotives, 1,200 of them, in India, a huge order worth more than EUR 3 billion. The new trade agreement with the EU makes the country even more attractive for us. Tariffs will decline, and that's good for trade, and it's good for growth. In a nutshell, Siemens is investing where markets are growing. Germany. Germany remains important to us.
We want to help revive the country's economy. Germany's fundamentals are solid. Its ecosystems are strong. In automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, energy, medical technology, and mechanical engineering, German companies, including many small and medium-sized enterprises, continue to be world leaders in their sectors. The German government wants to introduce concrete reforms and reduce regulation, and we're supporting its efforts. More than 120 companies have joined the growth and investment initiative entitled Made for Germany, and they have already approved EUR 800 billion plus in investments for the next three years. Siemens is also participating. We're investing because we believe in Germany as a business location, and we believe in the people in our country. We're modernizing factories. For example, we're investing EUR 500 million in our high-tech campus in Erlangen. More on this later.
We've invested EUR 250 million to expand our locomotive plant in Munich, one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the world. How my colleagues and coworkers are manufacturing in Munich is a prime example of made in Germany: competitive production despite comparatively high costs. How this works, how we succeed to do that, is going to be explained to us by Katharina Rohrbacher.
Hello, Katharina.
Hi, Katharina. What have you brought for us today?
This is a model locomotive. It is manufactured in Munich, Aichach, 20 minutes from here. It's the Vectron locomotive. What do you do in Aichach? Well, in addition to the locomotive production in Aichach, we have maintenance services and digital services, and I head up R&D there. Our trains have been on the rails for decades. We have service agreements that run up until 2071 and longer, which means that we have long-standing partnerships with our customers. It pays off for our customers and for us, and that means that the business is growing strongly. This type of locomotive, manufacturing it in Munich is very expensive. How do we manage to be competitive nevertheless? Well, we manage quite well, as you can see, because in Aichach, we can combine everything that is necessary to be competitive.
The first is a convincing product. The Vectron has been developed in such a way that it can be built modularly. That means it can be used in more than 20 countries in Europe with various drive systems and with various train security systems. And manufacturing is so efficient that we can manufacture one Vectron every day. In addition to the product, we have customer centricity, which is very important as well. The Vectron is continuously refined, and in maintenance and service, we fully focus on the customer. We make sure that we make the availability of the locomotives and trains optimal for our customers. Third, digitization. We want to make sure that we have eMobility across all units through AI, through all the devices that we have at our disposal.
We make the processes so efficient in development, in production, in planning, and in service. This locomotive can do what many others can't. It can drive in a lot of different countries. Can you give us a list? Well, I don't know all the names. It's a list of more than 20 countries, so that's what the Vectron is capable of. Moving to digitization, what's the role of digitization in this locomotive? Well, it plays a substantial role. This means that we use it for our own processes and also in infrastructure for our customer. There's another nice example of this. For example, we use the digital services for the S-Bahn in Munich, for the suburban train, and here the remote updates are a wonderful example of this. I don't know the last time you made an update to your phone.
It takes seconds or no more than a minute. For trains, it's more difficult. Of course, they have a higher security standard. We want to be safe when we are in a train, but updates there are usually done and coordinated manually. This means that it takes quite a long time. First, the software has to be downloaded, then the train has to be driven into the depot. You have to have a schedule for that. The service technician then has to connect to various service devices to make the update. That can take weeks, if not months. Thanks to digitization, thanks to our digital services, we can offer remote updates for trains. This accelerates the throughput time substantially and reduces, of course, manual labor. In so doing, we create not only a product, but also an intelligent product.
It's like a smartphone on rails. Of course, don't be worried. Of course, we upload the software before we let the trains run.
Katharina, thank you so much for your wonderful work, and keep up the good job that you're doing.
Because in this type of locomotive, we have the same thing, we have the control, the actuators, and the motors, you can see that this is a technology platform. The team in Aichach has a superior product, in part because it's relying on our products and software solutions for digitization and automation purposes. Growth in Germany is, in fact, possible, but only with extremely advanced technologies, highly motivated people, and an unwavering focus on customer value. This brings us directly to our third growth lever: focus on customers in growth industries. These industries, which we call verticals, are all very different from each other, but within each one of them, the challenges are generally very similar. That's why we bundle and focus our offerings on precisely these recurring problems. That's how we scale, and that's how we leverage economies of scale. What are these growth industries?
