ASI raises $325M at a $3B valuation for the AI that forecasts planes, grids, and battlefields — not chatbots

• Who: ASI, the Boston-based AI company formerly known as Air Space Intelligence, founded by CEO Phillip Buckendorf.
• What: a $325 million Series C round valuing the company at $3 billion, led by Spark Capital with participation from Citadel Securities affiliates, Meritech Capital, Craft Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Andreessen Horowitz.
• What it builds: simulation and monitoring software that helps operators forecast disruptions hours, days, or weeks ahead across air traffic, power grids, and military operations.
• Contract book: a five-year, $99 million US Army contract secured in October plus a 12-year, $875 million FAA contract from June 2026 to modernize US air-traffic management.
• When: announced October 20, 2026.
• Scale marker: the raise ranks in the 99th percentile of all-time US Series C rounds in the security sector (568 deals tracked by Dealroom) — a leap from ASI's $34 million Series B in 2023.

Boston-based ASI, formerly Air Space Intelligence, announced Tuesday it has raised a $325 million Series C at a $3 billion valuation. The round was led by Spark Capital, with participation from affiliates of Citadel Securities, Meritech Capital, Craft Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Andreessen Horowitz. It is a nine-figure bet that the next big AI payoff sits not in models that generate text, but in software that keeps planes flying, grids stable, and command systems running.

ASI builds simulation and monitoring software designed to help operators forecast disruptions hours, days, or weeks ahead across complex physical systems: air traffic, power grids, and military operations. Reuters reported the round on Tuesday, noting investor appetite is shifting toward AI software used in real-world applications rather than consumer-facing generators.

Nearly a billion dollars in federal contracts behind it

The raise is underwritten by an unusually heavy federal contract book. Reuters reports the company secured a five-year, $99 million US Army contract in October covering military command systems, on top of a 12-year, $875 million Federal Aviation Administration contract from June 2026 to modernize US air-traffic management. Together, the two deals are worth $974 million over their terms — an anchor that few startup AI companies can claim.

ASI says it will use the new capital to expand deployments across energy, logistics, and military environments and to add research and engineering staff in Boston.

The AI that manages physical assets, not words

"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 — no matter if that's a plane, a vessel, or the energy grid," founder and CEO Phillip Buckendorf said in the announcement. "This capital ensures ASI scales as America's engine: the automated nervous system keeping the country running."

By the numbers, the round is a standout. Dealroom ranks it in the 99th percentile of all-time US Series C rounds in the security sector across a sample of 568 deals — a sharp jump from the $34 million Series B ASI closed in 2023.

That trajectory puts ASI in the middle of a broader defense-tech and critical-infrastructure AI funding wave that has reshaped venture portfolios in 2026. The question the round raises is pointed: whether the next big AI valuations will come from the companies that talk — or the companies that keep the country running.