BigBear.ai secures Ask Sage with a $250 million deal, finalising the acquisition of the fast-growing generative AI platform built for secure deployment and agentic capabilities across defense, national security and other highly regulated environments. The all-cash transaction enhances BigBear.ai’s mission-ready AI portfolio by integrating Ask Sage’s secure generative workflows with its existing decision intelligence offerings.
The acquisition follows a definitive agreement announced alongside BigBear.ai’s third-quarter 2025 financial results and represents a major strategic milestone in the company’s inorganic growth strategy, reinforcing its position in secure, production-ready artificial intelligence.
Ask Sage: A Secure Generative AI Platform Built for High-Stakes Environments
Ask Sage has established itself as a leading generative AI platform specifically designed for use in highly regulated sectors such as defense, national security, government agencies, and compliance-heavy commercial industries. Unlike consumer-focused AI tools, Ask Sage was architected from the ground up with security, data sovereignty, and governance at its core.
The platform enables organizations to deploy, orchestrate, and manage AI models securely across distributed environments. It supports advanced agentic workflows, allowing AI systems to perform complex, multi-step tasks while operating within clearly defined policy and compliance boundaries.
Prior to the acquisition, Ask Sage had already achieved impressive scale. The platform served more than 100,000 active users across approximately 16,000 government teams, in addition to hundreds of commercial organizations. This level of adoption underscores strong traction within defense and government ecosystems, where trust and operational reliability are essential prerequisites for AI adoption.
Rapid Revenue Growth Signals Strong Market Demand
Ask Sage’s financial performance further highlights its momentum. In 2025, the platform is projected to generate approximately $25 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), representing a nearly sixfold increase compared to its 2024 ARR. This rapid growth reflects not only increasing adoption but also expanding use cases across agencies and enterprises seeking secure generative AI solutions.
The strong revenue trajectory made Ask Sage an attractive acquisition target for BigBear.ai, which has consistently emphasized disciplined growth and solutions that deliver measurable operational value. By bringing a fast-growing, revenue-generating platform into its ecosystem, BigBear.ai strengthens both its financial profile and its competitive positioning.
Strategic Rationale Behind the $250 Million Deal
The acquisition of Ask Sage aligns closely with BigBear.ai’s strategic vision to unify data, AI software, and mission services into a single, secure environment. BigBear.ai has long focused on delivering AI-powered decision intelligence to defense, intelligence, and regulated commercial customers. Integrating Ask Sage’s generative AI capabilities significantly broadens that offering.
The combined platform enables customers to leverage generative AI alongside predictive analytics, simulation, and operational decision tools—all within a framework designed to meet rigorous security and compliance standards. This integration allows organizations to adopt advanced AI technologies without compromising control over sensitive data or violating regulatory requirements.
According to BigBear.ai leadership, customers have been increasingly vocal about their need for AI solutions that are both powerful and trustworthy. The Ask Sage acquisition directly addresses this demand by combining generative AI innovation with BigBear.ai’s established mission-focused expertise.
Advancing Secure AI Adoption in Defense and National Security
The defense and national security sectors are experiencing a growing need for AI systems that can operate reliably in contested, classified, or data-restricted environments. While generative AI has shown tremendous potential, many organizations remain cautious about deploying such technologies due to concerns around data leakage, model governance, and operational risk.
Ask Sage’s platform is designed to overcome these barriers. Its architecture supports secure model deployment, controlled access, and policy-driven workflows, making it suitable for environments where conventional cloud-based AI tools are not viable.
By integrating Ask Sage, BigBear.ai strengthens its ability to support defense and intelligence agencies as they transition AI from pilot projects into mission-critical operations. This capability is increasingly important as governments seek to modernize decision-making, intelligence analysis, and operational planning through AI.
A Broader Shift Toward Mission-Ready Generative AI
The acquisition reflects a broader trend within the AI industry: the shift from experimental generative AI applications to production-ready systems designed for regulated and high-risk environments. As organizations move beyond proofs of concept, they require platforms that deliver explainability, auditability, and compliance alongside performance.
BigBear.ai’s move highlights how secure generative AI is becoming a key differentiator in markets such as defense, intelligence, critical infrastructure, healthcare, and finance. In these sectors, AI adoption is driven not only by innovation but also by trust, governance, and long-term sustainability.
By investing $250 million in Ask Sage, BigBear.ai signals its confidence that secure, agentic AI platforms will play a central role in the next phase of enterprise and government AI adoption.
Strengthening BigBear.ai’s Inorganic Growth Strategy
The Ask Sage acquisition is a cornerstone of BigBear.ai’s inorganic growth strategy, which focuses on acquiring complementary technologies that enhance its core capabilities. Rather than pursuing AI for AI’s sake, the company has prioritized solutions that integrate seamlessly with its mission services and deliver immediate value to customers.
This disciplined approach has allowed BigBear.ai to build a differentiated portfolio that spans data engineering, predictive analytics, decision intelligence, and now secure generative AI. The addition of Ask Sage accelerates this strategy by filling a critical gap in generative AI functionality tailored for regulated environments.
Importantly, the acquisition is expected to be accretive to BigBear.ai’s long-term growth objectives, supported by Ask Sage’s strong ARR growth and expanding customer base.
Unlocking New Opportunities in Regulated Commercial Markets
While defense and national security remain core focus areas, the combined BigBear.ai–Ask Sage platform also opens new opportunities in regulated commercial markets. Industries such as energy, aerospace, telecommunications, and financial services face similar challenges around data security, compliance, and operational risk.
The integrated platform allows these organizations to deploy generative AI for tasks such as operational planning, risk analysis, and decision support—without exposing sensitive data or relying on consumer-grade AI tools.
As regulatory scrutiny around AI continues to increase globally, demand for secure, auditable AI platforms is expected to rise. BigBear.ai’s expanded capabilities position it to address this demand across both public and private sectors.
Leadership Perspective on the Acquisition
BigBear.ai CEO Kevin McAleenan has emphasized that the acquisition reflects direct feedback from customers seeking unified, secure AI platforms. According to McAleenan, the goal is to deliver AI solutions that organizations can trust—solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows while meeting the highest standards for security and compliance.
The acquisition also reinforces BigBear.ai’s commitment to moving AI from the lab into real-world operations. By combining Ask Sage’s generative capabilities with BigBear.ai’s mission services, the company aims to help customers achieve faster adoption and greater impact from AI investments.
Integration and Roadmap Expectations
With the acquisition complete, BigBear.ai is expected to move quickly to integrate Ask Sage’s platform into its broader technology stack. This integration will focus on delivering a unified user experience, shared governance frameworks, and enhanced interoperability between generative AI and decision intelligence tools.
Customers can expect expanded capabilities that allow them to deploy agentic AI workflows, automate complex tasks, and gain deeper insights from data—all within a secure, mission-ready environment.
The combined roadmap is anticipated to accelerate innovation while maintaining the rigorous standards required by defense and regulated markets.
Looking Ahead: A Stronger Position in Secure AI
The completion of the Ask Sage acquisition marks a pivotal moment for BigBear.ai as it strengthens its position in secure, production-ready AI. As governments and enterprises increasingly seek trusted AI platforms capable of operating at scale, BigBear.ai is well positioned to meet this demand.
By uniting generative AI, predictive analytics, and mission services under one secure umbrella, the company offers a compelling value proposition for customers navigating the complexities of AI adoption in sensitive environments.
As the AI landscape continues to evolve, BigBear.ai’s strategic investment in Ask Sage underscores a clear message: the future of AI lies not only in innovation, but in trust, security, and operational readiness.
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