Midjourney has made its first acquisition, and the target is not another image model or creative software rival. The AI lab has bought Co-Star, the social astrology app known for personalised horoscopes, birth charts and compatibility readings. The deal was announced on July 23, 2026, after reportedly closing in spring. Financial terms were not disclosed.
At first, the combination looks unusual. Midjourney generates images and video clips, while Co-Star turns birth details and astronomical data into personal guidance. The logic becomes clearer when the deal is viewed as a product and design move. Co-Star has built a mobile-first service used regularly by millions, while Midjourney is preparing its first standalone image-generation app and a broader set of consumer products.
The Midjourney acquires Co-Star story therefore matters beyond astrology. It shows how consumer AI competition is shifting from model quality alone towards distribution, interface design, personalisation and repeat use.
Here is what happened, why Midjourney chose Co-Star, what users should expect and what remains unknown.
What Happened in the Midjourney–Co-Star Deal?
Midjourney’s First Acquisition
Midjourney founder David Holz announced Co-Star as the company’s first acquisition on July 23. He said he had known founder Banu Guler for more than five years and had spoken with her frequently about how people reflect, imagine and make decisions.
Holz said Guler and her team would help Midjourney build a broader organisation around product and design. The announcement did not frame the purchase as an attempt to add astrology to Midjourney’s image model.
Instead, the official statement focused on the team and the product-building experience it brings.
About two dozen Co-Star employees have reportedly joined Midjourney. Guler will remain responsible for Co-Star while becoming Midjourney’s chief design officer and building a cross-functional operation covering design, product and front-end engineering.
When the Transaction Closed
Although Midjourney announced the deal in July, the transaction reportedly closed in spring 2026. Some early headlines therefore used “buying” even though the purchase had already been completed.
The earlier closing date also explains why the companies were able to announce specific leadership duties rather than presenting the arrangement as a possible future partnership.
Financial Terms Remain Private
Neither company has disclosed the purchase price, payment structure or valuation.
There is also no confirmed information about employee retention payments, investor returns or whether any part of the price depends on future performance.
The clearest signal is the type of capability Midjourney chose to acquire:
- A recognised consumer brand
- A functioning mobile product
- An established audience
- A team experienced in personalisation
- Social and mobile-app expertise
- A working freemium business model
What Is Co-Star?
Personalised Horoscopes, Birth Charts and Compatibility
Co-Star describes itself as a hyper-personalised social astrology experience. Users enter their birth date, time and location to receive a birth chart, daily updates and personalised readings.
They can also add friends and view compatibility information based on their respective charts.
The app is available on iOS and Android. It follows a freemium model, meaning users can access its core experience for free while paying for optional features.
Co-Star says its revenue comes from in-app purchases such as advanced readings, question credits and additional friendship features.
How Co-Star Combines Human Work, NASA Data and AI
Co-Star says its system combines human interpretation, astronomical data from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and natural-language AI.
The software uses a person’s birth details to calculate a chart and select relevant interpretations from Co-Star’s proprietary content database.
This process needs to be described carefully.
NASA data provides information about astronomical positions. It does not scientifically validate the astrological meanings that Co-Star connects to those positions.
Those interpretations come from Co-Star’s own database, software, writers, astrologers and technologists.
The app also personalises its home screen by reviewing behaviour within Co-Star. The company says it may show different kinds of astrological transits depending on the topics a user views most often.
Co-Star’s Reported Audience
Co-Star has approximately 4.3 million monthly active users, according to Sensor Tower data cited by Bloomberg. The app has also reportedly achieved tens of millions of downloads over its lifetime.
That audience helps explain the acquisition.
Midjourney is not only gaining an astrology product. It is gaining people who have already developed:
- Mobile onboarding
- Push notifications
- Personalised content
- In-app payments
- Social connections
- User retention systems
- A distinctive consumer brand
Why Did Midjourney Acquire Co-Star?
Midjourney Acquires Co-Star for Consumer-Product Expertise
Midjourney already knows how to build popular generative visual systems. Its next challenge is turning those systems into products that feel simple and useful to a wider audience.
A powerful model does not automatically create a successful consumer app.
A product team must still decide:
- How new users begin
- How projects are organised
- How features are explained
- How subscriptions work
- How generated content is shared
- Why users should return
Co-Star’s team has spent years solving those problems on mobile.
The transaction has some characteristics of a talent acquisition, but it would be inaccurate to describe it as a pure acqui-hire. Co-Star remains a functioning product with millions of users, a recognised brand and its own source of revenue.
Midjourney has acquired both the business and the team.
Mobile-App Design and Distribution
Midjourney currently provides its tools through its website and Discord. This approach helped the company build a highly active creative community, but it can create friction for people who expect a conventional mobile or desktop application.
A standalone app could provide:
- Simpler account creation
- Easier project management
- Native notifications
- Direct sharing
- Clearer subscription controls
- A smoother mobile experience
- Less dependence on Discord
It could also introduce Midjourney to people who have never used Discord or who do not want to learn a command-based workflow.
