Interview with Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG

ZIPSE We are taking a holistic approach, scaling artificial intelligence along the entire value chain - from development to production and sales. We already have hundreds of AI use cases in series production today, and our goal is to support every one of our processes with AI in the foreseeable future. We see great potential in using AI to further increase our innovative capacity, productivity, and efficiency. 

ZIPSE All of them are crucial, but none of them alone will be enough to ensure sustainable success in the future. The key is to combine them in the best possible way. The outcome is much more than the sum of its parts. This is true for both vehicle development and successful corporate management. In recent years, we have seen the greatest increase in the importance of software and data. Particularly in software area we invested at an early stage and started our own software development over 20 years ago. Today, we employ more than 10,000 people in-house in software and IT. In addition, there are around 5,000 employees in our global IT hubs who are also involved in vehicle software development.  

ZIPSE We have mastered the entire digital car tech stack - from the chip to the cloud, so to speak. We pursue a strategic make-or-buy approach: we develop the customer-relevant and brand-defining software ourselves, while we purchase basic functionalities or use corresponding open-source solutions. The result: our digital toolkits, which clearly differentiate us from the competition - and which have nevertheless been developed very efficiently and are always kept fresh. This is because we can access every line of code in the vehicle and update it "over the air". This makes us the benchmark in the industry: with over 10 million vehicles, we have the world's largest fully updatable fleet. With the New Class vehicles that we are now rolling out, we are also demonstrating how we are taking the software-defined vehicle and its digital performance to a new level: with a zonal E/E architecture and four centralized high-performance computers - our "superbrains".  

ZIPSE At the IAA Mobility in September 2025, we presented the BMW iX3 - the first vehicle in the New Class. With the New Class, we have essentially redesigned everything: vehicle architecture, design language and technology clusters, for example for the digital experience, automated driving and electric drive. The investments in the New Class were the largest that BMW has ever made. At the same time, we have always achieved solid business results during development and have already reached our investment peak in 2024. This balancing act can only be achieved if you have a functioning business model - with globally convincing products, consistent customer orientation, continuous innovative strength, efficient cost management and sustainable financial strength. And all decisions must contribute to this.  

ZIPSE There is hardly any other company in the automotive industry that is as globally positioned and oriented as BMW: we have research and development sites in over 15 countries. We also have over 30 production sites worldwide and a global sales network with representatives in more than 140 countries. This is an enormous advantage when it comes to understanding the local markets and their customers, adapting or even anticipating technological developments locally and building a resilient "local for local" supply chain. At the same time, we have bundled a great deal of knowledge, experience and expertise in Germany as our home base - at our headquarters, at our largest R&D site and in our eight plants. I would therefore describe the interaction between headquarters and markets as a symbiosis: Both sides work closely together and benefit from each other. This is the basis for success and resilience.