Amazon Prime in Space - Globalstar acquisition and industry implications
This was a fun topic for me to write about because one of the first deals I worked on when I started my finance career out of college was the original Globalstar IPO. And ironically enough around the same time was when Amazon actually launched (pun intended). Who would have thought back then that Amazon would grow to the size it is today, with so many different businesses and end up acquiring a company that at the time was actually better capitalized than they were? Ok enough nostalgia and lets look at why Amazon is buying Globalstar and what are some of the strategic implications.
Amazon’s $11–12 billion bid to acquire satellite operator Globalstar seems at first glance like a move to catch up with SpaceX in the satellite internet race. But it’s much more: this deal is part of Amazon’s vertical integration of connectivity, devices, and cloud—a strategic leap that echoes Amazon’s past moves to build its own distribution network and cloud data centers. By absorbing Globalstar, Amazon isn’t simply buying satellites; it’s securing a globally licensed spectrum asset and a live space network, providing the missing piece of a future-proof infrastructure stack. In short, Amazon is positioning itself to control the entire pipeline from consumer devices (like smartphones and IoT gadgets) to orbiting networks and straight into Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers.
This is a dramatic push toward connectivity as a core Amazon platform capability, not just a service. A device on the ground could connect directly to an Amazon-owned satellite and route data to AWS seamlessly, without relying on traditional carriers. The implications go far beyond offering satellite texting for hikers in remote areas; Amazon is laying groundwork for an era where global connectivity is tightly integrated with its prime businesses—e-commerce, cloud, consumer devices, and even future space-based computing.
For Amazon, control over wireless backbones is the next frontier in its enduring quest to remove dependencies and create unbeatable scale advantages. Just as it built warehouses and trucks to reduce reliance on third-party shippers, and opened data centers worldwide for AWS, Amazon is now staking a claim in orbit. This pivot speaks to themes that will define the next decade: tech giants building physical infrastructure moats in space, connectivity becoming an expected feature of devices anywhere on Earth, and spectrum as strategic gold in the digital economy.
From an investment perspective, we believe Amazon’s move is just the first of many strategic moves in the space and satellite ecosystem. We expect to see more consolidation as satellite based networks become strategically more important for security and national defense as well as due to a proliferation of consumer and enterprise use cases. We also see opportunities to invest in public companies as well as private companies with a proliferation of companies that are growing fast and seeking capital.