Co-Star’s team understands how to present complicated personalised information through a simple consumer interface without requiring users to understand the technical system underneath.
Personalisation and Recurring Engagement
Midjourney is commonly opened when someone has a specific image or video to create. Co-Star encourages more regular use through daily updates, personal readings and friend compatibility.
That does not prove Midjourney will copy Co-Star’s notification strategy. It also does not mean astrology will be inserted into Midjourney’s image tools.
However, it suggests that Midjourney values products that feel personal and worth revisiting.
This matters because generative models improve quickly. When several platforms offer similar basic capabilities, a familiar interface, active community and trusted workflow can become more difficult to copy than one technical feature.
Building a Product-and-Design Organisation
Holz said Guler and her team would help build a broader organisation around product and design.
Bloomberg reported that the new group will unite design, product and front-end engineering across Midjourney’s projects over approximately six to 12 months.
This is a much larger responsibility than designing one image app.
It suggests an organisational shift. Midjourney is moving from one successful generative service towards a broader research company with multiple consumer-facing products.
Each product will require:
- Clear design
- Reliable onboarding
- Customer support
- Safety controls
- Consistent branding
- Accessible interfaces
- Strong distribution
What Will Banu Guler Do at Midjourney?
Continue Directing Co-Star
Midjourney says Co-Star will remain under Guler’s control and direction. Bloomberg reported that it will remain independent from Midjourney’s other products.
No shutdown, forced account transfer or rebrand has been announced.
Existing users should therefore continue treating Co-Star as a separate service unless the companies publish a future change.
Serve as Chief Design Officer
As Midjourney’s chief design officer, Guler will help determine how the company’s research becomes usable consumer software.
Her experience is relevant because Co-Star turned a complex combination of astronomical calculations, human interpretations and personal information into a recognisable mobile experience.
Midjourney now wants that product thinking applied across its projects.
Unite Design, Product and Front-End Engineering
Guler is building a cross-functional team spanning design, product and front-end work.
Bringing those functions together can reduce the distance between a research idea and the interface users eventually receive.
The challenge will be consistency.
An astrology app, an image creator, a storytelling platform and medical hardware do not serve the same audience. A central product group will need to create a shared design standard without forcing very different services into one format.
Will Co-Star Continue Operating?
Co-Star will continue under Guler’s leadership and with expanded resources. No removal from app stores or change to its account system has been announced.
There is also no confirmed change to its freemium model or paid readings.
Users should not assume that:
- Midjourney subscriptions will include Co-Star benefits
- Co-Star purchases will unlock Midjourney tools
- The apps will use one account
- Horoscope information will appear in Midjourney
- Co-Star will become an image generator
Nothing of that kind has been announced.
Bloomberg reported that Co-Star may eventually explore dating-related ideas. Guler discussed the possibility while noting that matching strangers could damage the app’s intimate feeling.
It remains an idea rather than a confirmed product.
What Is Midjourney Building Next?
A Standalone Image-Generation App
The clearest product plan is Midjourney’s first standalone image-generation app.
It would provide a dedicated interface for technology currently accessed through Midjourney’s website and Discord.
No release date, platform list or pricing structure has been announced.
It is also unknown whether existing subscribers will receive the app through their current plans or whether it will be sold separately.
A dedicated product would allow Midjourney to control the full customer journey:
- Discovery
- Registration
- Image creation
- Editing
- Organisation
- Sharing
- Collaboration
- Billing
Moving Beyond Discord
Discord was central to Midjourney’s early growth because users could create images in a shared setting, observe other prompts and learn from the community.
Midjourney now also offers substantial functionality through its website.
A standalone app does not mean Discord is closing. The company has not announced plans to end existing access.
The most likely near-term outcome is another entry point for users who prefer a conventional app experience.
Visual Storytelling and World-Building Tools
Bloomberg reported that Midjourney plans to begin with image creation before expanding towards visual storytelling using images and video, as well as tools for creating virtual worlds.
That is a more complicated product problem than generating one picture.
Users creating longer stories may need tools for:
- Maintaining the same characters
- Preserving visual style
- Arranging scenes
- Controlling narrative order
- Collaborating with other creators
- Organising large collections of assets
Holz and Guler also discussed possibilities such as letting people create images together or find users with similar creative interests.
These are reported ideas, not promised launch features.
New Video Development
Midjourney already offers generative video capabilities, and Bloomberg reported that it is developing another AI video model.
Holz connected more advanced video systems with the challenge of making visual storytelling enjoyable and accessible.
The product challenge is not only whether a model can create a clip. It is whether an app can help users maintain visual consistency and turn separate outputs into a coherent sequence.
Is Midjourney Building an Astrology Image Generator?
Some competitor coverage described the planned product as an astrology-focused image generator.
