Elon Musk is acquiring Mesh Optical Technologies, a startup founded by three former SpaceX engineers developing hardware for data center communications. According to TechCrunch, the deal was revealed in an FTC filing and first reported by Bloomberg. The regulatory agency expedited its antitrust review.
The founders are Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos, and Serena Grown-Haeberli, three engineers who built the optical communication links for SpaceX's Starlink satellites. Mesh announced a $50 million Series A led by Thrive Capital in February. The company develops optical transceivers for data centers, using light instead of traditional electrical systems to speed up data transfer and reduce energy consumption.
Musk's interest aligns with SpaceX's recent deals with Anthropic, Google, and Reflection AI to provide compute capacity at SpaceX data centers. Acquiring Mesh could improve the performance of those facilities. The acquisition combines satellites, data centers, and the optical technology connecting them.
The FTC's rapid approval indicates no major antitrust concerns with the deal.
