Is BigBear.ai Building a FedRAMP-First GenAI Advantage?

BigBear.ai Holdings, Inc. BBAI is moving quickly to position itself as a first mover in secure, government-grade generative AI, and its acquisition of Ask Sage appears central to that strategy. Federal agencies want GenAI, but adoption is constrained by security, data sovereignty and accreditation hurdles. BigBear.ai’s approach is to start with compliance first, rather than retrofit it later.

The December 2025 acquisition of Ask Sage for $250 million gives BigBear.ai a production-ready, model-agnostic GenAI platform already operating inside the most demanding federal environments. Ask Sage holds FedRAMP High authorization and supports deployment across classified clouds, on-prem systems and secure edge environments. This accreditation posture is difficult to replicate and shortens procurement cycles for agencies that cannot experiment with non-compliant tools.

Management highlighted that Ask Sage already supports more than 100,000 users across roughly 16,000 government teams, with annual recurring revenue expected to reach about $25 million in 2025 after growing sixfold year over year. Importantly, the platform is model-agnostic, allowing agencies to use OpenAI, Anthropic, government-approved or open-source models under a single, governed framework. This flexibility matters as agencies avoid vendor lock-in while experimenting with agentic AI use cases.

The third quarter of 2025 earnings call underscored why BigBear.ai views this as a platform play, not just a revenue add-on. Ask Sage is one of the few GenAI platforms with FedRAMP High already deployed across DoD and national security customers, creating what management described as a “deploy-now” advantage while competitors remain stuck in certification queues.

Near term, integration risk and uneven legacy contract performance remain watch items. Still, if GenAI spending accelerates across defense and civilian agencies, BigBear.ai’s FedRAMP-first strategy could translate into faster scaling, stickier customers and a durable edge in regulated AI markets.

BBAI’s Competitive Landscape — GenAI in Secure Government AI

In the FedRAMP-focused secure AI arena, Palantir Technologies and C3.ai are two peers investors should watch alongside BigBear.ai.

Palantir Technologies PLTR has longstanding ties with U.S. defense and intelligence agencies, embedding its AI-infused platforms like Palantir Gotham and Foundry into mission-critical workflows. Palantir’s deep integrations and extensive datasets provide a competitive edge in secure analytics. The company’s established FedRAMP-authorized environments and track record make it a tough benchmark for BigBear.ai’s FedRAMP-first GenAI push.

C3.ai AI also targets enterprise and government AI deployments, including secure cloud integrations. C3.ai’s model-agnostic AI suite and partnerships with cloud providers help it compete for similar government digital transformation mandates. The company’s early focus on AI for regulated industries means it understands compliance demands akin to what BigBear.ai is now prioritizing.

Both Palantir Technologies and C3.ai bring scale and broader enterprise footprints, making Palantir and C3.ai direct comparators to BigBear.ai’s attempt to win regulated GenAI workloads.

BBAI Stock’s Price Performance & Valuation Trend

Shares of this Virginia-based AI-powered decision intelligence solutions provider have trended downward by 8.8% in the past six months, underperforming the Zacks Computers - IT Services industry, the Zacks Computer and Technology sector, and the S&P 500 Index, as shown below.

BBAI’s 6-Month Price Performance

BBAI stock is currently trading at almost a similar pace compared with the industry peers, with a forward 12-month price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 15.93, as evidenced by the chart below.

BBAI’s P/S Ratio (Forward 12-Month) vs. Industry

EPS Trend of BBAI

BBAI’s bottom-line estimates for 2026 have narrowed over the past 60 days at a loss per share of 25 cents, indicating a year-over-year improvement, as shown below. 
 

BigBear.ai stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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