They include life sciences. That is the industry that develops products that improve the lives and health of human beings, animals, and plant species. 9% annual market growth. Aerospace and defense, 9% growth. Semiconductors, 10% growth. Data centers, 11% growth.... We don't just want to grow with these markets, we want to grow faster than they do. How can we do it? Take companies in the life sciences field, for example. To grow faster in this market, we've strengthened our position via the acquisition of Dotmatics. This company makes software to facilitate more efficient research at pharmaceutical companies in particular. Today, developing a drug often takes more than 10 years and costs up to EUR 2 billion. We're accelerating this process. Take a new cancer drug, for example. Research generates billions of data points spread across instruments, files, and lab notebooks.
Scientists today spend a great deal of their time merging this data. AI makes this wealth of data easier to access. Scientists can directly query the data and identify the best approach more quickly. The next step is to find the right molecule, the right active agent. AI-supported simulations show exactly how molecules behave, so the hit rates are higher, and that's what matters, because 90% of all drug candidates are unsuccessful. In the future, we'll get to the decisive 10% faster. Then comes one of the biggest challenges: scaling. A single liter must be increased to 20,000 liters with consistent quality and reproducibility. Today, this process involves all sorts of experiments in bioreactors. We shift this work to the virtual world. We build digital twins. We optimize with AI. Only when everything functions properly in the virtual world, does work in the real world begin.
In short, we combine research, development, and production, all these steps into one seamless process, from molecule to market. As a result, better cancer drugs reach patients years earlier, and yes, that can mean the difference between life and death. Research, development, and production, we're improving all of this with industrial AI. Artificial intelligence is also our fourth key growth lever. We're already using it in three major areas: AI for our productivity. We have developed an in-house AI tool internally. I like to use this tool for research and to prepare for customer meetings, because here again, we're feeding customer data into AI. An excellent aid, not only for me, 175,000 Siemens colleagues and coworkers use our AI tool every day. Second, AI for existing products. For example, we recently launched 9 Industrial Copilots onto the market that strengthen our software with AI.
Third, entirely new AI products. We're currently developing a universal AI model for industry. We're investing in all these areas more than EUR 1 billion over the next three years. We're building the AI-based operating system for industry. We're scaling this new key technology, just as we once did with electricity. Here, Siemens is in an extremely strong position for the next level of growth, because we're combining the right things: the AI technologies themselves and data, industrial experience, and know-how, and strong partners. But let's first take a look at the technology. We've been working on AI for over 50 years, and as proof, I've brought with me an old product today. It all started in 1992, when this was launched on the market. We termed this product Synapse-1. Back then, it was the fastest neurocomputer in the world.
In an hour, it processed as much as other computers processed in a full year. So this is basically the big daddy of all modern GPUs. You may have heard of these products, graphics processing units. They are extremely well-suited to AI. So this is 1992. Yep, I agree. Our predecessors.... Today, we put these GPUs into our industrial computers. In so doing, we are combining the digital and the real world. We have an NVIDIA GPU, a graphics processing unit, in this box, which is capable of solving complex product problems very quickly. I showed you the control earlier: the drive, the actuators, the motors. This box basically sits above all of them, with AI that is trained in the cloud and then runs in the manufacturing and monitors the controls.
For example, a control or a robot arm is tasked with placing a product at the same place, and all of a sudden it shifts slowly. AI recognizes this and changes parameters to rectify the situation. The reason for this may be a broken gearbox. Of course, you need a human being to repair that, but this is how industrial AI gets to the shop floor. Industrial AI in production, conventional energy controls, and automation, and that is referred to as inferencing. That's what happens when AI does its work on the shop floor. You can control robots, industrial plants, and cars, driverless cars even doing this. This is the smaller variant. We have bigger variants of this as well. Now, this may be a little more challenging. We've got this box over here. It has three times the AI capacity as the smaller one.
