UAE and France Launch Altair-Next Gen: A USD 1 Billion AI Satellite Constellation of 50 Spacecraft Built by Orbitworks in Abu Dhabi With Loft Orbital, Mistral, BlackSky and MaiaSpace

2026-09-09

On Wednesday 9 September 2026, at the International Space Summit in Paris, Marlan Space of Abu Dhabi and Loft Orbital signed Altair-Next Gen, a USD 1 billion (about AED 3.67 billion) programme that its backers describe as the world’s largest artificial intelligence satellite infrastructure. The initial phase is 50 satellites carrying radar, optical and other sensors, with onboard AI that analyses what it sees while still in orbit and sends the user an alert within seconds instead of raw imagery hours later. The agreement was signed in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron. All 50 spacecraft will be built by Orbitworks at its plant in Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (KEZAD), which takes the existing 10-satellite Altair programme to 50, while the infrastructure itself will be held in a dedicated French company. Mistral supplies the onboard AI models, BlackSky the very high-resolution optical satellites, and MaiaSpace, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, is the preferred launch partner. The signing came one day after IHC agreed to buy 80% of Marlan Space and one month after the French space agency CNES contracted capacity on Altair. Source: the Orbitworks press release of 9 September 2026, carried the same day by Emirates 24|7, and reports by Bloomberg, The National, Khaleej Times and BlackSky.

What was signed in Paris on 9 September 2026

The International Space Summit runs in Paris on 9 and 10 September 2026 and was convened by President Macron to open a dialogue on how the space sector is governed and where its industry is heading. On the first day Marlan Space, a UAE-based investor and operator in space technology, and Loft Orbital, a satellite company headquartered in San Francisco with its European base in Toulouse, announced that they are leading a consortium in a USD 1 billion investment in France to build Altair-Next Gen. Hamdullah Mohib, chief executive of both Marlan Space and Orbitworks, signed on behalf of Marlan Space. According to The National, he was also one of about a dozen international chief executives invited to a closed-door round table with Mr Macron the same day.

The UAE delegation at the summit was led by Sultan Al Neyadi, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and the only Arab astronaut attending, together with Dr Ahmad Al Falasi, chairman of the UAE Space Agency, and Fatima Al Shamsi, the agency’s acting director of space policy and international relations. The programme is, in the words of the press release, the moment at which France and the UAE set out to lead the world in artificial intelligence in space.

Why 50 satellites, and what onboard AI changes

A conventional Earth observation satellite takes images, downlinks them to a ground station and leaves the analysis to computers on the ground, so the user typically receives a processed result hours after the pass. Altair-Next Gen satellites are designed to run the analysis in orbit, transmit the event rather than the imagery and deliver an alert within seconds. Fifty satellites, the announcement says, is the threshold at which this becomes a permanent capability rather than periodic observation: with a fleet of that size one satellite is always close to where an event is unfolding, so the alert arrives while there is still time to act.

Services will run through an AI application store. Users pick the models they need from several providers and run them on shared satellites, so one constellation serves many programmes at the same time. Mistral, the Paris-based AI developer, joins the consortium to deploy its models directly onboard next to the sensors, which gives the satellites the ability to reason about what they observe and to be tasked in natural language. Loft Orbital already operates more than 100 payloads and 20 AI missions in orbit and, working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, demonstrated a satellite that runs a vision-language model onboard and can be tasked in plain language. Bloomberg reported that the first 10 Altair satellites use NVIDIA chips and that Orbitworks expects the imagery to focus on defence and security applications; Mr Mohib told the agency that emergency response, road traffic management, agriculture and environmental monitoring would follow.

Who does what in the consortium

Syed Basar Shueb, chief executive of IHC, said Altair-Next Gen is the kind of ambitious, technology-led platform the group wants to build through Marlan Space and that it positions the UAE and France at the forefront of the space economy. Mr Mohib said that 50 satellites in groups with different capabilities working as one system make this one of the most advanced constellations in the world, and that Altair and Altair-Next Gen turn a factory into a national capability and the UAE from a buyer into a seller of satellite services, with engineering skills, intellectual property and a supply chain that stay in the country. Pierre-Damien Vaujour, chief executive of Loft Orbital, said the first of those satellites, built in Abu Dhabi, launch in the next few weeks. Brian O’Toole, chief executive of BlackSky, said the company was selected as the very high-resolution optical provider on the programme.

