Hyundai Heavy to adopt Palantir's big data platform

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Group said on Wednesday that it has signed a contract with Palantir Technologies Inc., a US data analytics company, to introduce the latter’s data-driven operating system Foundry across its shipyards.

The big data platform is expected to accelerate the shipbuilder's digital transformation it has been pushing for under a so-called Future of Shipyard vision.

The project is aimed at simultaneously managing and tracking the entire shipbuilding process from ship design to construction, based on real-time data.

The contract signing followed the two firms' memorandum of understanding inked in January of this year, under which both companies tentatively agreed to build a big data platform for Hyundai Heavy and establish a joint venture.

Hyundai Heavy will apply the data-driven operating system across its units: Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co., Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. and Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries Co.

The world’s largest shipbuilding group is planning to have smart manufacturing systems in place by 2030. To that end, Palantir’s Foundry platform will help the Korean group build digital twins, or virtual representations of real-world events.

Its partnership with the Denver-based software developer is expected to upgrade the shipbuilder's data-driven decision-making and manufacturing processes.  

In January and May of this year, Hyundai Samho and Hyundai Heavy conducted pilot projects to apply the Foundry platform to their ship design and manufacturing processes.

Going forward, the group will apply the Foundry system to other units such as Hyundai Construction Equipment Co. and Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co.

Last year, Palantir bought $20 million worth of shares in refiner Hyundai Oilbank Co., part of the shipbuilding group. Since then, it has been strengthening its partnership with Hyundai Heavy.

Write to Ik-Hwan Kim at lovepen@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.