What do we do with this box? Well, in the cloud, AI has been trained to deal with a number of different data to identify weld beads. The AI can identify which weld beads are good and which ones are bad. Audi uses this model, this industrial PC in the XXL version in manufacturing, and it allows it, for every minute, to examine 2,000 weld seams, to analyze them, and check them for quality. Data directly in the machine, modular, scalable for various AI models. Industrial experience, this is the second point. We know how industry ticks. Our engineers have deep domain know-how. They come from industry. They understand hardware. And we have tens of thousands of software and AI experts who are joining forces to combine the real and the digital worlds. We automate factories. Every third production machine worldwide utilizes Siemens technology.
We digitize rail networks. We optimize power grids. Around 70% of the world's electricity flows through grids that were planned or optimized using our software. We make buildings smarter and more efficient. We build digital twins of products, of production processes, of entire factories. Hardware, software, AI, and domain know-how, we combine these elements and scale industrial AI. But we can't do everything on our own. That's why we need strong partners. The story begins with computing power. Industrial AI needs enormous amounts of it. This power is generated in massive data centers operated by partners like AWS and Microsoft. I recently met with an especially important partner in the U.S., Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, currently the most valuable company in the world. Its high-performance AI chips are embedded in our new small industrial programmable controllers or IPCs. We share his vision of the next industrial revolution.
AI. AI is amazing technology. It will transform every application in every industry and introduce new ones. But AI is also infrastructure. It demands a new kind of factory, factories that manufacture intelligence. Every company will use it, every nation will build it. Now, every company will have two factories, one that produces things and one that produces the intelligence that drives them. AI factories is the infrastructure for the age of AI. Our partnership with Siemens spans every layer of this transformation. We are doing so much together. Siemens helps us build NVIDIA products, and together, we help build for the world.
Just about a month ago, we significantly expanded our partnership with NVIDIA to include chip design, simulation, and innovative data centers. In computer chip design, one thing counts more than anything else: speed. For this reason, we're making our software up to 10x faster because we make extensive use of technology from NVIDIA. The result? Shorter design cycles, faster chips, better chips. The same principle applies to simulation. Here you can see a simulation of airflow around a new BMW electric vehicle. Precise simulation eliminates the need for actual wind tunnel tests. The result: less turbulence, lower energy consumption. Together with NVIDIA, we're accelerating such simulations a hundredfold, a thousandfold, depending on the application. This innovation changes how engineers work. They make better decisions, and they do that faster.
The third area of our collaboration is AI data centers, specifically the next generation, and here we're talking about AI factories. This term can be a little misleading. It refers to unique and novel factories that produce only one thing: intelligence. These AI factories are large-scale industrial facilities requiring investments in a hundreds of billions. At such facilities, planning errors are simply not an option. That's why they're built first, as you may have guessed, digital twins. Everything is simulated in advance: power, cooling, peak loads, operation. And once a facility is up and running, AI takes over and controls the entire system. We're collaborating with NVIDIA to develop these next-generation AI factories, the future AI super brains, so to speak. But we'll also build factories that have an AI brain themselves, because intelligence also has to be close to machines and deeply embedded in the process.
This is the next level in AI-supported production. To reach this level, Siemens and NVIDIA are also collaborating. We're putting everything we have to offer into it: our medium- and low-voltage products, automation and virtual automation, industrial software, our industrial AI, and NVIDIA's world-class visualization and AI infrastructure. I've brought another product with me today. It's a switch. It's a little bigger. I'm not going to try and lift it. It's a semiconductor power circuit breakers for these AI data centers. It protects expensive GPUs and has an intelligent switch, and because it runs on direct current, and it use power electronics, it can switch thousands of times faster and can switch a million times for high longevity. By the way, this type of circuit breaker can protect a cabinet of GPUs that can cost up to $3.5 million.
So you see, our competence in hardware is just as decisive as it is for software. In this area, too, we have a world-class offering. The digital twin of such a factory with an AI brain will be even more powerful. It will continuously analyze all processes and enable improvements to be tested virtually before they're implemented in the real world. We're creating this scenario first at our own factory in Erlangen. As you may recall, we're investing EUR 500 million in this location. We'll also use a product in Erlangen that we're launching this summer in our Siemens Xcelerator marketplace, the Digital Twin Composer. So what does a composer do? Well, a composer combines different digital twins: the digital twin of a product, the digital twin of a machine, and the digital twin of an entire factory, for example.
