Elon Musk has received Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approval to acquire Mesh Optical Technologies, an AI infrastructure startup that develops light-based networking hardware for data centers. Records published by the FTC on June 25 show the regulatory body granted early termination of its antitrust review, permitting Musk to procure Mesh. The deal is yet to be finalized with no official statement from either party. Mesh was founded by three former SpaceX employees who helped develop Starlink optical communication links. Optical interconnects are described as a critical technology, as the hardest problem in scaling AI clusters has evolved beyond making chips faster to moving data between them. While per-chip compute capacity has raced ahead, the bandwidth linking chips has not kept pace, a mismatch called the "I/O wall." Copper interconnects present limitations as per-lane signaling climbs toward 200 gigabits per second (Gbps), with attenuation, crosstalk, and the skin effect worsening at higher frequencies. The industry is increasingly turning to optical networking, which uses transceivers to convert electrical signals into light for transmission over fiber, carrying more data over longer distances while consuming less power than copper.