Midjourney Acquires Co-Star and Brings Its CEO on as Chief Design Officer
Co-Star has 35% of young Americans. Banu Guler keeps control of the app - and gains Midjourney's resources.
Midjourney Co-Star is official - the AI image company announced Thursday it's buying the astrology app that has reached 35% of young Americans, and bringing founder Banu Guler into the company as Chief Design Officer. Co-Star stays under Guler's control. Midjourney adds the resources behind it.
Both founders have been friends for years. Guler described the deal as the natural result of that friendship and a shared belief that "computers can be tools that reveal our humanity to ourselves" - tools that surface what people mean and feel before they can put it into words. On paper, an astrology app and an AI image generator share very little. Both products ask the same question from different angles: what are you actually trying to say about yourself?
Co-Star Has 35% of Young Americans - and Most of Them Distrust AI
Co-Star has tens of millions of downloads and, by Guler's own count, reached 35% of young people in the US. Most of that audience is Gen Z. ChatGPT crossed one billion monthly users this year, but a Gallup poll from April 2026 found Gen Z excitement about generative AI dropped 14 percentage points to 22%, while anger toward the technology climbed nine points to 31%.
What the Midjourney Co-Star deal actually gives the company is harder to price than the acquisition itself: a direct consumer product with millions of loyal users who do not already associate the brand with AI generation. For most young Co-Star users, the app's appeal has nothing to do with AI - which is either the problem or the whole point of this deal.
Midjourney's Second Major Move Outside Its Core Business
Midjourney has been expanding fast beyond its image and video generation subscriptions. In June, the company launched Midjourney Health and said it was building a full-body ultrasonic scanner. Other AI image companies have chased a different path - Meta launched Muse to compete directly for creator and advertiser audiences on Instagram. Midjourney appears to be chasing a consumer relationship instead.
Pricing and deal terms were not disclosed. Co-Star continues running as a standalone product under Guler's leadership. How deeply the Midjourney Co-Star combination will reshape the horoscope app's features and discovery systems, neither company has publicly addressed.