Volato completes Alignment Engine merger to enter AI data center market
Volato Group, Inc. (NYSE American: SOAR) has completed its merger with Alignment Engine Inc., expanding the company's business into artificial intelligence infrastructure while maintaining its existing aviation software operations.
With the merger closed, Volato now holds a leased data center site in Ohio where power, water, and water treatment infrastructure are already operational. The company said near-term priorities include procuring and financing GPUs, beginning equipment installation, and securing customer agreements for AI compute capacity.
According to Grand View Research, the global AI data center market was valued at $147.3 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $810.6 billion by 2033, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 23.9%. Volato noted it has not independently verified this data.
Chris Ensey was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Volato in connection with the merger closing. "Our Ohio site is under lease, our teams are actively at work advancing the infrastructure, and with the merger now complete, our focus is execution," Ensey said.
Under the merger terms, former Alignment Engine securityholders received non-voting convertible preferred stock and replacement options and warrants intended to represent approximately 95% of Volato's fully diluted equity, with legacy Volato securityholders retaining approximately 5%. The preferred stock cannot convert to common shares until stockholder and NYSE American listing approvals are obtained, meaning the merger closing did not result in a change of control.
Volato said it plans to seek required stockholder approvals at a future meeting. The company's common stock continues to trade on the NYSE American under the ticker symbol "SOAR."
Alignment Engine's technology includes a product called NeuralSync, which the company says is designed to improve coordination and utilization of accelerator resources across distributed AI infrastructure. Volato said it intends to market compute capacity directly to enterprise and other AI customers in phased deployments.
Volato also continues to operate Parslee, an aviation software platform, and Vaunt, a private aviation membership marketplace.
