Applied Computing, a foundation AI startup for energy operations, has raised £15 million in funding led by KBR, with participation from Databricks Ventures. Alongside the round, the London-based business is expanding into the United States with a new office in Houston, Texas.
Orbital, the flagship platform, is the first foundation model built specifically for energy operations, integrating physics-grounded intelligence with chemical engineering, time-series forecasting and language models. Belonging to a new class of models that optimise the physical world, Orbital is designed to deliver explainable AI for real-world applications, helping operators improve efficiency, reduce emissions, strengthen reliability and make better decisions across complex industrial systems. Using 100% of the available data from downstream energy facilities, the platform significantly outperforms traditional methods across key performance metrics.
Major commercial partnerships are already in place with Databricks, Wipro and KBR, with Orbital integrated into KBR's digital delivery platform, INSITE 3.0.
The new funding will support continued international growth, accelerate commercial deployments with global energy operators, and deepen investment in the AI research organisation, including the new Houston office.
It’s our mission to provide operators with a foundation model that unlocks advantage at scale while delivering pathways to production that are safer, more efficient and far less carbon-intensive. KBR is a natural partner for that mission. Their decades of data, industry domain knowledge and global reach mean we can now accelerate deployment of Orbital across the sector.
We’re very excited about what this technology could unlock across the full lifecycle for multiple industries, and we’re thrilled to make this investment in Applied Computing to spur future technologies. This investment strengthens KBR’s position at the forefront of applied AI and enables us to scale innovations across our full range of licensed technologies, with the potential to create a new paradigm for OpEx analytics and NextGen CapEx delivery. Together, we’re redefining how AI powers the critical systems that drive global economic growth.