Orbitworks: the Abu Dhabi factory behind the programme

Every Altair-Next Gen satellite will come out of the Orbitworks plant in KEZAD, the industrial free zone around Khalifa Port. The facility covers 50,000 square feet (about 4,645 square metres) with a 15,000 square foot ISO cleanroom, thermal vacuum chambers, vibration tables and electromagnetic interference chambers. Serial production began in July 2025, the site was formally opened on 11 November 2025, and it is rated for up to 50 satellites a year of up to 500 kg each. Khaleej Times, citing reports, put the investment in the plant at about USD 200 million; the same report, on 4 May 2026, quoted Mr Mohib confirming plans for 40 additional satellites within five years and a USD 1 billion programme for which funding options, including Abu Dhabi and French government entities, were being explored. The press release calls it the region’s largest high-volume site for commercial constellations and notes that it also hosts satellite operations, which is what allows the programme to scale from 10 satellites to 50. We described the site in detail when Altair-1 was flown to the United States in August 2026, and the ownership of the plant when IHC agreed to buy 80% of Marlan Space on 8 September 2026.

The first-generation Altair constellation is the foundation. Its 10 satellites are built on Loft Orbital’s Longbow platform, carry optical, shortwave infrared, thermal infrared, hyperspectral and passive radio-frequency sensors with onboard AI processing on NVIDIA graphics processors, and can manoeuvre for up to eight years. Altair-1 has been completed and shipped to Los Angeles for a SpaceX launch in October 2026, which Bloomberg dates to early October; according to the schedule Mr Mohib gave in July 2026, four more satellites follow in the first quarter of 2027 and the remaining five by mid-2027. Customers already signed include CNES, the French space agency, under a multi-year contract announced on 6 August 2026, and the Abu Dhabi Maritime Academy of AD Ports Group, which contracted Earth observation services for ports, mineral logistics, agriculture and seagrass research on 4 May 2026.

The French side: CNES, DESIR and MaiaSpace

The link with France did not appear on 9 September. On 6 August 2026 Orbitworks announced that CNES had secured dedicated capacity on Altair through a multi-year contract with Loft Orbital, the mission operations partner in the joint venture; The National described it as one of the first cases of a European government space agency becoming a customer of a satellite constellation owned and built in the Middle East. On 21 January 2026 Loft Orbital was selected as prime contractor for DESIR, the demonstration of France’s first sovereign space-based radar imaging capability, working with Thales Alenia Space and TEKEVER France for CNES and the French defence procurement agency DGA, with an initial service targeted for early 2029. On 8 July 2026 Loft Orbital chose MaiaSpace for multiple launches from 2028 on the Maia launcher from the Guiana Space Centre.

Altair-Next Gen ties these threads together: the asset is held in a French company, the supply chain is mostly European, the onboard models come from a French AI developer and the preferred launcher is French, while the capital and the factory are Emirati. That structure explains why the press release speaks of pairing Emirati ambition, capital and manufacturing strength with European supply chain and space heritage.

The timeline from 2024 to 2029

What Altair-Next Gen means for business in the UAE

• Abu Dhabi becomes an exporter of satellites, not only a buyer of imagery. Fifty spacecraft for a French-held entity will be assembled and tested in KEZAD, so component supply, testing, integration, insurance and logistics contracts will run through Abu Dhabi. Mr Mohib’s phrase about turning the UAE from a buyer into a seller of satellite services describes a new export line for the emirate.
• A cross-border structure worth studying. The asset sits in a dedicated French company, the money comes from Abu Dhabi, the factory is in a UAE free zone and the operator is a US-French company. UAE businesses working with European partners can read it as a template: a manufacturing base in a free zone such as KEZAD, a holding company in the partner’s jurisdiction and a licence, bank account and tax file in each.
• New data services for ports, shipping and infrastructure operators. The first applications are maritime domain awareness, port and critical infrastructure security, wildfire detection and disaster response, and AD Ports Group’s maritime academy is already a customer. Port operators, shipping lines, insurers, logistics and energy companies in the UAE will be able to buy alerts from a constellation operated from Abu Dhabi rather than import imagery.
• The licensing perimeter applies. Any company in the UAE that operates space objects, provides satellite communications or manages space data must hold a UAE Space Agency licence under Federal Decree-Law No. 46 of 2023, with the transition window closing on 25 October 2026. Suppliers to Orbitworks and resellers of Altair data should check whether their activity falls inside.
• Hiring follows the capital. The plant employed 35 people at its opening in November 2025 with 53 planned by year-end, according to The National. Going from 10 satellites to 50 means engineers, AI specialists and mission operators relocating to Abu Dhabi on employment visas, and matching demand for housing and services in the capital.

