An artificial intelligence startup called ASI Inc., which builds complex models of air traffic and energy grids, said today it has scored $325 million in a Series C funding, bringing its valuation to a cool $3 billion.
The round was led by Spark Capital and joined by participants including Citadel Securities, Craft Ventures, Meritech Capital, Energy Impact Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.
The startup, which used to be known as Air Space Intelligence, is an AI company that develops frontier models designed to model physical reality and simulate future scenarios, so that its customers can plan and orchestrate how they operate critical infrastructure in real time.
It caters to companies in the aviation, defense and energy industries. For instance, it works with the Federal Aviation Administration and airlines such as United Airlines Inc. and Delta Air Lines Inc. to simulate and predict what’s happening in air space, so they can plan their flight operations. It gives pilots and air traffic controllers a way to plan ahead, reduce delays and increase flight safety and efficiency.
In addition, ASI works with the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force and others, providing them with AI-driven command-and-control software that’s used to manage their daily operations. It also helps companies in the energy sector, including grid operators, enabling them to simulate their grid operations and plan for surges in demand.
ASI founder and Chief Executive Phillip Buckendorf (pictured) said he believes that future economic growth will be dependent on giving the people who run the country’s most critical infrastructure the ability to predict and forecast scenarios ahead of time, so they can avoid failures. “While the broader tech ecosystem spent hundreds of billions teaching AI to manipulate words and generate text, ASI is deeply focused on AI systems that can manage and control physical assets,” he stressed. “This capital ensures ASI scales as America’s engine: the automated nervous system keeping the country running.”
https://x.com/AirSpaceIntel/status/2112624335848693925
The round follows a significant customer win for ASI. In June, it signed an $875 million multiyear agreement with the FAA to manage future air traffic across the U.S. with its AI platform. Impressively, it won the 12-year contract ahead of bigger and better known rivals such as Palantir Technologies Inc. and Thales SE, which both made aggressive bids
In air traffic scenarios, ASI’s system combines data from flight paths, real-time air traffic, weather and controller staffing to predict congestion and devise ways to get around problems and avoid delays. The FAA implemented the software at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC last month, and plans to expand it to all major U.S. airports in future.
The contract was a significant win for ASI, making the startup one of only four technology companies to land a federal contract of that size since 2000. Since then, ASI has secured another big contract with the U.S. Army. Earlier this month, it announced it had agreed a five-year deal worth $99 million to supply the military with AI software for its command-and-control program. Another big customer is National Grid USA Service Company Inc., which uses ASI’s software for planning purposes.
Going forward, ASI said the money from today’s round will help it expand further into the aviation, defense and energy sectors and also target new industries such as logistics. It’s also planning to grow its research and engineering teams with an eye to expanding the capabilities of its software.
Photo: ASI
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