Daily Tech: BBAI, HPE, NVIDIA, and Oklo Lead Strategic Deployments

FutureGate | June 26 2025

BigBear.ai Expands Biometric Screening Across Major Airports

BigBear.ai Holdings Inc. (BBAI) has expanded its biometric passenger screening technology to major U.S. and international airports including JFK, LAX, and Chicago O’Hare. The deployment is part of a broader shift toward AI-enhanced identity verification and automation in aviation security.

The system integrates facial recognition, passenger manifest data, and real-time AI-driven analytics to enhance both security and throughput. This marks a meaningful commercial rollout for BigBear.ai, whose platform was originally developed for government and defense use cases. The company is now increasingly penetrating the civil aviation market, where automation is viewed as critical for post-COVID recovery, staffing challenges, and rising passenger volumes.

This airport expansion is a positive catalyst for revenue visibility, particularly as airports modernize and airlines seek to minimize boarding delays. It also positions BBAI as a key AI infrastructure vendor in aviation—a space expected to grow rapidly with IATA estimating global air passenger volumes to double by 2040.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and KDDI Plan AI Data Center Launch by 2026

HPE has partnered with Japanese telecom operator KDDI to build and operationalize an AI-dedicated data center in Japan by early 2026. The facility will be equipped to support enterprise-scale AI workloads, including large language models, inferencing, and edge deployments.

This venture reflects rising demand for sovereign AI infrastructure in Asia, where regulatory compliance and data residency are becoming key themes. By leveraging HPE’s Cray supercomputing systems and KDDI’s network capabilities, the project is positioned to serve clients in manufacturing, logistics, finance, and public sector AI development.

This partnership builds upon the strategic shift by enterprises toward on-premise or hybrid AI training environments, driven by latency, control, and cost considerations. The announcement signals that AI infrastructure spending is moving beyond hyperscalers, with Telco's and hardware players now forming crucial links in the AI value chain.

Lattice Semiconductor and NVIDIA Win Edge AI Breakthrough Award

Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC) and NVIDIA have received the 2025 AI Breakthrough Award for their joint Edge AI solution, which focuses on ultra-low-power, high-efficiency processing at the edge. This collaboration leverages Lattice’s FPGA-based platforms with NVIDIA’s AI toolchains to accelerate smart edge applications in areas such as automotive, industrial robotics, and smart cities.

Edge AI represents a fast-growing subset of the AI market, expected to exceed $60 billion in annual revenues by 2030, according to Gartner. As the market moves from cloud-centric processing toward localized AI inference, demand is rising for compact, real-time AI solutions that don’t rely on cloud latency or bandwidth.

The award underscores the strength of LSCC’s go-to-market strategy and its positioning as a leading pure-play edge compute supplier. For NVIDIA, this highlights its expanding dominance not just in data centre AI but across embedded and edge environments.

Oklo, TerraPower & Hexium Partner on HALEU Nuclear Fuel Supply

Oklo Inc., an advanced fission company backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, has announced a strategic collaboration with TerraPower (backed by Bill Gates) and Hexium to co-develop a domestic supply of High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU).

HALEU is critical for the next generation of small modular and fast reactors, but supply chains are severely limited—particularly after the U.S. halted Russian uranium imports. This partnership aims to fill that strategic void and support the U.S. Department of Energy’s goal to secure domestic HALEU production and reduce dependency on foreign sources.

The deal strengthens Oklo’s vertical integration strategy, allowing it to control more of the fuel cycle for its Aurora microreactor platform. It also highlights the growing momentum behind nuclear as a zero-carbon baseload energy source, with increasing attention from governments and private capital.

The collaboration may also act as a near-term catalyst for investment in nuclear infrastructure and uranium supply chains, especially amid rising geopolitical tensions and energy security imperatives.