Space companies buying up AI firms is almost a trend.
CesiumAstro announced Thursday that it had acquired Vidrovr, a company that focuses on prioritizing tasks and automating repetitive processes with the help of AI. CesiumAstro is the second company this month to rely on M&A to boost AI tech, after SpaceX acquired xAI (both owned by Elon Musk).
“By embedding AI directly into our telecommunications payloads, we enable adaptive RF optimization, autonomous tasking, and real-time decision-making at the edge,” Chief Revenue Officer Trey Pappas said in a statement. “This reduces latency, improves spectrum efficiency, and allows our customers to operate resilient, self-optimizing space networks at scale.”
More details: For CesiumAstro, the AI will allow sats to prioritize which data can be processed in space, and which needs to be sent to ground stations. Joe Ellis, who co-founded Vidrovr in 2016, will lead integration of the AI company’s software into CesiumAstro’s sats.
“Our goal is to bring machine-learning inference as close to the data as possible, on-orbit, and quickly route the most important data to where it should be processed on Earth,” Ellis said in the statement.
The bottom line: Space companies scooping up AI are all about getting ready to execute on the buzzword of 2026: orbital data centers. The space community seems split on the feasibility of positioning data centers in orbit to make use of solar power and chilly temps to enable AI and edge computing in space.
While prominent names in the industry—including Musk—see big opportunities (and potentially big payoffs), pessimists argue that cost and tech hurdles make the idea impractical.
Even with the naysayers, we’re predicting it won’t be long until we hear about a third acquisition, officially making a trend.
Phantom Space Acquires Vector Launch Assets
Phantom Space just got a boatload of pre-owned toys to play with.
Exclusive: Charter Space Launches an Insurance Brokerage
Charter Space is done dipping its toes in the insurance market—opting instead to cannonball in.
Exclusive: Sceye Unveils SceyeCELL Antenna
Sceye announced today a platform designed to merge the best of space and ground comms in the stratosphere.
Orbital Data, Niche Markets Give Space Solar a New Shimmer
The face of space-based solar power (SBSP) is changing due to surging interest in in-space industry and data centers. While some companies are racing toward these new opportunities, others are sticking with the technology’s original goal of powering life on Earth.
Phantom Space just got a boatload of pre-owned toys to play with.
The AZ-based launch startup announced today that it acquired assets and IP belonging to Vector Launch—another Arizona launch hopeful that filed for bankruptcy in 2019, and attempted, unsuccessfully, to revive its launch dreams under new management in the years since.
Phantom declined to share the value of the acquisition, but CEO Jim Cantrell told Payload that the deal was funded by a previously unannounced Series B, which closed late last year for an amount in the eight-figure range.
Keep reading