[9] Dr. David Hibbitt, Dr. Bengt Karlsson, and Dr. Paul Sorensen co-founded the company later known as Hibbitt, Karlsson & Sorensen, Inc., (HKS) in Jan, 1978 to develop and market ABAQUS software.

Hibbitt and Sorensen had met while completing their Ph.Ds at Brown University while Karlsson encountered the two in his capacity as a support analyst in a data centre in Stockholm.

[12] ABAQUS version 1 was created for a specific client -- Westinghouse Hanford Company which used the software to analyze nuclear fuel rod assemblies.

[13] In the early days, ABAQUS was designed primarily for the nonlinear static and dynamic analysis of structures, and nonlinear steady and transient analysis of heat transfer or conduction problems.

[9][14][15] After that, ABAQUS, Inc. became part of Dassault Systèmes Simulia Corp. Dr. David Hibbitt was still with the company he co-founded as chairman while Mark Goldstein was president and CEO when the company was acquired by Dassault Systèmes.

Since 2014, the headquarters of the company are located in Johnston, Rhode Island, United States.

Abaqus also provides a good collection of multiphysics capabilities, such as coupled acoustic-structural, piezoelectric, and structural-pore capabilities, making it attractive for production-level simulations where multiple fields need to be coupled.

Abaqus was initially designed to address non-linear physical behavior; as a result, the package has an extensive range of material models such as elastomeric (rubberlike) and hyperelastic (soft tissue) material capabilities.