AD Ports' Maritime Academy Teams With Quantinuum and Quincus to Test Quantum Logistics

The partnership was first announced at the Quantum Innovation Summit in Dubai in early October. Its terms were set out this week by the trade publication Quantum Computing Report, and Quantinuum listed the agreement among recent business highlights alongside its third-quarter results.

The project gives one of the Gulf's largest port operators a direct test of a question the quantum industry has yet to settle: whether today's machines can beat conventional computers on real commercial problems. According to Quantum Computing Report, the partners will run hybrid quantum, high-performance computing and AI algorithms on live operational network data and benchmark them against state-of-the-art classical heuristics.

The work targets combinatorial problems that are hard to solve at scale: dynamic berth allocation, the sequencing of container stowage on vessels, and fuel-efficient voyage routing. The partners want to find out whether trapped-ion quantum algorithms can improve solution quality, asset utilisation and carbon efficiency.

Each party has a defined role. Quantinuum will provide computing resources, help with compiling algorithms and developer access to its Helios trapped-ion processor through its software platform. Quincus will supply real-world supply chain datasets, live freight network parameters and an AI-driven production testbed for benchmarking. The academy will set the operational constraints and validation criteria for terminal asset allocation, berth scheduling and multi-modal fleet dispatching. Material from the October summit said the research would also cover transport logistics and mining.

No financial terms, milestones or performance targets have been disclosed.

The collaboration extends the academy's existing quantum work. Its Quantum and AI Blue Initiative, set up with Vernewell Group, was launched at the 2025 Quantum Maritime Conference, which the academy hosted. In May 2025 it also signed a memorandum with Swiss firm ID Quantique to explore quantum-safe cybersecurity.

For Quantinuum, the Abu Dhabi deal adds to a commercial pipeline it is trying to grow. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $9.1 million, up 233% from $2.7 million a year earlier, and raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $31 million and $34 million from $28 million to $32 million, according to The Quantum Insider. Its quarterly net loss widened to $118 million, and it ended September with $1.94 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

The partners have not said when they expect to publish results from the benchmarking.