Amazon just made one of its boldest bets yet in the race to connect the world from orbit. The company says it will acquire Globalstar in a cash or stock deal that values the satellite operator at $90 per share, while also signing a fresh agreement with Apple to keep satellite features working on supported iPhone and Apple Watch models.
On paper, it looks like a straightforward business combo. In practice, it is a major shift in who controls the “last bar” of connectivity when the cell tower disappears, whether you are on a highway with no signal, a ship offshore, or a government team trying to coordinate when storms knock out local networks.
What Amazon is paying
Under the merger agreement, Globalstar shareholders can elect either $90 in cash or 0.3210 shares of Amazon stock per Globalstar share, with the stock consideration capped at $90 per share. There is also a proration mechanism that caps total cash elections at 40%, so not everyone who chooses cash will necessarily get it.
Amazon and Globalstar say the transaction is expected to close in 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions, and Globalstar holders representing about 58% of voting power have already approved it via written consent. The deal also includes a potential downward adjustment of up to $110 million if Globalstar misses certain operational milestones.
Globalstar’s real prize is spectrum
Globalstar is not just “a satellite company.” It brings a working mobile satellite services operation, direct-to-device technology, and spectrum licenses that Amazon says have global authorizations, which can take years to secure and defend.
Amazon’s stated plan is to fold those assets into Amazon Leo, its low Earth orbit network, to expand coverage beyond terrestrial cellular reach and support direct-to-device services.
Panos Panay, Amazon’s senior vice president of Devices and Services, said the combination should deliver “faster, more reliable service in more places,” which is a simple line that hints at a much bigger ambition.
Apple’s safety features keep running
The biggest open question hovering over any Globalstar deal has been obvious. If you own an iPhone that relies on satellite connectivity for emergency messaging, what happens the day after a buyout?
Amazon’s answer is that Apple’s satellite features will keep running, and that the companies have signed an agreement for Amazon Leo to power satellite services for supported iPhone and Apple Watch models, including Emergency SOS via satellite.
Amazon also says it will continue supporting the current devices that use Globalstar’s constellation and collaborate with Apple on future satellite services using Amazon Leo’s expanded network.
The human side of this is not abstract. Apple’s Greg Joswiak pointed to rescues enabled by Emergency SOS, including a scout troop stranded on a winter hike and a driver in Colorado who was airlifted after a car rolled down a 250-foot cliff, and he framed the Amazon partnership as a way to ensure continuity for users who rely on these tools “while off the grid.”
How Apple’s 2024 stake shaped the board
Apple did not arrive in this story as a casual customer. In 2024, Apple committed up to $1.5 billion to Globalstar, including $1.1 billion in cash and a $400 million purchase for a 20% equity stake, as part of expanding satellite coverage for iPhone services.
That agreement also set a key constraint. Globalstar disclosed in an SEC filing that it would continue allocating about 85% of its network capacity to support Apple’s satellite services across existing and new satellites, leaving the remaining capacity for other customers.
In other words, this acquisition is not just Amazon buying hardware in space. It is Amazon buying into a pre-existing relationship where Apple has already reserved most of the network’s throughput, which helps explain why Amazon and Apple moved quickly to publicly clarify the continuity plan.
The Starlink shadow
It is impossible to read this deal without thinking about SpaceX. Starlink has become the default benchmark for low Earth orbit connectivity, with Reuters reporting more than 10,000 satellites and about 9 million users, numbers that would have sounded unreal just a few years ago.
Amazon’s Leo network is building scale, but it is still early. Space.com reported that an April 2026 Atlas V mission put 29 Amazon Leo satellites into orbit and brought the total deployed to 241 satellites so far, while the broader plan remains roughly 3,200 satellites in low Earth orbit.
That gap is not just about money or manufacturing. It is also about deadlines. In a filing dated January 30, 2026, Amazon Leo asked the FCC to extend its interim milestone deadline from July 30, 2026 to July 30, 2028 (or waive the requirement), a reminder that orbital internet is regulated infrastructure, not just a consumer gadget category.
Why defense planners are watching
Amazon’s own announcement leans hard on resilience. It argues that direct-to-device satellite connectivity can serve as fallback when terrestrial networks fail during hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and other disasters, and it explicitly calls out use cases like emergency response coordination and continuity of government operations.
That framing lands differently in a world where militaries are already leaning on commercial space networks. Reuters reported that a Starlink outage in August 2025 disrupted a U.S. Navy test involving unmanned surface vessels, exposing how operational plans can wobble when a single private network becomes a critical dependency.
This is where Amazon’s move starts to look like more than “another competitor.” If governments want redundancy in space-based communications, a second large-scale U.S. provider could reduce single-point-of-failure risk, even as it raises a new set of questions about oversight, interoperability, and who gets priority during crises.
What comes next
The timeline matters because it sets expectations for investors, partners, and the public. Amazon says Globalstar’s satellites will operate alongside the Amazon Leo broadband system and Amazon’s planned direct-to-device system, which it expects to begin deploying in 2028 to deliver more advanced voice, data, and messaging services to phones and other cellular devices.
Between now and then, the hard parts are procedural and physical. Regulators still need to sign off, Amazon needs to keep launching at pace, and the company must prove that satellite-to-phone services can scale without turning into a “sometimes it works” feature that people only remember when they are stranded on a dark roadside.
For Amazon, though, the strategic logic is clear. If you can own the connectivity layer that follows customers everywhere, you do not just sell a service. You become part of the infrastructure.
The press release was published on About Amazon.
