In 2025, Midjourney — the AI image generation company valued at over $10 billion — made its first-ever acquisition: Co-Star, the astrology app that had become a cultural phenomenon among young Americans. The acquisition sent shockwaves through the tech industry. Why would an image generation company buy an astrology app? The answer reveals a fundamental truth about the future of AI: personality and relationship tools are not niche entertainment — they are a massive, underserved market that AI is uniquely positioned to transform.

What Is Co-Star?

Co-Star is an astrology app that generates personalized birth charts based on NASA planetary data and delivers daily horoscopes through a distinctive, minimalist design aesthetic. Launched in 2017, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon among young women in their 20s and 30s, reaching over 20 million users and raising $20 million in funding. What set Co-Star apart from other astrology apps was its unapologetically direct tone — its horoscopes were not vague, feel-good affirmations; they were sharp, specific, sometimes brutal observations that felt like a friend telling you the truth.

Co-Star's success demonstrated that there is a massive market for personality and relationship tools that go beyond generic entertainment. Users did not just want to read their horoscope — they wanted to understand themselves, their relationships, and their place in the world. The app's social features — comparing birth charts with friends, seeing compatibility scores — created a viral loop that drove organic growth. Co-Star proved that personality tools, when done well, are not a niche — they are a mass-market category.

Why Midjourney’s First Acquisition Went to Co-Star

Midjourney's acquisition of Co-Star was surprising for several reasons. First, it was Midjourney's first-ever acquisition — a company that had grown to $10 billion+ valuation without buying any other company chose an astrology app as its first target. Second, the acquisition seemed strategically opaque — what does an image generation company want with an astrology app? Third, the price was not disclosed, but industry estimates suggested it was substantial — Co-Star had raised $20 million and had 20 million users.

The strategic logic becomes clear when you think about it differently. Midjourney is not just an image generation company — it is a creative AI company that understands the power of personal expression. Co-Star is not just an astrology app — it is a personality platform that understands how people use self-understanding tools to express their identity and connect with others. The acquisition brings together two companies that understand the intersection of AI, creativity, and personal identity. For Midjourney, Co-Star provides a massive user base, a deep understanding of personality-driven product design, and a platform for integrating AI-generated visual content into personal expression tools. For Co-Star, Midjourney provides AI technology, resources, and a platform for scaling beyond its current user base.

The Chinese Version: TianJi Insight

If Co-Star is the Western expression of the personality-app phenomenon, TianJi Insight is the Chinese expression. Both apps are built on the same fundamental insight: people want to understand themselves and their relationships through structured personality frameworks, and AI can make those frameworks more accessible, nuanced, and personalized. But the cultural foundations are different — Co-Star uses Western astrology (planetary positions, zodiac signs, houses), while TianJi Insight uses the I Ching (64 hexagrams, five elements, Plum Blossom Numerology).

The I Ching offers several advantages over Western astrology for the Chinese market. First, it is culturally rooted — Chinese users connect to the I Ching as part of their own philosophical tradition, not an imported one. Second, it is more fine-grained — 64 hexagrams versus 12 zodiac signs, providing a more nuanced personality classification. Third, it has a deterministic casting algorithm (Plum Blossom Numerology) that is perfectly suited for computational implementation — no astronomical calculations required, just arithmetic on birth time coordinates. Fourth, it has a rich compatibility framework — 2,080 unique hexagram pairings, each with pre-computed relationship dynamics — that goes far beyond simple zodiac compatibility.

What This Validates

The Co-Star acquisition validates several important trends. First, the market for AI-powered personality and relationship tools is massive and growing — Co-Star's 20 million users and Midjourney's acquisition demonstrate that this is not a niche category. Second, cultural specificity matters — the most successful personality apps are rooted in specific cultural traditions (Western astrology for Co-Star, I Ching for TianJi Insight) rather than generic, culture-neutral frameworks. Third, AI is the key enabler — it makes complex personality frameworks accessible to anyone, generating nuanced interpretations in seconds that would require years of study for a human practitioner.

Fourth, social and compatibility features drive growth — Co-Star's chart comparison features and TianJi Insight's compatibility reading and "soul match" features create viral loops that drive organic user acquisition. Fifth, the market is global — there is demand for culturally rooted personality tools in every market, from Western astrology in the US to I Ching in China to Vedic astrology in India. The companies that succeed will be those that combine deep cultural understanding with AI technology and product design that resonates with young users.

What It Means for Chinese Entrepreneurs

For Chinese entrepreneurs, the Co-Star acquisition is both a validation and a call to action. It validates that the market for AI-powered personality tools is real, massive, and worthy of investment. It demonstrates that culturally rooted frameworks — like the I Ching — can be the foundation for globally relevant products. And it shows that AI can transform ancient wisdom traditions into modern, accessible tools that resonate with young users.

The call to action is this: China has some of the world's richest cultural traditions — the I Ching, traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, the five elements, the 24 solar terms — and some of the world's most advanced AI capabilities. The entrepreneurs who combine these two strengths — deep cultural understanding with AI technology — will build products that are not just commercially successful, but culturally meaningful. TianJi Insight is one example. There will be many more.