Southern California defense tech darling Anduril Industries has struck a deal to buy Orange County space surveillance firm ExoAnalytic Solutions.

The purchase for an undisclosed sum is meant to boost Anduril's capabilities in space domain awareness, battle management and fire control.

With the deal, Anduril will absorb ExoAnalytic's network of 400 commercial telescopes around the world, missile defense software and simulation and tracking algorithms.

It will "significantly scale the impact that we will be able to provide for national security missions," the company said in a statement Tuesday announcing it had signed a "definitive agreement" to acquire ExoAnalytic.

"With Exo onboard, Anduril will ensure that our warfighters have the tools required to maintain comprehensive situational awareness of the space domain, delivering a decisive advantage to counter rapidly-evolving threats," the statement read.

Anduril, which develops drones, missiles, robotic submarines and autonomous fighter jets, was founded in 2017 by Peter Thiel protégé Palmer Luckey.

Its Costa Mesa headquarters are located in the shell of a former printing press for the Los Angeles Times.

The company plans to break ground on a sprawling $1-billion campus near the Long Beach Airport by midyear. In 2025, the company announced plans to spend $1 billion on its first "Arsenal" manufacturing plant in Ohio.

The company was valued at $30.5 billion last year and had more than 6,000 employees. The company is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation of more than $60 billion, the Information has reported.

ExoAnalytic was founded in 2008 and headquartered in Foothill Ranch in Orange County. Founded by three physicists, the company at first focused on missile-tracking algorithms but later pivoted to build what it has described as the "world's largest commercial optical telescope network."

Both Anduril and ExoAnalytic Solutions are privately held and did not disclose terms of the deal, which still has to pass regulatory muster.

Defense tech startups like Anduril are quickly expanding in the hopes of winning government contracts for President Trump's proposed $175-billion "Golden Dome" satellite missile defense system to protect the entire U.S. from attacks by land, sea and space.

California has been at the forefront of the modern-day space race.

In Central California, Vandenberg Space Force Base in January announced plans for a $900-million infrastructure overhaul as it prepares to handle a surge in rocket launches.

Southern California's space economy is being revitalized, with companies like Vast, a Long Beach-based startup trying to make the first commercial space station to circle Earth; and AstroForge, a Seal Beach firm hoping to mine metals from asteroids, creating new jobs in Los Angeles County.

Dozens of SpaceX alumni have gone on to found aerospace, artificial intelligence and companies in other fields in Southern California. (Elon Musk in 2024 moved SpaceX's headquarters from Hawthorne to Starbase, Texas, though the company's main operations remain in Hawthorne.)

Other companies — including Rocket Lab, which was founded in New Zealand and is now headquartered in Long Beach — have moved to Southern California to be close to the talent pool that originally attracted SpaceX.

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