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Musk gets FTC nod to acquire SpaceX alumni start-up
Mesh Optical was founded by ex-SpaceX engineers

Musk gets FTC nod to acquire SpaceX alumni start-up

Jun 27, 2026
02:36 pm

What's the story

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has expedited its antitrust review for Elon Musk's proposed acquisition of Mesh Optical Technologies, a start-up founded by three former SpaceX engineers. The news was first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed through an FTC filing. The agency fast-tracked its antitrust review process for the deal, paving the way for Musk's potential acquisition of the company.

Company profile

Mesh Optical Technologies is a start-up founded last year

Founded last year, Mesh Optical Technologies is developing hardware for fast data center communications. The company came out of stealth mode in February after raising a $50 million Series A round led by Thrive Capital. The start-up's co-founders, Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos, and Serena Grown-Haeberli, were instrumental in developing the optical communication links that keep thousands of SpaceX's Starlink satellites interconnected.

Technological innovation

Co-founders of Mesh Optical saw an opportunity

The co-founders of Mesh Optical Technologies saw an opportunity to develop optical transceivers for terrestrial data centers. This is because light-based hardware is faster and more energy-efficient than traditional electrical-based systems. The company's innovative approach could revolutionize how data centers communicate, making them more efficient and less power-hungry in the process.

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Business expansion

SpaceX has signed deals with Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI

Recently, SpaceX has signed deals with Anthropic, Google, and open-source AI developer Reflection AI to provide compute capacity at its data centers. The move is expected to create a major new revenue stream for the newly public company. The acquisition of Mesh Optical Technologies could further enhance SpaceX's data center efficiency on Earth or potentially in space in the future.

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