Galacticos
Not to be confused with Black Cube, the Israeli private intelligence firm, or with BlackCore, the influence outfit whose infrastructure it was found to share. Tel Aviv company that developed avatar-management technology
| Galacticos Ltd (Galacticos AI)
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Private company (Israel, no. 516599818) |
| Headquarters | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Industry | Social media avatars and monitoring software |
Galacticos Ltd, trading as Galacticos AI, is a Tel Aviv company that developed technology for producing and managing avatars, digital personas used on social media as if they were real people. A Haaretz–Libération investigation in May 2026 found its systems on web infrastructure shared with BlackCore, the outfit French authorities suspect of an influence campaign in the March 2026 municipal elections, but found "no direct connection" between Galacticos and that operation. Its owners deny any link to BlackCore.
History and ownership
According to Israel's companies registry, as reported by Haaretz, Galacticos Ltd was incorporated in Tel Aviv in April 2022 as Pagecorn Ltd. A year later it was renamed Mycelium Intelligence Networks, and in 2024 it became Galacticos.[1] Registry data list it as an active private company, no. 516599818, registered at 103 HaHashmonaim Street (c/o Afik & Co.), Tel Aviv-Yafo, the address of Doron Afik's law firm.[2]
The commercial lawyer Doron Afik holds 51 per cent of the shares and the tech entrepreneur Guy Geyor 28 per cent. Haaretz reports that they have been joined by people with "a background in intelligence or experience in technology", who together hold less than 10 per cent of Galacticos and its sister company SNI. It names Nir Benita, who according to his LinkedIn profile served in Unit 8200, and Daniel David Levy, Galacticos' chief technology officer.[1] France 3 and Agence France-Presse describe Afik as the company's director,[3][4] and Viginum's public report says Geyor and Afik "ont fondé et/ou dirigé" (founded and/or ran) it.[5]
Former cyber chief Yigal Unna has also been associated with the company. Viginum reports that photos from a September 2025 event at Afik's law firm show him apparently representing Galacticos AI, and that his incubator, Cygun, listed Galacticos AI among the start-ups it supported.[6] Unna says he never had a role there, and that he was told it did social media monitoring. "I didn't see any real company. There's no CEO and no full-time VP of marketing. I never met any employees – it was a kind of improvisation," he told Haaretz.[1]
Product and domain
A source familiar with Galacticos told Haaretz that the company "had developed a product that generates avatars that can be deployed both for influence operations and the monitoring of social media – as both require active accounts".[1] France 3 reports that the source code of an "avatar data generator" found on the server alongside BlackCore's subdomain referred to "Galacticos AI".[3] Internet Archive captures of galacticos.ai (2025) show marketing text for a brand and social-media monitoring service, the same text as on sni.ai in 2024,[7][8] and a password login page titled "AOA System" on fb.aoa.modules.galacticos.ai in February 2025.[9]
The galacticos.ai domain was registered on 17 April 2024.[10] Haaretz reports that Geyor registered it and listed the site as belonging to SNI, and that Levy is listed as the contact person on the registration.[1]
BlackCore reporting
Haaretz and Libération found that BlackCore's systems appeared to share web infrastructure with sites housing the internal systems of Galacticos and SNI. A London server run by a Finnish cloud provider hosted, from August 2025, four main network domains: two with BlackCore's activity, one named Omri Systems and one named Electric Marinade. Internal system names there included "avatar-generator", "agent-maker" and "fb-search". Haaretz nonetheless reports that "no direct connection was found between Galacticos and the operation being investigated by the French". Less than two hours after Afik and Geyor were asked for comment, the remaining digital infrastructure of both BlackCore and Galacticos was taken offline.[1] The technical detail is set out on the BlackCore page.
Denials
Afik said Galacticos "has no affiliation, partnership or prior knowledge regarding BlackCore, and no connection to the party France Unbowed", and had never worked with any French entity. He confirmed that the company "has a product in development", but said it never owned, operated or used a domain called Electric Marinade. Geyor said: "I and the company don't know who BlackCore is, and we never had any connection with them. We have no activity in France – certainly no political activity." He confirmed the company is linked to Omri Systems, but said that network domain is an internal system, unusable and still in development, and has never been sold or operated.[1]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Omer Benjakob, Revealed: An Anti-left Influence Operation in France Leads to Tel Aviv, Haaretz, 18 May 2026.
- ↑ OpenCorporates, גלקטיקוס בע"מ (GALACTICOS), company no. 516599818 (Israeli Registrar of Companies data).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dominique Durand, Ingérence lors des municipales contre des candidats LFI : de BlackCore à Tel-Aviv, ce que les enquêtes de Libération et Haaretz révèlent, France 3 Occitanie, 15 May 2026.
- ↑ Le Parisien with AFP, Municipales 2026 : une mystérieuse entité israélienne derrière la campagne de dénigrement de candidats LFI, Le Parisien, 15 May 2026.
- ↑ VIGINUM (SGDSN), Rapport public – Élections municipales 2026, 11 June 2026 (archived copy).
- ↑ VIGINUM (SGDSN), Rapport technique – Rokh Solis (Rokh Solis: technical report), Secrétariat général de la défense et de la sécurité nationale, 11 June 2026 (archived copy).
- ↑ Internet Archive capture of galacticos.ai, 3 March 2025.
- ↑ Internet Archive capture of sni.ai, 17 February 2024.
- ↑ Internet Archive capture of fb.aoa.modules.galacticos.ai/login ("Login - AOA System"), 21 February 2025.
- ↑ RDAP record for galacticos.ai, retrieved 17 October 2026.