Elon Musk has received regulatory clearance to move forward with the planned acquisition of Mesh Optical Technologies, a startup founded last year by three former SpaceX engineers developing high-speed optical networking hardware for AI data centers.
The proposed deal was revealed in a filing with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and was first reported by Bloomberg. The filing confirms that the FTC completed its antitrust review on an expedited basis, allowing the acquisition to proceed.
Mesh Optical emerged from stealth mode in February, announcing a $50 million Series A funding round led by Thrive Capital.
The company was founded by former SpaceX engineers Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos, and Serena Grown-Haeberli, who previously helped develop the optical communication systems that connect thousands of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites in orbit.
Building on that experience, the founders shifted their focus to terrestrial AI infrastructure, developing optical transceivers for data centers. Compared with traditional electrical networking hardware, optical technology offers higher speeds, lower latency, and improved energy efficiency.
The acquisition comes as SpaceX continues expanding its AI infrastructure business. The company has recently signed major compute agreements with Anthropic, Google, and open-source AI developer Reflection AI, providing access to AI computing capacity through its data centers and creating a significant new revenue stream following its public market debut.
If completed, the acquisition could strengthen SpaceX’s data center capabilities by integrating Mesh’s optical networking technology, potentially improving communication efficiency across both terrestrial AI facilities and the company’s future space-based computing infrastructure.