And best of all, it collects data in real time, solves problems on its own, and controls machines directly. Our first customer is PepsiCo. Everyone knows their products: Pepsi, Punica, Mirinda, and snacks like Doritos. Siemens and NVIDIA are helping the company to build a living digital model of its factories. At one of them, PepsiCo has increased efficiency by 20% in just three months. This is something that used to take months. Now it only takes days, and that's exactly what our strategy is all about. We combine the real and the digital worlds. And you see the results: stronger customer focus, faster innovations, higher profitable growth. But of course, AI isn't everything. We're tackling the biggest challenges of our time, and these include sustainability.
In this area, we set even higher goals for ourselves in 2025, and in particular, for our degree framework, which combines all our sustainability-related ambitions. Siemens has reduced its own CO₂ emissions by two-thirds since 2019. The Siemens technologies we've sold to customers since 2023 are projected to avoid as much carbon pollution as Germany produces in an entire year. Here, too, industrial AI is helping us. It's enabling us to scale back CO₂ emissions in manufacturing by a quarter. More than 90% of our business helps customers achieve positive sustainability impacts. We start very early with this, with new products. Two-thirds of them are developed in a way that will minimize their environmental impact. We distinguish particularly sustainable products with our EcoTech label. In fiscal 2025, we doubled their number to more than 50,000.
Someone who's been working on sustainability for almost all his Siemens career, if not his entire life, is our guest today. Please welcome together with me, Hubert Baier.
Hello, Hubert.
Hello, Roland.
Hello, Hubert.
Hi, Roland.
What have you brought today? This looks like a Siemens product. This, not so much. Well, this is also a Siemens product, at least in substance. What is it? It's a recycling loop. But let's go through things. This is a circuit breaker, one of several million that we produce in the Regensburg plant every year. We need 250,000 tons of plastic to do that. And now, you know, you'll see why I brought this with me. More than 50% of this material is produced from recycled fishing nets. So we have 50,000 tons in fossil resources that are saved every year. It's good for the environment, it's good for us, it makes us less dependent on global resources, and it makes our supply chains more resilient.
When I am supermarket, ...
Looking for sustainable products in the supermarket, I realize that I have to pay more money for them. Does the same apply to the switch? No. We don't pay more for this material, and our customers don't pay more for the product just because it's eco-friendly. So this is an eco-label product.
What potential does it harbor?
Well, the market for sustainability in Europe through to 2040 is supposed to grow fivefold to EUR 820 billion. Our customers already believe that we're a trailblazer. Let me give you another example. 75% of the projects in the Near East have a high to average ambition with respect to sustainability. With our CO₂-reduced products, we are well-positioned, and we have a clear competitive edge.
This all looks quite mechanical. Does AI play a role?
Yes, it does. Absolutely.
AI helps us to find solutions that, given the extreme complexity, are often not apparent. For example, it helps us to design devices optimally in relation to the materials that are used to build them. AI also helps us actively to select data for every development step. It can simulate effects on performance absolutely precisely for each device that is manufactured, and of course, it resorts to sustainability due to data to do that. Hubert has been with Siemens for 30 years. What do you think, or how do you think the importance of sustainability will change over the next couple of years, Hubert?
Well, sustainability is a topic that has become a part of our DNA. Anyone who wants to be, think, or act innovatively can do that at Siemens. Back in the day, we were talking about rationalizing, optimizing efficiency, reducing resources, especially to manage costs. Now you have to be efficient and sustainable at the same time, and this is something that we've embedded in our processes. I believe that what makes us successful is our overarching collaboration, both in-house, across, departments and country borders, and externally with a widely spun plastics network, including universities, all within the spirit of One Tech Company. Outstanding. Here, you can give that to me, and thank you so much for coming here today.
Vielen Dank, Hubert.
Thank you so much, Hubert. Sustainability means thinking today about the day after tomorrow. It also means investing. In fiscal 2025, we spent EUR 6.6 billion in research and development, more than 8% of our revenue. We're also investing in people. We're spending EUR 440 million for training and professional development. We're getting all our people fit for the AI era. We're not just developing the people at Siemens. More than 1 million people at our partners are already taking advantage of our educational programs to keep expanding their know-how. Our goal is to increase this figure to 3 million worldwide by 2030. Hardly a day goes by that I also don't learn something new. I recently switched roles and spent a day as a trainee at our high-tech campus in Erlangen. Have a look for yourselves.
