Earlier this week, our team was present at the NVIDIA GTC event in San Jose as NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang showcased SimScale as a pioneer in the world of AI-driven engineering simulation. I believe this to be an important milestone—not just for SimScale, but for engineering teams worldwide. At GTC, together with NVIDIA, we launched the first of a set of Physics AI foundation models—a significant step towards realizing our broader vision for making AI truly useful for core engineering work.
Why This Launch Matters
Engineering teams are facing unprecedented pressure to innovate faster, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. Yet traditional simulation methods and technologies—slow, manual, and heavily reliant on costly on-premises infrastructure—create bottlenecks that continue to limit innovation. With our new AI Foundation Model, powered by NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo and embedded directly into SimScale’s cloud-native platform, we are removing those barriers for engineers worldwide.
This launch marks another step in our mission to empower engineers to innovate faster. By combining advanced AI models with cloud-native simulation, we’re further unlocking true computational engineering. We are inviting you to imagine a world where:
- Engineers can explore thousands of design options in seconds, not days.
- Design evaluation time and costs are collapsed to near zero.
- Instantaneous design exploration and optimization are brought into reach.
Start Exploring from Physics AI Basecamp
An AI Foundation Model is an ideal way to start adopting AI in an engineering workflow, effectively a “base camp” from which further exploration is immediately possible.
This first foundation model is trained on 1000s of validated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of centrifugal pump designs. The fact that the model is pre-trained on a comprehensive data set means that engineers can immediately pick it up, apply it to their latest designs, and get valuable performance predictions in seconds.
We’re continually expanding the dataset used and are expecting the application space to grow over the coming weeks. If your own organization has its own dataset of proprietary designs, you can use a foundation model as a basis from which you can create an enriched, tailored version that produces even more accurate results for your designs. You can also create your own foundation models from scratch using the built-in AI model training infrastructure.
Our first Foundation Model covers the design space for centrifugal pumps and we will be introducing other models to cater for different families of devices that our customers are working on. It is all enabled by integrating NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo into the SimScale platform, using physics-based simulation data with machine learning to deliver results at the speed of AI without compromising on the fidelity engineers demand.
By embedding this model directly into the SimScale platform, we enable engineers to:
- Instantly evaluate pump designs, exploring thousands of design points in seconds rather than days.
- Maintain high accuracy in predictions comparable to traditional CFD methods.
- Seamlessly move between physics simulation and AI by leveraging cloud-native AI models.
- Scale their simulation capabilities globally without added infrastructure costs.
By making accurate Physics AI models much easier to access and get started with, foundation models really have the potential to accelerate AI adoption. If you are curious, find out how to access this model below.
How It Works
Our AI Foundation Model is built on a combination of physics-based simulations, machine learning, and cloud-native deployment:
- Pre-trained Physics AI: Leveraging NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo, our team trained the AI model using thousands of high-fidelity CFD simulations. This ensures the model captures accurate pressure, flow, and efficiency behaviors across a broad range of pump geometries and operating conditions.
- Cloud-Native Integration: The model is integrated into SimScale’s intuitive, browser-based platform, enabling engineers to scale simulation use earlier in the design process without any installation or hardware constraints.
- Instantaneous Optimization: Using optimization coupled with the AI model, engineers can explore thousands of design variants in minutes—identifying optimal configurations far faster than traditional CAE methods.
Unlock Instant Design Optimization
Such easy-to-access physics AI models unlock instantaneous design space exploration. By leveraging Physics AI with SimScale’s cloud-native infrastructure, engineers can now run thousands of design iterations in minutes. This eliminates the traditional “trial-and-error” process, accelerating time-to-market and reducing costs.
Imagine an engineering team tasked with optimizing a new design for efficiency, pressure, and flow. Traditionally, this process requires running separate CFD simulations for each design iteration—often taking days or weeks to explore all viable options. With Physics AI, that same exploration happens in seconds—giving teams the insights they need to make smarter design decisions faster.
Using an entirely cloud-native toolchain consisting of Onshape CAD, SimScale (including the foundation pump model built with NVIDIA PhysicsNeMo), and Google Colab with open-source optimization libraries, we ran an optimization covering study 2700 designs in less than one minute. This methodology really can unlock transformational engineering velocity!
Our Vision: Engineering AI + Physics AI
This launch is more than just a product announcement—it’s a demonstration of what we believe is the future of engineering simulation. At SimScale, we believe that in order to unlock the transformational value that AI can provide to engineering design, you need two branches of AI capability at your fingertips: Engineering AI + Physics AI.
Engineering AI accelerates complete engineering workflows, assisting or automating simulation setup, running design studies and even proposing and implementing design changes autonomously. Engineering AI is both a co-pilot and dependable teammate that helps you meet your engineering challenges and communicates with you using natural language.
Physics AI leverages AI models trained on trusted simulation data to make near-instantaneous performance predictions to drive engineering decisions.
The combination is a powerful new paradigm. SimScale will empower engineers to move beyond traditional design constraints and embrace a new era of real-time simulation, enhanced insight, and accelerated innovation.
Our vision extends far beyond this initial launch. The AI Foundation Model for pump simulation is just the beginning. By investing in AI-first engineering workflows, we aim to democratize access to world-class simulation capabilities for all engineers—from startups to global enterprises.
Our belief is simple: engineering teams should be able to explore more ideas, make better decisions faster, and accelerate their path to market. AI will be the catalyst that makes this possible, and SimScale is leading the charge.
Join Us in Shaping the Future
I encourage you to experience this transformative technology firsthand. Our first AI Foundation Model is now available to SimScale customers worldwide.
We’re also hosting a live webinar with NVIDIA to showcase this technology in action. We’ll explore real-world use cases, demonstrate the model’s capabilities, and answer your questions directly. Register now to see how AI-powered simulation can revolutionize your engineering workflows.
