UAE's Space42 Commits Up to $1 Billion With Viasat for Equatys

Abu Dhabi-based satellite operator Space42 and U.S. communications company Viasat have signed a binding agreement to establish Equatys, a shared direct-to-device platform backed by up to $1 billion in combined equity.

The venture, announced last week, will connect smartphones and other devices directly to satellites. It will operate a shared satellite and ground network for multiple telecom and satellite operators, starting with fewer than 200 satellites and expanding to a constellation of 2,800.

"What both companies are trying to sell is proximity to terrestrial pricing at unprecedented scale," said Mohammed Soliman, senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. "They want to make satellite connectivity economically viable against ground-based networks, using a model that's already proven itself in the mobile industry."

The deal lands amid a broader regional boom. Space budgets in the Middle East and North Africa rose 69% over the past decade, from $1.4 billion in 2015 to $2.5 billion in 2025, according to a KPMG report. Spending is projected to reach $3.2 billion by 2034, a 30% increase from 2025 levels. The report identifies the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman as the key engines of that growth, collectively transforming the GCC into an emerging hub of space innovation.

Gulf sovereign wealth funds, particularly Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the UAE's Mubadala, have made space a strategic investment priority, in line with their countries' broader ambitions for the sector.

Security is the driver

The investment logic extends beyond commercial returns. Recent regional conflicts have underscored the strategic value of space-based capabilities as Gulf states seek to strengthen resilience and reduce vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure.

"The Iran conflict has demonstrated that data centers and radar installations can be disrupted or degraded, while satellites remain operational and on station," Soliman told Fortune. "That lesson will shape how the Gulf states think about the intersection between space and national security. The Gulf's investment in space infrastructure is a logical trajectory."

The UAE's space sector is shifting from a government-led exploration program toward a broader commercial ecosystem focused on Earth observation, communications and deep-space exploration.

In June, Space42 added three synthetic-aperture-radar satellites to its Foresight constellation, developed with Finland's ICEYE, a microsatellite manufacturer and operator. Integration and testing took place at Space42's Abu Dhabi facility. The satellites can image the Earth day or night and through cloud cover, feeding the company's GIQ geospatial intelligence platform, which uses AI to turn raw satellite data into usable intelligence within minutes. Space42 says the platform can cut emergency response times by up to 90%.

In July, Space42 and Skylo, a California-headquartered satellite communications company, successfully tested direct-to-device SMS and emergency SOS services on standard Android smartphones in the UAE.

"If you can aggregate enough operators, spectrum and demand onto one platform, there should be a compounding economic benefit as it scales," said Anna Hazlett, founder and CEO of UAE investment and advisory company AzurX, which has served as Blue Origin's strategic advisor in the Middle East since 2021. "Each participant carries less of the infrastructure burden while potentially gaining better coverage, performance and availability. It's a very different proposition from every operator having to finance and build its own constellation."

Sovereign capital moves in

Domestic funding is growing alongside foreign partnerships. Earlier this month, International Holding Company, Abu Dhabi's largest listed firm, announced its expansion into the space sector. Its subsidiary International Tech Group is acquiring an 80% stake in Marlan Holding, which owns Marlan Space, an Abu Dhabi business investing in and operating space technologies.

Marlan Space entered a joint venture with U.S.-based Loft Orbital in August 2024 to launch Orbitworks, a $100 million project developing commercial low Earth orbit satellites. On 9 September, Marlan Space and Loft Orbital led a consortium committing $1 billion in France to build Altair-Next Gen, billed as the world's largest planned AI satellite infrastructure.

The initial phase comprises 50 AI satellites equipped with radar, optical and other sensors, designed for government users in France, Europe and the UAE, as well as commercial and sovereign customers worldwide. Ten of the satellites are already in production at Orbitworks' purpose-built facility in Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi, the region's largest high-volume facility for commercial satellite constellations. The first AI satellite is due to launch this October, according to Bloomberg.

"The last six months have only reinforced how critical space-based infrastructure has become, particularly around persistent monitoring, Earth observation and geospatial intelligence, secure communications and resilient architectures," said Hazlett, noting the conflict is accelerating the sector's development. "What I am seeing is less tolerance for very long development and procurement cycles. There is a greater sense of urgency around identifying capability gaps, understanding what is commercially available now and getting capability operational much faster."

For the UAE, satellites are evolving from scientific and commercial tools into core components of national infrastructure and security architecture. "Space increasingly touches a number of areas that sovereign investors here already care deeply about—advanced technology, critical infrastructure, economic diversification, and national capability," said Hazlett. "And the opportunity is much bigger than investing in satellites. It is about building companies, infrastructure, technologies and supply chains that can generate commercial returns while creating strategic value for the country. That is a very natural fit for long-term sovereign capital."