IndyCar: Zapata Computing Prepares Andretti for Quantum Era

Andretti Autosport is always seeking a performance edge over the competition, and Zapata Computing is on a mission to provide customers with a competitive advantage with quantum-ready software and infrastructure. Today, the two companies announce that they have entered into a multi-year partnership that includes brand sponsorship and a multi-million-dollar agreement to deploy and leverage Zapata’s platform, Orquestra, in search of race day success with advanced analytics and quantum techniques.

The partnership names Zapata as the Official Quantum Computing Provider of Andretti Autosport and the team’s advanced technology arm, Andretti Technologies. Applied quantum computing technology and methods could boost the performance of even the most powerful classical computers, especially in optimization, Machine Learning (“ML”) and simulation use cases. This is where Orquestra, Zapata’s quantum-classical software platform, built for enterprise scale, comes into play.

Andretti engineers will work trackside from the Zapata Performance Innovation and Technology (P.I.T.) Center, a mobile engineering environment where accelerated analytic capabilities are powered by Orquestra, bringing real-time performance edges to Andretti’s team at NTT INDYCAR SERIES events. The Zapata P.I.T. Center is built to provide Andretti’s engineering team enhanced efficiencies over their current infrastructure and analytics solutions—beginning with advanced ML and optimization work, and increasingly using quantum techniques as the technology matures during the course of the partnership.

“The Zapata team is thrilled to partner with Andretti and put our Orquestra quantum software platform to work in the pursuit of a competitive edge that no other racing team can match,” said Christopher Savoie, CEO of Zapata. “The Zapata P.I.T. Center’s analytics environment is this ‘edge’ manifested in a real world, mobile and deployed setting. Our companies have the same DNA of always competing to win, and we can’t wait until the 2022 season kicks off to begin putting all this work into action.”

“We’re excited to be working with a true leader in quantum computing through our partnership with Zapata,” said Michael Andretti, Andretti Autosport Chairman and CEO. “INDYCAR racing is all about finding every possible edge and then maximizing it. Zapata’s expertise gives us that advantage through their Orquestra quantum software platform and expert scientists and engineers. The partnership is going to propel both organizations to great things this year and beyond.”