AST SpaceMobile, Inc. ASTS

The business

AST SpaceMobile builds unusually large satellites that unfold in orbit and connect directly to an ordinary, unmodified mobile phone. No special handset, no rooftop terminal, and no new spectrum, because the network runs on frequencies the mobile operator already licenses. The customer is therefore the carrier, not the subscriber, and several of the world's largest operators have signed on as distribution partners rather than competitors.

Payment arrives first as committed carrier money and later as service revenue, and $252.1M already sits on the balance sheet as non-current deferred revenue. The engine is brutally simple: spend billions on hardware, then earn recurring wholesale fees once coverage is continuous. What changed is the funding mix. Through 2024 the build was paid for with equity; by June 2026 it carried $2.99B of debt, so the schedule now has creditors attached to it.