Introducing Armada: Bringing AI to the Edge
We’re on the cusp of a once-in-a-generation technological revolution, and AI is at the heart of it. Every day, we’re inundated with predictions about how large language models, multimodal AI and predictive models will turn the massive amounts of data our industries create into actionable insights and automation.
We’re told that these novel solutions will ease our workflows, predict (and solve) critical challenges and make our lives easier. Every major company seems intent on figuring out how to harness this technology for their own business needs. According to a recent KPMG survey, 72% of U.S. CEOs said that generative AI is a top investment priority.
It’s an exciting time, to be sure. But when things are moving quickly, it can be easy to overlook deeper, more fundamental issues. There are a few basic truths that we need to keep in mind as this revolution moves forward:
Deglobalization Will Continue: In an era of deglobalization, a growing majority of the industrial data that needs to be processed comes from IoT devices such as cameras, sensors and drones – and increasingly, that data must be analyzed where it’s generated due to stricter data residency laws. According to Gartner estimates, 75% of enterprise-generated data will come from the edge by 2025.
Remote Infrastructure Is Lacking: As it stands, in order for value to be extracted, this data needs to be routed through cloud servers for processing and analysis. This isn’t a problem for industries located in dense hubs where infrastructure is a given – but internet connectivity, compute and AI haven’t yet reached the world’s most remote areas.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution Will Be Decentralized: At this moment, huge areas of the globe are still not covered by basic internet access, much less the level of infrastructure that would allow them to get insights from their data. This includes remote areas where the key industries that humanity depends on — like oil and gas, mining, logistics and defense — operate. These industrial sites are often thousands of miles away from their cloud servers. They need to send the data they collect across oceans and borders, and sometimes wait months to get any semblance of value from it.
Taken together, these three factors create a digital divide that is barring our most critical industries from unlocking the value of the fourth industrial revolution. Or was barring them from it, until today.
Closing the digital divide
Today, we’re thrilled to officially introduce Armada: a full-stack solution that is deployable across on-premise and cloud infrastructure to deliver state-of-the-art edge computing capabilities to the world’s most remote areas. We have raised more than $55M to help achieve this vision — this financing was led by Founders Fund, Lux Capital, Shield Capital and 8090 Industries, with participation from Felicis, Contrary, Valor Equity Partners, Marlinspike, 137 Ventures, Koch Real Estate Investments, 8VC and a cohort of other strategic investors. We are fortunate and honored to have the support of these talented investors and advisors as we bring Armada to life.
Our intelligent edge computing platform, Commander, allows customers to process the massive amounts of data they produce at the edge to derive insights and responses and manage their connectivity and other IoT assets. Our self-contained hardware solution, Galleon, takes that capability one step further by combining Commander with a ruggedized mobile data center that can be deployed anywhere in the world.
Together, these tools allow companies to leverage the power of large language models, multimodal AI and predictive models where they’re needed most – at the edge. We’re excited to bridge the digital divide and give our customers the power to process, analyze and act on the data they create, right where it resides – allowing them to extract key insights faster, foresee possible hazards earlier and comply with international data residency requirements with ease.
To date, we have collaborated with Starlink to provide bandwidth and connectivity at the edge, and are engaged with a number of exciting customers and partners. We’re eager to see what’s possible when critical industries — many of which serve as the backbone for our economy — are given the edge connectivity required to move the needle on the issues that matter, and explore just how far we can go when every industry is included in the AI revolution.
We plan to use the funds we have raised to scale our team, meet the growing demand for our products, build out our partnerships and marketplace, open our platform to innovators that want to build on top of our stack and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible at the edge.
At Armada, we’re bringing cutting-edge connectivity, compute and AI to crucial, chronically under-served locations, and allowing our customers to solve their most pressing problems in real-time. We know that AI can save lives by spotting threats before humans can, and we know that infrastructure can revitalize entire communities by opening up possibilities for education, economic opportunity, and a better quality of life. We believe that everyone has a right to benefit from a more connected, intelligent and fair world — and we’re honored to have a hand in building it.
If you share that vision, we’d love to hear from you. Learn more at armada.ai and join the Armada as we bridge the digital divide.