Checklist: working with the UAE space and AI supply chain

• Map your activity against Federal Decree-Law No. 46 of 2023: operating space objects, satellite communications, space data management and launch support all require a UAE Space Agency licence.
• Choose the vehicle: an ADGM or mainland holding company for ownership and an operating licence in a free zone such as KEZAD for manufacturing, testing or services.
• Match licence activities to what you will actually sell: component manufacturing, engineering consultancy, software development, AI services and data analytics carry different activity codes and approvals.
• Open a corporate bank account early: aerospace suppliers handle export-controlled components and foreign government customers, and banks ask for source-of-funds and contract documentation before onboarding.
• If you will work with the French side of the programme, prepare the corporate documents that a French counterparty and bank will ask for: attested incorporation papers, ultimate beneficial owner declarations and audited accounts where available.
• Plan visas with the hiring calendar: employment visas for engineers and Golden Visas for qualifying specialists take weeks, not days.
• Track the launch calendar: October 2026, the first half of 2027 and the first MaiaSpace launches from 2028 are the milestones around which contracts for components, insurance, logistics and data services will be signed.

How Atlant Capital can help

Atlant Capital works with founders and companies that want a base in the UAE technology economy. We register companies on the mainland and in free zones, including holding structures in ADGM and industrial or services licences in zones such as KEZAD, and we prepare the activity lists and approvals that manufacturing, engineering and AI businesses need. We open corporate bank accounts and assemble the source-of-funds and contract files that banks request from aerospace and technology clients. We process employment and residence visas for relocating teams and Golden Visas for investors and qualifying specialists. Corporate tax registration, VAT and accounting are handled by licensed accounting and tax firms from our partner network. To discuss a specific plan, contact us.

Conclusion

Altair-Next Gen, signed in Paris on 9 September 2026, commits USD 1 billion to a 50-satellite AI constellation that will be built in Abu Dhabi, held in France and sold to governments and companies on both sides and beyond. It follows IHC’s move on Marlan Space by a day and the CNES contract by a month, and it turns a factory that opened in November 2025 into the manufacturing base of one of the largest Earth observation programmes announced this year. The first satellite launches in October 2026; the schedule for the other 49 has not been published. For suppliers, data buyers and founders in the UAE, the practical steps are the same as in any regulated industrial sector: the right licence, the right structure and a bank account that can handle international contracts.

FAQ

What is Altair-Next Gen and who is behind it?

Altair-Next Gen is a USD 1 billion programme to build a 50-satellite AI-enabled Earth observation constellation, signed on 9 September 2026 at the International Space Summit in Paris by Marlan Space of Abu Dhabi and Loft Orbital in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron. The consortium includes Mistral for onboard AI, BlackSky for very high-resolution optical satellites and MaiaSpace as preferred launch partner. The satellites will be built by Orbitworks in KEZAD, Abu Dhabi, and the infrastructure will be held in a dedicated French company.

How much is being invested and where does the money come from?

The consortium is investing USD 1 billion, about AED 3.67 billion, in France. Space Intel Report and Crypto Briefing report that the funding comes from the Royal Group of Abu Dhabi, the family office chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed that backs Marlan Space. On 8 September 2026 IHC, also chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon, agreed to acquire 80% of Marlan Holding, the parent of Marlan Space, subject to regulatory approvals.

Where will the satellites be built and when will they launch?

All 50 satellites will be produced by Orbitworks at its 50,000 square foot plant in Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi, which has been in serial production since July 2025 and is rated for up to 50 satellites a year. The first satellite of the existing 10-satellite Altair programme, Altair-1, launches on a SpaceX rocket in October 2026, with nine more scheduled by mid-2027. Launch dates for the Altair-Next Gen satellites have not been published; MaiaSpace, a subsidiary of ArianeGroup, is the preferred launch partner once its services become commercially available.

What can Altair-Next Gen satellites do that conventional satellites cannot?

Each satellite analyses its radar and optical data onboard and transmits the detected event rather than raw imagery, so the user receives an alert within seconds instead of hours. With 50 satellites one spacecraft is always close to where an event is happening, which turns periodic observation into a permanent monitoring capability. Users select AI models from several providers, including Mistral, through an AI application store and run them on shared satellites. The first applications are maritime domain awareness, wildfire detection, disaster response and the security of ports and critical infrastructure.