Software that predicts where the sky will clog, or when a power grid will strain, is not the kind of AI that writes essays. ASI Inc. builds that kind of model, and it has now banked a $325M Series C at a $3B valuation.
Spark Capital signed the biggest check; Citadel Securities, Craft Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Meritech Capital also joined.
The Boston company, once known as Air Space Intelligence, trains frontier models on the physical world rather than on text, so its users can rehearse what comes next and run critical systems in real time. Airlines, the military and grid operators are the customers.
Winning the FAA before the round
The aviation business runs deepest. In June the Federal Aviation Administration signed an $875M agreement running several years for the agency to manage the country’s future air traffic on the platform, a prize ASI took over Palantir and Thales, both of which bid hard. It is one of only four federal contracts of that size awarded since 2000.
Dulles International, outside Washington, went live with the software last month, with wider coverage of major US airports planned. A five-year, $99M deal to give the military command-and-control tools followed this month, and National Grid USA relies on the software for planning.
Chief executive and founder Phillip Buckendorf points out that rivals spent hundreds of billions on words and video while his team targets assets where a bad call is unacceptable. The company will push into logistics and add researchers and engineers, though federal buying cycles remain a risk.
