Aramco, Nvidia develop quantum computing emulator

Dammam 7Q is a 30-Qubit quantum emulation platform

Oct 12, 2025

Armco’s Dammam-7 supercomputer (Image credit:: Aramco)

#SaudiArabia #quantum - Saudi Arabian national oil company Saudi Aramco has developed one of the world’s largest quantum computing emulators via a collaboration with AI infrastructure specialist NVIDIA, deploying the emulator on its Dammam-7 supercomputer. The initiative, called Dammam-7Q, leverages Nvidia’s GPU acceleration and its open-source quantum development platform CUDA-Q to emulate up to 30 qubits per graphics processing unit.

The emulator enables Aramco’s Upstream Digital Centre to develop and assess quantum algorithms specifically designed for three-dimensional seismic fault detection across full subsurface datasets. The collaboration aims to establish a blueprint for hybrid quantum-classical supercomputers that could transform how the energy sector processes peta-scale computational challenges in exploration and subsurface imaging.

SO WHAT? - The Dammam-7Q project highlights how energy companies are already moving beyond quantum computing experimentation to deploy practical applications that address sector-specific challenges. Harnessing the power of Dammam-7, one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, the 30-qubit emulation moves the energy industry another step closer to quantum-accelerated processing for complex computational problems. Such emulations could help accelerate the energy sector’s transition from quantum research to production-ready systems

Here are some key details about the Dammam-7Q project:

Saudi Aramco has developed one of the world’s largest quantum computing emulators via a collaboration AI infrastructure specialist NVIDIA, deploying the emulator on its Dammam-7 supercomputer.
The initiative, called Dammam-7Q, leverages Nvidia’s GPU acceleration and its open-source quantum development platform CUDA-Q to emulate up to 30 qubits per graphics processing unit.
The emulation is being used to detect three-dimensional seismic faults on full three-dimensional seismic datasets, marking a pioneering quantum-based algorithm for upstream geosciences applications.
Aramco’s team developed a quantum Hadamard edge detection (QHED) algorithm specifically designed to leverage future quantum processors to dramatically enhance detail and clarity in subsurface imaging. The solution addresses a critical bottleneck in exploration workflows that process peta-scale seismic data.
The Aramco Upstream Digital Centre, the digital arm of the energy giatn’s upstream segment, is leading the initiative as part of its broader digital transformation journey.
Nvidia’s CUDA-Q platform enabled Aramco to run GPU-accelerated emulations of future quantum computing hardware. Developers are therefore able to assess quantum algorithms before deployment on actual quantum processors.
The hybrid quantum-classical architecture allows Aramco to explore how actual quantum algorithms will perform on systems combining conventional processors including CPUs and GPUs alongside dedicated quantum hardware, addressing the complexity of multi-architecture algorithm development.
This work represents the first major milestone in establishing practical quantum computing applications for the energy sector. Other global oil majors, including Chevron and TotalEnergies, have also made investments in quantum computing research for exploration and carbon capture applications.

ZOOM OUT - Dammam-7 was developed at Dhahran Techno Valley in partnership with Solutions by stc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise subsidiary Cray Inc. Named after Saudi Arabia’s first commercial oil well, the supercomputer delivers 55.4 petaflops of peak computing power, enabling processing of the world’s largest geophysical datasets. At the time of its commissioning in 2020, Dammam-7 was ranked among the top ten most powerful high-performance computing systems globally. More recently in last year’s Top500 list, it was ranked as the world’s 71st most powerful HPC system. With 672,520 processor cores and Nvidia Tesla GPUs, the system is designed to run sophisticated three-dimensional earth models and deep-learning algorithms that improve Aramco’s discovery and recovery efficiency whilst reducing exploration risk.

[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]

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