Why Planet Labs Stock Popped on Friday
Key Points
Planet Labs launched 18 SuperDoves, a Tanager satellite, and one new AI satellite that it built for Google.
The SuperDoves are most important to Planet's business today.
The Google AI sat -- Project Suncatcher -- could give Planet Labs a brighter tomorrow.
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Planet Labs (NYSE:PL) stock soared 7.8% through 11:40 a.m. ET Friday after confirming the successful launch, aboard a "Transporter" Falcon 9 rocket managed by Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ:SPCX), of 20 Planet Labs-built satellites to orbit.
Image source: Getty Images.
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What's Planet launching now?
Running down the list, Planet says the SpaceX Transport 18 rocket carried to orbit:
- 18 SuperDove Earth observation satellites to supplement and maintain its existing "flock" of satellites that monitor happenings down here on Earth.
- One Tanager-2 hyperspectral satellite equipped with "cutting-edge, adjustable sensitivity imaging spectroscopy" that can detect methane emissions, analyze water quality, and even search for rare-earth elements on Earth.
- And one single Project Suncatcher satellite. This final payload was developed in partnership with Planet Labs customer Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and is equipped with Google artificial intelligence Tensor Processing Units.
Its mission: To test whether TPUs can be used for AI satellites in space.
What it means for Planet Labs?
The SuperDove satellites offer the most immediate boost to Planet Labs' business, which derives essentially all of its $300 million-plus annual revenue from selling images captured by the company's Earth-observation satellites. Tanager-2 may supplement this core business. If you ask me, though, in the long term, Project Suncatcher may have the most potential to add a significant new revenue stream for Planet Labs by building AI satellites for Google to use in orbit.
Assuming the Suncatcher sat proves that TPUs can effectively process AI inference requests in orbit, collect solar power efficiently, and shed heat effectively, this may become Planet Labs' next big area of growth.
Suncatcher won't turn Planet Labs stock profitable immediately. (Analysts polled by S&P Global Market Intelligence don't expect that to happen before 2029.) But it gives Planet Labs its best shot at becoming a growth stock eventually.
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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Planet Labs PBC. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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