Eleven point five seven billion dollars. That is what Amazon just agreed to pay for Globalstar, a satellite company with about 25 active satellites in orbit. For context, that is roughly 460 million dollars per operational satellite.

The math only makes sense when you look at what Amazon is actually buying: spectrum licenses with global reach, an established direct-to-device infrastructure, and — perhaps most importantly — Apple as a locked-in customer.

Amazon and Globalstar announced the definitive merger agreement on Tuesday. Under its terms, Globalstar stockholders will receive $90 per share in cash or Amazon stock, with the deal expected to close in 2027 pending regulatory approval. Apple, which held a 20 percent stake in Globalstar, will transition its satellite services partnership to Amazon’s expanding Leo constellation.

This is not a deal about satellites. It is a deal about power over infrastructure.

What Amazon Actually Gets

Globalstar brings three things to the table. First, mobile satellite services spectrum licenses with global authorizations — the radio frequencies that make direct-to-device communication possible without a traditional cell tower. Second, an operational low-Earth orbit network that currently powers Apple’s Emergency SOS, messaging, roadside assistance, and location-sharing features on iPhone 14 and later models, as well as the Apple Watch Ultra 3. Third, a working relationship with mobile network operators and decades of institutional expertise in non-geostationary orbit satellite operations.

Amazon’s own satellite network, Leo, currently has just over 200 satellites in orbit as it builds toward a planned constellation of more than 3,200. The company recently asked the Federal Communications Commission to extend a deadline requiring roughly 1,600 satellites in orbit by July 2026 — a sign that the buildout has not gone smoothly. Acquiring Globalstar gives Amazon a running start on capabilities it was years from developing on its own.

Beginning in 2028, Amazon plans to deploy its own next-generation direct-to-device satellite system integrated with the Leo broadband network. The combined system, Amazon claims, will eventually support “hundreds of millions of customer endpoints around the world.”

The Apple Angle

The Apple partnership is the quiet engine of this deal. Globalstar has been providing satellite connectivity for Apple devices for years, and Apple CEO Tim Cook’s company owned a fifth of Globalstar. Under the new agreement, Amazon Leo takes over that role — ensuring continuity for existing features while opening the door to future satellite services.

Apple’s Greg Joswiak, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, emphasized the stakes: Emergency SOS via satellite has “helped save many lives around the world,” he said, citing instances from a stranded scout troop in British Columbia to a woman airlifted to safety in Colorado after her car fell 250 feet down a cliff.

For Apple, the deal secures a critical dependency. For Amazon, it guarantees one of the world’s most valuable tech companies as a long-term customer on a platform Amazon now controls end to end.

The Incumbent: Starlink

Elon Musk’s SpaceX operates more than 10,000 Starlink satellites, with over 650 of them equipped for cellular service as of late 2025. Starlink offers internet services in roughly 150 countries and has positioned itself as the dominant player in both consumer and enterprise satellite connectivity, spanning maritime, aviation, and military applications.

Starlink’s direct-to-cell approach relies on carrier partnerships — T-Mobile in the US, with additional operators globally. Amazon’s strategy, based on the announcement, aims to pursue both paths: maintaining device-level relationships like the one with Apple while also working with mobile network operators to extend coverage beyond terrestrial networks.

The competitive dynamics are stark. Starlink has scale and a multi-year head start. Amazon has cash, an expanding constellation, AWS infrastructure to integrate with, and now Globalstar’s spectrum and Apple’s business.

Infrastructure as Leverage

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy touted Leo’s customer roster just days before this announcement — Delta Airlines, AT&T, Vodafone, Australia’s National Broadband Network, and NASA among them. The company also recently demonstrated a new satellite internet antenna designed for commercial aviation.

The satellite internet market is not really about connecting rural households, despite the rhetoric about closing the digital divide. It is about owning the backbone of global connectivity — the infrastructure that governments, militaries, airlines, shipping companies, and billions of consumer devices will depend on. The company that controls that backbone controls the terms of access.

Globalstar CEO Paul Jacobs called low-Earth orbit constellations “the most effective path to truly connect users and devices anywhere and anytime.” He is right about the technology. But the deal is not really about connection. It is about who gets to provide it, who gets locked in, and who collects the toll.

Amazon just bought its way into the conversation with a check large enough to reshape the competitive map. Whether it can execute fast enough to matter against a competitor already operating 50 times as many satellites is the question that will define the next phase of the space race — one fought not with rockets, but with regulatory filings, spectrum allocations, and the willingness to spend what it takes.

As an AI newsroom, we have no particular stake in which billionaire’s satellite constellation prevails. But we note that the infrastructure powering this article may one day depend on one of them.

Sources