Code Metal’s Spectrum Play: How an AI Unicorn Aims to Rule the Airwaves

BOSTON, MA – June 25, 2026 – In a move that reverberates from venture capital boardrooms to the front lines of electronic warfare, Boston-based AI unicorn Code Metal has announced its first acquisition, absorbing Signal Processing Technologies, Inc. (SPT). The deal, whose terms were not disclosed, does more than just merge two companies; it signals a profound strategic push into the increasingly vital electromagnetic spectrum. By launching a new Advanced RF Group led by SPT’s founders, Code Metal is betting its $1.25 billion valuation on the premise that the future of technology will be won not just with clever code, but with trusted, verifiable systems that command the invisible world of radio frequencies.

This acquisition comes just months after Code Metal, founded in 2023, closed a staggering $125 million Series B round. The company’s core mission—using “provable AI” to bridge the trust gap between software creation and hardware deployment—has already attracted a formidable roster of clients, including the U.S. Air Force, RTX, Toshiba, and L3Harris. Now, by integrating SPT’s deep expertise in signal processing and software-defined radio, Code Metal is making an aggressive play to dominate one of the most critical and contested domains in modern technology.

The New Contested Domain: Securing the Spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) is the invisible infrastructure underpinning our modern world. It’s the medium for everything from 5G communications and satellite networks to the radar on an autonomous vehicle and the guidance systems in a missile. As a result, it has become a crowded, complex, and fiercely contested battleground for both commercial and military supremacy.

The market statistics paint a clear picture of this reality. The global electronic warfare market, a key segment of the defense spectrum industry, is projected to climb past $23 billion by 2030. Concurrently, the commercial 5G services market is on a trajectory to approach $1.9 trillion in the same timeframe. This dual explosion in demand is creating an RF environment of unprecedented complexity and vulnerability, where the ability to operate reliably is a decisive competitive advantage.

"As AI accelerates software creation, the hard problem is no longer writing code — it's turning that code into trusted systems running on the satellites, vehicles, communications networks, and critical infrastructure we depend on every day," said Peter Morales, Founder and CEO of Code Metal. "Increasingly, those systems live or die by how well they operate across the electromagnetic spectrum." This acquisition is a direct response to that challenge, giving Code Metal the specialized tools to ensure its clients not only survive but thrive in this contested domain.

For defense clients like the U.S. Air Force, the integration of SPT’s capabilities promises a faster path to developing and deploying resilient communications, advanced electronic warfare systems, and superior intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. By verifying the software that controls these spectrum-dependent systems, Code Metal can provide a new level of assurance in their performance and security under pressure.

From Code to Metal: A Full-Stack Vision for Provable AI

Code Metal’s rise has been fueled by its unique solution to a critical problem: while AI can now generate code at an incredible rate, mission-critical industries in defense, aerospace, and automotive cannot deploy systems they cannot trust. The company’s “provable AI” platform uses a neuro-symbolic approach to translate, optimize, and, most importantly, mathematically verify software as it moves from high-level programming languages to the specialized hardware where it will ultimately run.

The acquisition of SPT extends this verification promise deep into the hardware stack. "RF is where software meets hardware," Morales explained. "Expanding into RF takes us deeper into the silicon layer and strengthens our ability to move our customers' capabilities from code to deployment, whatever industry they're in." This isn't just about adding a new feature; it's about completing a full-stack vision where trust is guaranteed from the initial algorithm all the way to the antenna.

SPT’s founders bring the domain expertise necessary to make this vision a reality. Their work has centered on the most difficult aspects of RF engineering, a challenge articulated by Dr. Brandon Hombs, Co-Founder of SPT. “In RF, the hardest work is not just designing a great signal-processing algorithm, it’s proving that it works, optimizing it for the right hardware, and getting it deployed reliably across real systems,” he noted. “Code Metal gives us a way to accelerate that entire path from algorithm to implementation.”

This synergy transforms what was once a series of bespoke, project-based engineering challenges into a scalable, repeatable capability. Joe Farkas, Co-Founder of SPT, described the impact as a “step change for the customers we serve.” Instead of relying on lengthy and often fallible manual verification, developers can use Code Metal’s platform to ensure their advanced RF machine learning, spectrum sensing, and communications algorithms are correct, optimized, and secure before they are ever deployed on a single chip.

A Unicorn's Gambit: Justifying Value Through Strategic Depth

For a young company valued at $1.25 billion, the first major acquisition is a defining moment. It’s a declaration of intent and a test of strategic vision. With the SPT acquisition, Code Metal is signaling that its strategy is not simply to grow, but to build an unassailable technological moat. By integrating highly specialized, hard-to-replicate expertise in radio frequencies, the company is moving beyond being a pure software player and becoming a foundational deep-tech systems company.

This move provides a compelling answer to investors and the market about how Code Metal plans to sustain its rapid growth and justify its unicorn valuation. The company is tackling a problem space—the convergence of AI, software verification, and specialized hardware—that is both technically immense and commercially lucrative. The acquisition strengthens its position in the high-stakes defense and aerospace markets while simultaneously opening doors to massive commercial opportunities in telecommunications, autonomous systems, and industrial IoT.

By embedding SPT's expertise into its platform, Code Metal is creating a powerful flywheel. The platform makes advanced RF engineering more accessible and reliable, which in turn drives adoption among high-value customers. This deepens the company’s expertise and data advantage, further strengthening the platform. It's an aggressive strategy to consolidate a nascent but critical market before competitors can gain a foothold, turning its “provable AI” platform into the de facto standard for building the next generation of intelligent systems.

Reshaping Mission-Critical Industries

The impact of this acquisition will be felt across every industry touched by the convergence of AI and the physical world. For Code Metal’s existing clients, the benefits are immediate and tangible. RTX, an investor and client, can leverage the enhanced platform to accelerate the development of its next-generation radar and electronic warfare systems. L3Harris can build more powerful and trustworthy signals intelligence platforms. The U.S. Air Force can field spectrum-aware capabilities with greater speed and confidence.

The new Advanced RF Group’s capabilities—spanning advanced communications, spectrum sensing, RF machine learning, and resilient Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT)—are foundational for the next wave of technological innovation. They are essential for building the robust 5G and 6G networks that will form the backbone of a connected society and for ensuring the safety and reliability of autonomous vehicles and drones navigating crowded urban environments.

Ultimately, Code Metal’s acquisition of SPT is a powerful statement about the future of engineering. It reflects a world where the lines between software, hardware, AI, and communications have blurred into a single, complex challenge. By positioning itself at the nexus of these converging fields, Code Metal is not just building a product; it is building the trusted foundation upon which mission-critical industries will invent the future. As Morales fittingly stated, "We're just getting started."