PhysicsX has partnered with the British America’s Cup team, GB1, as its official AI Engineering Platform partner as it enters the 38th running of this ancient competition, taking place in Naples, Italy in 2027.
One of the most technically demanding competitions in global sport, GB1 will use the PhysicsX AI-native engineering platform to accelerate engineering insight and support system-level optimisation across the campaign, helping the team learn faster, explore a broader design space and enhance performance within the constraints of the America’s Cup Protocol.
GB1 Head of Design Nick Holroyd, commented: “The scale and complexity of the engineering challenge in the America’s Cup means that the teams who can best integrate data, simulation and real-world performance will have a clear advantage.
“Partnering with PhysicsX allows our designers to build higher fidelity models, with lower data costs and quicker turn around. The result is faster design iteration and greater insight into complex performance interactions, helping GB1 push the boundaries of performance.”
America’s Cup race boats operate at the intersection of aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, structural mechanics and control systems, and performance depends on how these systems work together under extreme conditions. With races often decided by mere seconds, design advantages can determine an entire campaign, making the ability to model, test, and optimise full-system behaviour critical.
How is AI being used in the America’s Cup?
“This collaboration represents a powerful opportunity to combine PhysicsX’s AI-native engineering platform with the exceptional technical capability of the GB1, in pursuit of one of the most demanding prizes in global sport,” said David Wheater, director of delivery at PhysicsX.
“The range of sea states, wind conditions, and operating scenarios the team must design for is vast. Exploring that full design space using traditional methods alone is inherently constrained by time. Our platform enables engineers to interact with that complexity far more dynamically, optimizing across both design and operating conditions in seconds rather than hours. With both organisations grounded in engineering excellence, the partnership has felt natural from the outset.”
By accelerating traditionally sequential simulation cycles and enabling near real-time engineering insight through enhanced modelling, the PhysicsX platform helps GB1’s engineers explore and optimise the full-system behaviour of their race boat.
PhysicsX says the partnership will allow it to co-engineer AI capabilities alongside the team, aiding the engineers by strengthening the loop between modelling, data and real-world validation, helping the team to iterate faster, test more aggressively, and compound marginal gains at scale.
“The America’s Cup represents the hardest technical challenge in sport and one of the most respected stages for engineering excellence,” said PhysicsX CEO Jacomo Corbo. “It’s a competition defined by discipline, precision and teamwork.
“With our background in high-performance engineering, we recognise how marginal gains are earned – through rigorous modelling, continuous optimisation and collective effort. Physics AI allows engineers to interact with system-level behavior in near real time, turning simulation into a more dynamic part of the development process. We’re incredibly proud to support GB1 at this stage of the campaign and to contribute to the team’s competitive advantage at such a pivotal moment.”
