AMP secured $70 million in project debt financing led by Galvanize to develop AI-powered waste infrastructure in Portsmouth, Virginia. The financing will support construction of a new sortation facility and an organics processing system.
The projects are part of AMP’s 20-year partnership with the Southeastern Public Service Authority.
At full scale, the regional system is designed to process more than 500,000 tons of municipal solid waste annually, equivalent to more than 1,400 tons per day.
The system is expected to divert at least half of the processed material from landfills.
AMP’s technology uses AI-powered cameras, robotics, and pneumatic jets to identify and recover plastics, metals, fiber, organic material, and other recyclable materials from municipal waste.
Unlike traditional recycling systems, AMP’s system can process raw municipal solid waste, including sealed trash bags, without requiring consumers to separate recyclable material before collection.
The latest financing builds on more than two years of operating experience at AMP’s existing Portsmouth facility.
AMP is now equipping a second sortation facility in Portsmouth that is expected to become operational in early 2028.
An adjacent facility will process recovered organic material into biochar using indirect heating.
AMP initially plans to use the biochar as daily landfill cover, with potential future applications in construction and cement.
Biochar production will also generate carbon removal credits supporting AMP’s agreement with Google to remove 200,000 metric tonnes of CO2e by 2030.
AMP and SPSA expect the broader system to guarantee that 20% of SPSA’s waste is recycled while diverting at least half of material delivered to AMP’s facilities.
SPSA serves approximately 1.2 million residents across eight member communities.
KEY QUOTES:
“We’ve shown that this model works at commercial scale, and this financing demonstrates that we can pair our technology with long-term project capital to accelerate deployment.”
“Galvanize’s investment is an important validation that AI-powered waste sorting has moved from novel technology to financeable infrastructure, creating a repeatable path for deploying AMP’s systems with communities and waste operators across the country.”
Mary Macpherson, SVP of Finance at AMP
“Waste is a massive, under-modernized infrastructure market, and AMP is changing its economics.”
Suresh Vasan, Partner, Credit & Capital Solutions at Galvanize
