Applied Intuition just dropped a $600 million Series F, and it’s not just a headline, it’s a flex. A machine learning maestro turned multibillion-dollar powerhouse, now clocking in at a $15 billion valuation. For the folks still asking if vehicle intelligence is a “real market,” this is your sign to stop squinting and start studying.
Founded in 2017 by Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig, two Detroit-rooted technologists who didn’t just know the game, they helped write it, Applied Intuition isn’t chasing autonomous hype. They’re building the infrastructure for it. Qasar Younis, ex-Y Combinator COO and former GM/Bosch engineer, teamed up with Peter Ludwig, a software whisperer from Google with gasoline in his bloodline. Together, they built a company that doesn’t pitch vaporware, it ships product.
This round, co-led by BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins, with new firepower from Franklin Templeton, QIA, ADIC, Premji Invest, Stripes, and Greycroft, tells you exactly what the smart capital sees: not a bet, but a multiplier. And the returning squad, Fidelity, General Catalyst, Lux, BOND, Elad Gil, Addition, Tribe Capital, they’re not in the habit of doubling down unless the numbers command it.
Applied Intuition’s triple-digit YoY growth isn’t a fluke, it’s a blueprint. They’ve got 18 of the top 20 global automakers on speed dial and defense contracts that move faster than procurement red tape. When your software transforms U.S. Army infantry vehicles in ten days flat and powers the first AI dogfight with the U.S. Air Force, you’re not in the space, you are the space.
Let’s talk real estate: from Mountain View to Munich, Seoul to San Diego, they’re stacking global expansion like it’s chess. Add in the EpiSci acquisition, a $171M Pentagon contract, and a partnership with OpenAI, and you’re looking at a company that’s not just building simulation tools, they’re architecting the intelligence layer for every moving machine.
This isn’t just AV. It’s trucking, mining, agriculture, construction, hell, even defense. Applied Intuition is bringing high-margin, dual-use software to sectors still stuck in spreadsheet mode. Their stack? 14 products deep, ISO26262 aligned, with simulation that mimics the real world down to sensor-level physics.
And while others are still demoing dashboards, Applied Intuition is pushing 1,000+ new features a quarter. At 85% gross margins.
This round fuels deeper product expansion, global headcount, and a full-throttle push into vehicle intelligence that goes far beyond four wheels. With leadership like Jason Brown running defense, Tristam Constant steering European government strategy, and Sunmin Kim driving policy, they’ve got a war room that plays the long game, and wins it.
Congrats to Qasar Younis and Peter Ludwig for engineering a moment that doesn’t just scale Applied Intuition, it scales the very idea of what intelligent mobility looks like. This is what the future of movement sounds like when it roars.
