Airbus, Leonardo, Thales to Launch Space Tie-Up to Compete With Musk's SpaceX — Update

By Cristina Gallardo and Sarah Sloat

Airbus, Leonardo and Thales plan to pool their space activities into a new company aimed at strengthening Europe's strategic autonomy and competing with Elon Musk's SpaceX.

The holding company--combining the European trio's satellite and space systems manufacturing as well as space services--will have an annual turnover of about 6.5 billion euros ($7.55 billion), the companies said Thursday.

The move is the result of more than a year of talks to iron out differences over ownership, workload and antitrust regulations, among other things.

The tie-up comes as Europe seeks to promote its sovereignty in space, a rapidly growing market featuring global players such as U.S. aerospace companies Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Musk's SpaceX, and emerging competitors such as German satellite maker OHB and Belgian peer Aerospacelab.

Executives from Airbus, Italy's Leonardo and France's Thales told reporters that the new company will face intense competition, but that it wasn't too late for its creation, with demand for space services and infrastructure in Europe expected to increase over the coming years.

Airbus will own a 35% stake in the venture, while aerospace and defense companies Leonardo and Thales will each hold 32.5%. The companies will have equal control, despite Airbus's space business contributing around half of the new venture's combined turnover. An Airbus executive declined to comment on the compensation the European planemaker might receive for its proportionally lower share in the new company.

The MBDA joint-venture for the manufacturing of missiles, an example of successful European collaboration, offered an appropriate template for the creation of the new space company, a Thales executive said.

Under the model, the holding company will bring together three strong partners while preserving the capability of their respective countries to run sovereign programs, he said.

"The governance is tricky because space is, of course, a very sovereign sector," he said. "But at the same time the point of merging is to create synergies and to create the critical mass to carry large projects together."

The as-yet unnamed company will be headquartered in the southern French city and space hub of Toulouse, and employ around 25,000 people distributed across teams in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the U.K., in a bid to operate as a truly pan-European business, the Thales executive added.

The company is expected to be operational in 2027, subject to obtaining the antitrust green-light from the European Union. The partner companies expect this process to be lengthy and difficult, despite having already engaged in early talks with the regulatory authorities, the Thales executive said.

Write to Cristina Gallardo at cristina.gallardo@wsj.com and Sarah Sloat at sarah.sloat@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2025 04:46 ET (08:46 GMT)