Amazon has announced a deal to acquire satellite communications company Globalstar for $11.57 billion, marking one of the most significant moves yet in the intensifying race for dominance in satellite-based internet services. The acquisition — the second-largest in Amazon's history, behind its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods in 2017 — gives the tech giant direct access to Globalstar's existing network of roughly two dozen low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites, and is widely seen as a direct challenge to Starlink, the satellite internet division of Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Under the terms of the deal, Globalstar shareholders may choose to receive either $90 in cash or 0.3210 shares of Amazon common stock for each share they hold. Globalstar shares surged more than 9 percent in premarket trading following the announcement, while Amazon's stock rose approximately 1 percent. The acquisition is expected to close next year, pending regulatory approval and the achievement of specific satellite deployment milestones by Globalstar.
The deal is set to strengthen Amazon's Project Kuiper — recently rebranded as Amazon Leo — an ambitious programme to deploy approximately 3,200 satellites into low-Earth orbit by 2029, with around half required to be operational by a regulatory deadline in July 2026. Amazon currently has more than 200 satellites in orbit and plans to begin commercial satellite internet services later this year. Globalstar, by contrast, operates a proven LEO constellation covering the United States, Canada, Europe, and Central and South America, and had nearly 800,000 subscribers at the end of 2025. The company is perhaps best known internationally as the operator behind Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite feature for iPhones. Apple, which invested approximately $1.5 billion in Globalstar in 2024 for a roughly 20 percent stake, has signed a separate agreement with Amazon to ensure that satellite-based safety features — including Emergency SOS and Find My — continue to function for iPhone and Apple Watch users after the acquisition closes.
The scale of the challenge Amazon faces should not be understated. Starlink, which has around 10,000 satellites in orbit and serves more than nine million active subscribers globally, is expected to generate over $9 billion in revenue this year and is itself preparing for what could be the largest stock market listing in history, with a projected valuation of around $2 trillion. Amazon has acknowledged facing pressure to meet its own regulatory deployment targets and has requested an extension from the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for an interim milestone requiring 1,600 satellites in orbit by July 2026.
The strategic logic of the acquisition is nonetheless clear. By absorbing Globalstar's existing satellite infrastructure, Amazon reduces its dependence on external suppliers and accelerates its path to a commercially viable network. The company has already secured early customers including Delta Airlines, JetBlue, AT&T, Vodafone, and NASA, and claims its eventual network will outperform current solutions by a significant margin in upload speeds. The deal signals that Amazon, long seen as falling behind in the satellite internet race, is now prepared to invest at scale to close the gap.