ASI Inc., the company formerly known as Air Space Intelligence, has closed a $325 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation, SiliconANGLE reports. Spark Capital led the round. Participants include Citadel Securities, Craft Ventures, Meritech Capital, Energy Impact Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.
The company builds AI models meant to represent physical systems and simulate future scenarios. Operators of critical infrastructure can use them to plan and coordinate in real time. Its customers span aviation, defense and energy.
The funding follows a run of large public-sector wins. In June, ASI signed an $875 million, 12-year agreement with the FAA to help manage future U.S. air traffic. Bloomberg reported that it beat Palantir Technologies and Thales, both of which bid aggressively. The software combines flight paths, live traffic, weather and controller staffing to predict congestion and propose ways around it. The FAA put it into use at Dulles International Airport last month and plans to extend it to all major U.S. airports. The contract reportedly made ASI one of only four technology companies to win a federal award of that size since 2000.
Earlier this month ASI also announced a five-year, $99 million deal to supply the U.S. Army with AI software for its command-and-control program. Airlines including United and Delta are customers, and the company also works with the U.S. Air Force.
For this site's readers, the energy business is the most relevant part. ASI says it helps grid operators simulate their operations and prepare for demand surges. National Grid USA Service Company is named as a customer that uses the software for planning. The source gives no detail on deployment scale or measured results in the energy segment.
ASI plans to use the new capital to expand in aviation, defense and energy and to enter new industries such as logistics. It also intends to grow its research and engineering teams to broaden what the software can do. CEO Phillip Buckendorf argues that economic growth will depend on giving infrastructure operators the means to forecast scenarios and avoid failures.
Why it matters: Investors are putting substantial capital behind simulation and forecasting software for physical infrastructure, and the FAA contract shows that demand extends to government buyers. How far ASI's approach carries over from air traffic to power grids is not yet clear from the energy customers named so far.
TwinStack automated analysis, based on reporting by SiliconANGLE. Check the original for full details.