Altair Engineering Inc. is an American multinational

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

company headquartered in

Troy, Michigan Troy is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Metro Detroit, Detroit, Troy is located about north of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 87,294, ...

. It provides software and cloud solutions for

simulation A simulation is an imitative representation of a process or system that could exist in the real world. In this broad sense, simulation can often be used interchangeably with model. Sometimes a clear distinction between the two terms is made, in ...

, IoT,

high performance computing High-performance computing (HPC) is the use of supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Overview HPC integrates systems administration (including network and security knowledge) and parallel programming into ...

(HPC),

data analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sci ...

, and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

(AI). Altair Engineering is the creator of the HyperWorks CAE software product, among numerous other software packages and suites. The company was founded in 1985 and went public in 2017. It was traded on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

stock exchange under the stock ticker symbol ALTR. In 2025, it was acquired by

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

for $10.6 billion. Altair develops and provides software and cloud services for product development, high-performance computing (HPC), simulation, artificial intelligence, and data intelligence.

History

Founding

Altair Engineering was founded in 1985 by James R. Scapa, George Christ, and Mark Kistner in

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

. Since the company's outset, Scapa has served as its CEO (and now chairman). Initially, Altair started as an engineering consulting firm, but branched out into product development and

computer-aided engineering Computer-aided engineering (CAE) is the general usage of technology to aid in tasks related to engineering analysis. Any use of technology to solve or assist engineering issues falls under this umbrella. Overview Following alongside the con ...

(CAE) software. In the 1990s, it became known for its software products like HyperWorks, OptiStruct, and HyperMesh, which were often used for product development by the automotive industry. Some of Altair's early clients included the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

, and

Chrysler FCA US, LLC, Trade name, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the "Big Three (automobile manufacturers), Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn H ...

. Its software also aided in the development of the '' Young America'' and ''AmericaOne'' racing yachts, the former of which was used to compete in the

1995 America's Cup The 29th America's Cup was contested between the winner of the 1995 Citizen Cup, Stars & Stripes (America's Cup syndicate), Team Stars & Stripes, which switched to the yacht Young America (1994 yacht), ''Young America'' (USA 36) for the competit ...

. Its software also found uses in other sectors, including

aerospace Aerospace is a term used to collectively refer to the atmosphere and outer space. Aerospace activity is very diverse, with a multitude of commercial, industrial, and military applications. Aerospace engineering consists of aeronautics and astron ...

(

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

(

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

(

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

), and toy manufacturing (

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company headquartered in El Segundo, California. Founded in Los Angeles by Harold Matson and the husband-and-wife duo of Ruth Handler, ...

), among others. In 2002, Altair software aided in the design of the

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a very large wide-body airliner, developed and produced by Airbus until 2021. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the pr ...

by weight optimizing the aircraft wing ribs. Also in 2002, Altair opened offices in

Seongnam Seongnam (; ) is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. It consists of three administrative districts: Bundang District, J ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, adding those locales to its international footprint alongside

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

where it had begun investment in 1992.

Early 2000's and 2017 IPO

In addition to its software production, Altair hires out engineering consultants to its corporate clientele. Its consultancy services accounted for the majority of the company's revenue until 2004, when the sale and licensing of software overtook that. In October of that year,

General Atlantic General Atlantic, legal main entity General Atlantic Service Company, L.P., (also known as "GA") is an American growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for global growth companies, headquartered in New York, United States. T ...

invested $30 million in Altair. Also in 2004, Altair partnered with

and the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

on the design and construction of a new military vehicle. Altair also branched out into the

life sciences This list of life sciences comprises the branches of science that involve the scientific study of life – such as microorganisms, plants, and animals including human beings. This science is one of the two major branches of natural science, ...

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

, and pharmaceutical industries with its

software, PBS Professional, which it had acquired the rights to in 2003. In June 2006, Altair acquired the French CAE software company, Mecalog, and its Radioss technology suite. In 2007, it spun off a new wholly-owned subsidiary called ilumisys, which would focus on

light-emitting diode A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corre ...

(LED) lamps designed to be used as direct replacements for fluorescent light tubes. Ilumisys' operations were moved to Michigan in 2011, and it was rebranded as Toggled in 2012. In the early 2010s, Altair's product design division (Altair ProductDesign) began creating prototypes of various vehicles including a hydraulic hybrid transit bus known as BUSolution and an electric concept car called the Avant GT. By 2013, the company had offices in 19 countries worldwide and 1,800 employees. That year, it also bought out

's equity stake in the company. In 2016, Altair acquired ''Solid Iris Technologies''. The company developed a photorealistic rendering and visualization tool named ''Thea Render''. By bringing this technology in-house, additional Solid Iris rendering capabilities were added to Altairs technologies. On November 1, 2017, Altair went public with an IPO on the Nasdaq stock exchange and began trading under the stock ticker symbol ALTR. The company raised $156 million with share prices starting at $13. In the years leading up to the IPO, Altair acquired 11 different companies with strategic assets and expertise in fields like

material science A material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geol ...

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

, rendering, and others. The company then made its products available to qualified startup companies through its Startup Program, formed in 2018 and relaunched in 2021. By 2019, the company had acquired a total of 30 businesses. It also began making efforts to incorporate

technology into its new software packages. That year, it opened a new office in

Greensboro Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina, af ...

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

after acquiring the data analytics company, Datawatch, which had offices in the area.

2020s

In June 2020, the company announced that it would be providing software updates for all of its products. The updates were implemented to improve workflows and provide access to a broader set of tools for

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

, and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

. In January 2021, Altair announced that it would collaborate with

Rolls-Royce Holdings Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and dist ...

on a project using AI and machine learning to improve the aero jet engine design process. In November 2021, Altair's PBS Professional workload manager was selected by the

Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...

to be used across the organization's high performance computing (HPC) systems, including the Polaris and Aurora

supercomputers A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instru ...

. That same month, Altair was also included on Inc. Magazine's 2021 Best-Led Companies list. In December, Altair was named as one of

Investor's Business Daily ''Investor's Business Daily'' (''IBD'') is an American newspaper and website covering the stock market, international business, finance, and economics. Founded in 1984 by William O'Neil as a print newspaper, it is owned by News Corp and headquar ...

's Best 100 ESG Companies. In March 2023, Altair rebranded its AI and data analytics product now known as Altair RapidMiner. In May 2023, the US Court of Appeals issued a favorable ruling in a copyright infringement case pertaining to SAS software. In October 2023, Altair acquired OmniQuest, a software company out of Novi, Michigan, to further its optimization technology. In 2024, Gartner named Altair a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms. On October 30, 2024, Altair announced its agreement to be acquired by Siemens and the acquisition was completed in March 2025.

Corporate acquisitions

Since 1985, Altair has acquired over 30 businesses, business units, and software packages. The following is a list of selected corporate acquisitions:

References

External links

* {{Authority control Software companies based in Michigan Engineering companies of the United States Computer-aided engineering software Companies based in Troy, Michigan Companies established in 1985 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 2017 initial public offerings Software companies of the United States Business software companies Business intelligence companies Business software 2025 mergers and acquisitions Analytics companies Data analysis software Engineering software companies Grid computing Finite element software

History

Founding

Early 2000's and 2017 IPO

2020s

Corporate acquisitions

See also

References

External links