Forming a Pan-European Space Champion

Aerospace & defence giants Airbus, Leonardo and Thales combine their space businesses.

23 October 2025

Today’s announcement by Airbus, Leonardo and Thales - signing a Memorandum of Understanding to combine their space systems, satellites and services businesses into a new pan-European space champion - marks the first tangible evidence of Europe addressing its waning technological sovereignty since the start of the second Trump administration.

Before this proposed joint venture, Europe effectively competed against itself as three sub-scale companies facing the growing dominance of SpaceX in the US.

We see this as a positive step towards re-establishing Europe’s space industry as a global force, and a signal that the European project may be able to re-assert itself where it has struggled in areas such as cross-border banking, capital markets and defence consolidation.

Airbus itself is a historic example of successful European consolidation, formed from the merger of French, German, Spanish and British aerospace companies, and in recent years has overtaken Boeing in orders and deliveries. MBDA, Europe’s missile champion, also emerged through pan-European consolidation and generated EUR 4.9 billion in sales in 2024.

In our view, the announcement offers hope for further cross-border consolidation across Europe.

As at 30 September 2025, Airbus SE was the GAM Star Continental Europe Equity fund’s second-largest stock holding, equating to 4.37% of the fund. In the GAM Star European Equity fund, Airbus SE was the fifth-largest stock holding, equating to 4.03% of the fund.

Tom O’Hara, Jamie Ross and David Barker manage European Equities strategies at GAM Investments. You can find out more information on the team and the strategies they are responsible for here.