The detailed original reporting supports a different interpretation: Midjourney is preparing a general standalone image-creation app based on its existing generative technology.
The acquisition could lead to future experiments combining Co-Star themes with generated visuals. However, neither company has announced:
- An astrology image generator
- A horoscope-art feature
- Birth-chart image creation
- A shared Co-Star and Midjourney account
- Direct integration between the services
The accurate position is that Co-Star’s team will help build Midjourney products while Co-Star remains separate.
What the Deal Means for Co-Star Users
For now, the practical impact appears limited.
Co-Star is continuing to operate, Guler remains in charge and no account conversion is required.
Users may eventually see faster product development because Midjourney says Co-Star will receive expanded resources. Yet no detailed feature roadmap has been published.
The main developments users should watch include:
- Changes to Co-Star’s privacy policy
- New links between Co-Star and Midjourney accounts
- Changes to paid features
- New social or dating tools
- Notices about data sharing
- Any new AI-training disclosures
Until those changes are formally announced, users should avoid assuming that personal astrology information will automatically appear inside Midjourney products.
Will Midjourney Use Co-Star User Data?
Neither Midjourney nor Co-Star has announced that Co-Star information will be used to train Midjourney models or personalise its image tools.
Co-Star’s current privacy policy says it collects user-supplied information, device details and activity information used to operate and improve the service.
The policy also says personal information may be shared before and after a merger or acquisition.
However, it states that Co-Star does not sell personal information or share it for personalised or targeted advertising.
This distinction matters.
An acquisition may allow information to be shared with the acquiring company under a privacy policy. That does not prove that the information is being used to train an AI model.
Those are separate questions that require separate disclosures.
Co-Star users can delete their accounts and data through the app or by contacting the company.
People concerned about the acquisition should monitor future privacy-policy and terms-of-service updates rather than relying on unsupported claims.
Why Midjourney Acquires Co-Star Matters for Consumer AI
Distribution Is Becoming as Important as Model Quality
Generative AI companies still compete on output quality, speed and prompt accuracy. However, the surrounding product increasingly matters.
Consumers notice whether an app:
- Is easy to start
- Explains its features
- Keeps work organised
- Supports sharing
- Feels trustworthy
- Provides a reason to return
The Co-Star purchase gives Midjourney a team that has already built that kind of relationship with a large mobile audience.
AI Companies Want Direct Consumer Relationships
Depending on another platform limits control over product discovery, interface design, payments and policy changes.
Discord was a powerful growth channel for Midjourney. A standalone app would give it a more direct relationship with its customers.
That connection could later support:
- Image creation
- Video generation
- Visual storytelling
- World-building
- Collaborative creativity
- Social discovery
Social Creativity May Be the Next Competitive Layer
Co-Star is social through compatibility reports and shared personal updates. Midjourney’s community is social through prompts, remixes and discussion.
Combining those lessons could produce creative tools centred on collaboration rather than solitary generation.
It also creates new responsibilities.
Social creative products need:
- Content moderation
- Privacy controls
- Copyright rules
- Impersonation safeguards
- Reporting systems
- Clear ownership policies
Midjourney’s Wider Expansion
The Co-Star acquisition is part of a wider diversification plan.
Midjourney says it expects to announce about half a dozen ambitious projects over the next six months. Bloomberg reported that the company is working on eight initiatives divided evenly between hardware and software.
One publicly discussed hardware project is a full-body ultrasound system associated with Midjourney Medical.
Whether that project succeeds is separate from the Co-Star transaction, but it shows that Holz is positioning Midjourney as a wider research lab rather than only an image-generation service.
This makes the new product-and-design organisation more important.
Ambitious research cannot reach ordinary users without interfaces that explain what the technology does, establish realistic expectations and make complex systems safe to operate.
What Midjourney Has Not Announced
Several important details remain unknown:
- The price paid for Co-Star
- The standalone app’s release date
- Whether it will be available on iOS or Android
- Whether desktop versions are planned
- Whether current subscriptions will include it
- Whether Discord support will continue long term
- Whether Co-Star and Midjourney accounts will connect
- Whether Co-Star information will be used in AI training
- Whether Co-Star’s pricing will change
- Which social and collaborative features will launch
- When storytelling and world-building tools will arrive
These are open questions, not gaps that should be filled with speculation.
Conclusion
The Midjourney acquires Co-Star announcement is best understood as a consumer-product and design deal rather than a straightforward move into astrology.
Midjourney already has image and video technology. What it needs next is a simpler way to package that technology, reach mainstream users and create products people want to return to.
Co-Star brings mobile experience, personalisation, social design and an established consumer audience. Its founder is also taking responsibility for design across Midjourney’s expanding portfolio.
The next major signal will be Midjourney’s standalone image app. Its release date, pricing and platforms remain unknown, but the acquisition suggests the company wants to control more of the consumer experience instead of relying mainly on Discord and the web.
