In response to growing demand from customers who are looking to transform their operations using cutting-edge technology, IBM has announced a $200 million investment in the new global headquarters for its Watson Internet of Things (IoT) business in Munich.

The Watson IoT headquarters will be home to the first ever cognitive IoT Collaboratories – hands-on industry labs where clients and partners can work together with IBM’s 1,000 Munich-based researchers, engineers, developers and business experts to drive collaborative innovation in the automotive, electronics, manufacturing, healthcare and insurance industries. Together, they will tackle the toughest challenges of their respective industries; apply new concepts and technologies to build IoT solutions; develop and test new business models, solutions and services; and push the boundaries of what is possible with IoT.

“IBM is making tremendous strides to ensure that businesses around the world are able to take advantage of this incredible period of technological transformation and develop new products and services that really change people’s lives,” said Harriet Green, Global Head of IBM’s Watson IoT business. “Germany is at the forefront of the Industry 4.0 initiative and by inviting our clients and partners to join us in Munich, we are opening up our talent and technologies to help deliver on the promise of IoT and establishing a global hotbed for collaborative innovation.”

In addition, IBM announced strategic partnership with Schaeffler, one of the world’s leading automotive and industrial suppliers, which aims to accelerate the digital transformation of its entire operations and customer solutions using Watson’s cognitive intelligence and insight from billions of sensors. Aerialtronics, a Netherlands-based designer and producer of unmanned aircraft systems for industry, has announced the first commercial drones featuring cognitive computing capabilities from the IBM Watson IoT Platform on IBM Cloud.

Also, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals Inc., three facilities with more than 900 acute care beds and part of Jefferson Health located in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is working with IBM to launch cognitive hospital rooms powered by IBM Watson IoT that enhance the patient experience and help bring deeper levels of personalized, agile and responsive care.

IBM also announced a number of new offerings to benefit IoT customers and developers. This includes a new capability that connects Internet of Things data to Blockchain through the IBM Watson IoT Platform, a new set of IoT Security Solutions and Services that help companies proactively identify potential risks and protect their devices from compromise, new offerings which enable customers to tap the Watson IoT platform to develop new voice interfaces for customers – in homes, cars, stores, hotels and offices, and a new resource that includes new recipes for developers containing code and best practice approaches for solving cognitive IoT challenges using Watson’s Natural Language Application Program Interfaces (APIs).