ASI, a Boston company that builds AI software for running physical infrastructure, has raised $325 million in a Series C round that values it at $3 billion. The startup announced the financing on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. Spark Capital led the round. Andreessen Horowitz, Energy Impact Partners, Craft Ventures, Meritech Capital and entities affiliated with Citadel Securities also took part. The company did not say how much of the round each investor contributed.
The company was previously called Air Space Intelligence and moved its headquarters from Silicon Valley to Boston in 2024, the Boston Globe reports. Its software runs continuous forward simulations of complex systems, combining deterministic and probabilistic models so that operators can see likely disruptions hours, days or weeks before they happen. Founder and chief executive Phillip Buckendorf contrasts this with the industry's heavy spending on models that generate text, saying ASI focuses on controlling physical assets such as aircraft, ships and electricity networks.
Its growth has been driven by large government contracts. In June, the US Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration gave ASI a 12-year program of record worth $875 million to help modernize the National Airspace System, the network that tracks and guides flights across the country. In October, the US Army awarded it a five-year, $99 million contract tied to its next-generation command and control work. ASI says it also works with the US Air Force and Pacific Command.
On the commercial side, the company counts three major US carriers, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Alaska Airlines, among its customers, and the utility National Grid, which serves more than 20 million people in the northeastern United States, has partnered with ASI to plan and run parts of its electricity network. ASI says the new money will fund larger deployments in energy, logistics and tactical military settings, and the expansion of its research and engineering teams in Boston.
Bloomberg places the deal within a wider revival of US defense and aerospace technology startups, as investors and government agencies show more interest in software for military and critical systems. According to PitchBook data cited by the Boston Globe, the round is the eighth-largest venture deal in Massachusetts this year and, among local AI companies, trails only Suno's $400 million raise in June.
The round is significant because most AI investment has gone to language models and chatbots. ASI's valuation shows investors paying up for AI that plans and optimizes real-world operations, where mistakes are costly and buyers are governments, airlines and utilities rather than consumers.
There are caveats. The claims about the company's speed in winning federal work and its performance in live operations come from ASI and its investors. ASI did not disclose revenue or profitability, and multiyear government programs depend on continued funding and delivery milestones. Its role in sensitive defense and air traffic systems is also likely to draw scrutiny over reliability and oversight.