Caterpillar has partnered with Nvidia to integrate AI into its construction equipment. The company is piloting an AI assistive system called Cat AI on the Cat 306 CR Mini Excavator, a mid-size model. Cat AI runs on Nvidia’s Jetson Thor physical AI platform. Caterpillar will demo the system at CES on Wednesday.
Brandon Hootman, Caterpillar’s vice president of data and AI, said Cat AI operates on a fleet of AI agents. The system answers operator questions, provides access to resources, offers safety tips, and schedules services.
The technology collects data from machines and sends it back to Caterpillar. This enables real-time insights for operators in the field. Hootman noted, “Our customers don’t live in front of a laptop day in and day out; they live in the dirt.” He added, “The ability to get the insights and take the action that they need while they’re doing the work is very important to them.”
Caterpillar is also testing digital twins of construction sites. These use Nvidia’s Omniverse simulation library to evaluate scheduling scenarios and calculate material requirements. Hootman stated that Caterpillar machines transmit roughly 2,000 messages per second to the company. This data supports the digital twin simulations.
Caterpillar already deploys fully autonomous vehicles in mining operations. Hootman described the current pilots as the next step toward expanding automation across its equipment portfolio.
The collaboration aligns with Nvidia’s focus on physical AI. Bill Dally, Nvidia’s chief scientist, told TechCrunch in 2025 that physical AI represents the next frontier for the company’s GPUs.
During Nvidia’s CES keynote on Monday, the company detailed its full-stack ecosystem for physical AI. This includes open AI models such as the Cosmos family, simulation tools, and developer kits.
Deepu Talla, Nvidia’s vice president of robotics and edge AI, explained that physical AI extends beyond robotics companies. “Physical AI is the next wave of AI,” Talla said. “Nvidia is pioneering that with computers that train the models, that do the simulation to test the models and deploy the models into the robots, whether that’s an autonomous car or a Caterpillar machine.”
