Cardiff, UK, 28 April 2026 - Locai, the sovereign AI infrastructure company, today announces a two-year contract with B2Space, the stratospheric aerospace company, to provide the secure infrastructure layer powering AI agent operations at the edge of space. The deployment is expected to reduce bandwidth consumption by up to 95%, enabling real-time image analysis and processing in one of the most extreme and connectivity-constrained environments on Earth.
B2Space operates high-altitude stratospheric platforms for earth observation, communications, and sensing. In environments where satellite connectivity is expensive, intermittent, and bandwidth-limited, the ability to process data locally and transmit only what matters is not a performance optimisation - it is a mission requirement. Locai’s infrastructure provides the intelligent edge layer that makes this possible: running AI agents directly on-platform, analysing and filtering imagery before it ever reaches a ground station.
The deal underscores a fundamental shift in how AI systems are being architected for critical and remote operations. Where cloud-dependent AI requires continuous, high-bandwidth uplinks, Locai’s approach decouples inference from connectivity. AI agents run autonomously at the point of data collection, making decisions locally and transmitting only relevant, processed outputs. For B2Space, this means orders-of-magnitude improvements in operational efficiency without sacrificing capability.
“We’re genuinely excited to be working with B2Space on this. They’re operating in one of the most challenging environments imaginable, and that’s exactly where agentic AI has the most to offer. At 30km above the Earth, cloud AI isn’t just impractical, it’s a liability. You can’t wait for a satellite link to tell you whether you’re looking at a wildfire or a cloud formation. The AI has to think for itself, on the platform, in the moment. That’s what sovereign AI infrastructure actually means in practice. B2Space own their intelligence completely. It runs on their hardware, under their control, and it keeps working even when the link drops. If we can deliver that in the stratosphere, we can deliver it anywhere.”
Saif Al-Ibadi, Co-founder, Locai
“Integrating Locai’s edge AI infrastructure is a critical enabler for scaling these services. By processing data directly onboard our platforms, we can drastically reduce bandwidth dependency, accelerate decision-making cycles, and deliver actionable intelligence to end users in near real time, even in denied or connectivity-constrained environments.”
Valentin Canales, CEO, B2Space
The contract builds on a proven track record. Locai was founded by Joseph Ward and Saif Al-Ibadi, who previously designed and deployed production AI systems for highly resource-constrained aerospace and defence environments, including work with the UK Ministry of Defence. That experience, building AI that functions reliably when infrastructure is scarce and failure is not an option, is directly reflected in how Locai’s platform is designed. Flexibility is built in from the ground up: the same infrastructure that manages agents at the edge of space can be deployed on a secure enterprise server, an air-gapped government facility, or dedicated on-device hardware.
This is not the first time AI sovereignty has driven demand for Locai’s infrastructure. The company, which raised £1 million in pre-seed funding led by Fuel Ventures in early 2026, has been purpose-built for environments where organisations need full control over where their AI runs and what it touches. For B2Space, the implications extend beyond bandwidth: data generated at altitude, imagery, sensor feeds, geospatial intelligence, never has to leave the platform unnecessarily, preserving operational security and data integrity from collection to transmission.
As AI moves beyond the data centre and into the physical world, on aircraft, ships, remote industrial sites, and now the stratosphere, the limitations of cloud-dependent architectures are becoming operationally critical. Locai’s infrastructure is designed for exactly these conditions: flexible enough to deploy anywhere, robust enough to operate without supervision, and sovereign by design.
ENDS
Notes to Editors For further information, please contact press@locai.co.uk or visit www.locai.co.uk
About Locai Locai is a deep-tech AI infrastructure company providing sovereign, off-cloud AI systems for enterprise, government, and mission-critical deployments. Its platform shifts AI inference from centralised cloud providers to the point of operation, whether that is a user’s device, a secure on-premises server, or a remote physical platform. Founded by Joseph Ward and Saif Al-Ibadi, Locai draws on deep experience applying AI to constrained, high-stakes environments including aerospace, defence, and spacecraft. The company raised £1 million in pre-seed funding in 2026, led by Fuel Ventures.