All right.
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We're gonna meet with Michael. He's the head of our automation department. Okay, we're gonna program a robot. We have these buttons. If you press this one button, you can now guide the robot manually however you want. So let's have a look and see what it does. So now you've basically put the robot into operation, and while it works, it works in isolated fashion first. The next step is that we want to get the data. We want to make the data available. This is where Annika comes into play. Hi, Annika. Now we're going to use this box. So now it's been programmed, the robot's been connected. It all took some time, and now Christoph is going to tell us how AI agents can help us to make everything faster. Here's the dashboard. Here's what it's gonna look like.
We have some configurations, applications that can run on the machine, that is. Okay. That was a lot of fun. Thank you very much for helping us out. I'd be happy to be back, and thank you so much to the team. Now, I'm not quite certain whether after this trial day, they would actually have hired me. I hope that manufacturing didn't suffer too much from my intervention. For me personally, the experience was a lot of fun and very valuable. It gave me a chance to see exactly how we're rolling out our new technology in real-world production, and witnessed up close the full potential of AI, and I saw how enthusiastic the Erlangen team is, how expert and how creative. With exactly this attitude, with exactly this enthusiasm, my 320,000 colleagues have transformed Siemens into a tech company.
A change of this magnitude requires a strong leadership team. A big thank you goes out to the entire Managing Board team. Today, I'd especially like to mention Ralph and Matthias. Today is your last Annual Shareholders' Meeting as Managing Board members. You've done a great job and helped shape Siemens over the years, if not decades. And our collaboration will, of course, continue for some time to come. Thank you so much. I'd like to congratulate Veronika and Peter. I wish both of you all the very best and every success. I'm looking forward very much to collaborating with you also in your new areas of responsibility. I'd also like to thank the Supervisory Board and the Central Works Council, particularly you, Mrs. Steinborn. The relationship with the Central Works Council has never been so constructive and trusting.
All the best also to you, and thank you once again for your work. And dear Tobias, I'm looking forward to working together with you as well. I'm certain that this collaboration will be outstanding. And I'd also like to say thank you, not only to the people who are with me here on the stage today, but also to all my colleagues and coworkers in Germany and around the world. You are making Siemens what it is today. Thank you for your commitment. As you can see, Siemens has the right setup for the next level of growth. We're making industrial AI just as omnipresent as we once did it with electricity. Medicine is reaching the market faster. Production facilities are delivering, delivering better quality and becoming more productive and more sustainable. Our machines are running even more reliably.
Supply chains, transportation networks, and power grids, optimizing their operations on their own. We're scaling industrial AI. We're building the AI-based operating system for industry with a world-class team, with leading technologies, a unique combination of hardware and software, with unique experience across all industries and with the right partners. We've placed ourselves at the head, at the forefront of the next industrial revolution. We create technology to transform everyday lives for everyone. This is Siemens. This is your company. Thank you so much for your attention.
Vielen Dank, lieber Roland. Thank you very much, Roland. In addition to the remarks made by Mr. Busch and myself, I would like to expressly refer to the Supervisory Board report, the statement on corporate management with the report on corporate governance, the compensation report, and the annual and consolidated financial statements with the combined management report, which also includes the explanatory report on the disclosures pursuant to Sections 289a and 315a of the German Commercial Code. Here, you will find detailed explanations on many of the topics we have addressed in the relevant chapters. In addition, the main content of our speeches have been published on February 4, 2026, on our website in order to enable a better preparation for the annual shareholders' meeting.
All documents have been made available on the company's website, on our website, www.siemens.com/hauptversammlung, since the Annual Shareholders' Meeting was convened and remain available there today. They're also available here in the meeting room, at the information desk, in the upper corridor, and at the speakers' registration desk. This also applies to the currently valid Articles of Association, the notice of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting with the Management's proposed resolutions, the system for compensation of the members of the Supervisory Board, and the Managing Board's report on agenda item nine. An overview of the agenda can also be found in the aforementioned information pamphlet with explanations of the agenda of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, which is available at the information stand in the upper corridor. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now going to end the freely accessible broadcast of the Annual Shareholders' Meeting.
I would like to say goodbye to everyone who is unable to continue watching the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, and thank you very much for your interest.