Elon Musk eyes acquisition of SpaceX-linked optics startup Mesh

The Federal Trade Commission filing showed Elon Musk seeking to acquire Mesh Optical Technologies, the Los Angeles startup founded by three former SpaceX engineers, and the agency moved the matter through an expedited antitrust review. The deal puts a SpaceX-linked optics company at the center of a larger question about how far Musk’s control can extend into communications and compute infrastructure.

Mesh came out of stealth in February 2026 with a $50 million Series A led by Thrive Capital. The company was founded by Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos and Serena Grown-Haeberli, who had previously worked on optical communications links for Starlink satellites at SpaceX. Mesh built its business around optical transceivers for data centers, the hardware that helps connect GPUs inside AI clusters.

The company said it wanted to manufacture about 1,000 units per day within a year and be ready for bulk orders in 2027 and 2028. Its founders argued that the optical transceiver market is dominated by Chinese suppliers and that U.S.-based supply chains matter for national security. That framing gives the deal a sharper regulatory edge than a typical startup acquisition, because it ties a Musk-controlled company to infrastructure that sits inside the AI buildout and touches a strategically sensitive supply chain.

Mesh’s pitch also centered on efficiency. One design estimate said the company’s transceivers could reduce GPU cluster power usage by 3% to 5%, a meaningful gain for operators running dense, electricity-hungry data centers. If that number holds, the technology would not only lower operating costs but also strengthen the value of any Musk-owned platform that wants cheaper, more efficient compute.

SpaceX’s recent compute-capacity agreements with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI add another layer to the deal. Those contracts show SpaceX moving beyond launch and satellites toward the data-center market itself, which means Mesh could eventually feed efficiency gains into SpaceX’s terrestrial operations and, potentially, systems built for space. The FTC’s early termination notice on March 11 for a separate Musk-related transaction involving Valor Equity Partners and SpaceX shows the agency is already watching closely as Musk’s companies continue to overlap across aerospace, communications and artificial intelligence.