Facebook has struck a deal to have more than a dozen of its wireless internet experts move over to Amazon to work on its Project Kuiper satellite broadband network, The Information reported today.
An Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire that the report was accurate.
Such a deal represents another step in Amazon’s efforts to get its Kuiper operation up and running — and try to catch up with SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation, which already has more than more than 1,600 satellites in orbit and is expanding its beta program.
Amazon has vowed to spend more than $10 billion to get Project Kuiper off the ground. Under the terms of an authorization order issued by the Federal Communications Commission last July, Amazon has to have half of its planned 3,236-satellite constellation launched by mid-2026, and the rest by mid-2029.
Like Starlink, Project Kuiper is aimed at making broadband connectivity available to billions of people around the world who are currently underserved. But the satellite networks could have other applications: For example, the U.S. Army and Air Force are testing Starlink as a channel for military communications, and Microsoft and Google are partnering with SpaceX to use the satellites as links for cloud computing. Meanwhile, Amazon executives have said Kuiper could complement Amazon Web Services’ cloud operations.
Since receiving the FCC’s go-ahead, Amazon has been ramping up employment at its Kuiper headquarters in Redmond, Wash., not far from where SpaceX has its Starlink satellite development and manufacturing facilities. In April, the company said Project Kuiper’s workforce exceeded 500 employees. As of today, the project’s website lists more than 200 open positions.
Over the past year, Amazon has revealed details about Project Kuiper’s antenna design, selected United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket for the initial satellite launches, and acquired still more office space for Kuiper employees in Redmond.
According to The Information, the employees who came to Kuiper from Facebook in April are based in the Los Angeles area. They are said to include physicists as well as optical, prototyping, mechanical and software engineers who have worked on aeronautical systems and wireless networks. One of the employees, Jin Bains, was formerly Facebook’s head of Southern California connectivity and is now described on his LinkedIn page as a director on the Project Kuiper team.
The Information reported that Amazon paid Facebook as part of the deal for the employee switchover, but did not provide further details. “It’s not unheard of for big companies to buy groups of employees from one another, just as they often buy small startups to beef up staff in various parts of their business,” The Information’s Sarah Krouse and Sylvia Varnham O’Regan explained.
Neither Amazon nor Facebook was willing to discuss the financial arrangements in email exchanges with GeekWire.
Just as the additions to Amazon’s staff underscore its seriousness about Project Kuiper, the subtractions from Facebook underscore the fact that the social-media giant doesn’t intend to get into the satellite business.
Instead, Facebook is focusing on terrestrial connectivity programs including Magma (which Amazon Web Services has integrated into its edge computing services), Evenstar, Terragraph and Express Wi-Fi. Facebook has also invested in more than 6,000 miles of terrestrial fiber and 23,000 miles of subsea fiber as part of its campaign to enhance global networking.
Last year, a Facebook subsidiary known as PointView Tech had a single Athena satellite launched to test laser-based communications. The satellite had been the subject of FCC filings as recently as February. But a Facebook spokesperson said the mission served only as a means for testing communication technologies — and that the company doesn’t intend to operate its own satellite constellation, or become an internet service provider, a mobile operator or a tech vendor. Instead, it plans to work in partnership with existing satellite operators such as Eutelsat.
In light of that strategy for enhancing connectivity, the deal with Amazon was seen as the best way for the Facebook satellite team to continue its work. Meanwhile, the Athena test mission has been paused indefinitely.
This report was updated at 6:20 p.m. PT July 13 to add background from Facebook and clarify the company’s perspective on satellite broadband networking.
