Elon Musk has secured clearance from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to acquire Mesh Optical Technologies, a data centre infrastructure startup with a focus on AI.
The approval, listed under FTC transaction number 20261601 and showing Musk as the acquiring party, was granted on 25 June. Neither party has disclosed the financial details of the transaction.
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Mesh Optical Technologies was established by a group of former SpaceX engineers. The company specialises in designing optical transceivers for AI-powered data centres.
In February 2026, Mesh closed a $50m Series A funding round to support the expansion of its data architecture offerings.
The startup’s technology is aimed at addressing speed, bandwidth, and heat limitations present in traditional copper cabling by using optical transceivers.
These transceivers convert electrical signals into light, enabling high-speed data transfer between servers and graphics processing units while consuming less power.
The acquisition comes shortly after SpaceX’s initial public offering and is seen as part of a broader series of technology investments across Musk’s companies.
Mesh Optical Technologies’ innovations are expected to be integrated into broader projects, including those at SpaceX.
The technology is being considered for deployment in orbital environments, which aligns with SpaceX’s expansion into advanced AI computing capabilities through its satellite network.
According to information in the notice, SpaceX intends to support AI computing by building a network of up to one million satellites.
Mesh Optical Technologies remains an independent entity at the time of approval, focused on optical hardware as a solution for data centre bottlenecks.
Prior to this, SpaceX entered into a multi-year contract with Reflection AI to provide the startup with data centre computing capacity worth approximately $1.8bn annually.
