KBR announces strategic UK investment in AI

The investment strengthens KBR’s commitment to delivering advanced, explainable artificial intelligence solutions that improve operational efficiency, safety, and sustainability across the energy, chemical, and industrial sectors.

Together, the companies will accelerate the development of new digital products and expand AI capabilities across KBR’s global technology portfolio.

KBR and Applied Computing have also entered into a multi-year joint development agreement to co-create exclusive AI products for the energy sector.

The companies will integrate Applied Computing’s proprietary Orbital foundational model with KBR’s licensed process technologies, domain expertise in capital projects and supply chains to deploy and develop new technologies across the full energy lifecycle.

This forms a comprehensive, three-pronged approach covering asset operations, capital projects, and the derisking of next generation technologies.

KBR Chief Digital and Development Officer Greg Conlon, said: “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 and has 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.”

Callum Adamson, CEO of Applied Computing, said: “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 fit for that mission. Their decades of data, industry domain knowledge and global reach mean we can now accelerate deployment of Orbital across the sector.”

This represents KBR’s first strategic investment in an AI company and aligns with KBR’s strategy to transform its offerings through technology. Applied Computing’s physics-based AI foundation model (Orbital) represents a major inflection point in the engineering sector’s adoption of AI.

KBR will further support Applied Computing through its board role, co-located teams, and global network to accelerate commercial growth.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/refining/27042026/kbr-announces-strategic-uk-investment-in-ai/