Applied Computing, a British artificial intelligence firm known for developing foundation models for the energy sector, has announced a strategic partnership with Kongsberg Digital, the Norwegian provider of advanced software and digital solutions for the oil and gas, chemicals, and offshore wind industries.
The collaboration brings together Kongsberg Digital’s AI-powered Industrial Work Surface and Applied Computing’s flagship AI platform, Orbital, to enhance optimisation across industrial operations. By integrating Orbital’s multi-foundation AI, the partnership aims to improve planning, operations, and maintenance within refineries, petrochemical plants, and other industrial facilities.
“Kongsberg Digital has always believed that digital twins should dynamically help you understand the physical world – they should help our clients actively shape the future of work,” said Shane McArdle of Kongsberg Digital. “We continue to partner with companies like Applied Computing to ensure that the industry has access to technology that unlocks the value of their industrial data, enabling AI-driven optimisations and operational support for scalable economic and environmental benefits.”
A leap forward in digital transformation
Digital twins enable industrial operators to build dynamic, data-rich virtual replicas of their physical sites, supporting continuous monitoring, predictive maintenance, and smarter planning. Applied Computing’s Orbital platform is based on foundation models spanning physics, chemical engineering, time-series forecasting, and language, delivering explainable AI suited to complex industrial environments. In real-world applications, Orbital has demonstrated the potential to reduce refinery emissions and energy waste by up to 10%.
Through the new partnership, Kongsberg Digital’s clients will be able to integrate Orbital directly into their digital twins, adding a powerful layer of industrial intelligence to help operators optimise performance, energy consumption, and carbon intensity.
“This partnership is about turning digital twins into living, thinking systems,” said Callum Adamson, CEO of Applied Computing. “By combining Kongsberg Digital’s expertise in digital twin technology with Orbital’s superintelligence, we’re enabling operators to cut emissions, lower costs, and build more resilient operations. The future of energy isn’t about hype – it’s about execution, and this partnership delivers that.”
Growing momentum for Applied Computing
The collaboration comes during a milestone year for Applied Computing. The company recently secured a £9 million seed funding round led by Stride.VC and Repeat.vc—one of the largest ever for a UK-based AI company—and appointed former Shell AI executive Dan Jeavons as President. Applied Computing is already working with several of the world’s most complex industrial sites, including one of the largest refineries globally.
The company also recently announced a major partnership with Databricks and plans to unveil additional collaborations across consulting, industry, and finance.
Founded by Callum Adamson (CEO) and Dr. Samyakh Tukra (Chief AI Officer), Applied Computing’s mission is to deliver superintelligent, production-grade AI solutions to the heavy industries that power modern civilisation.
