CNBC's Morgan Brennan talks what is driving Planet Labs move higher and hears from the CEO on AI training.

Planet Labs has experienced a significant rise in its stock price, building on strong returns over the past year. The company has recently secured multiple contracts, including agreements with Germany, NATO, and the U.S. Defense Department, as well as extending existing deals. CEO Will Marshall attributes the company's growth to heightened geopolitical tensions and advancements in artificial intelligence, which are increasing demand for real-time earth observation data.

Planet Labs' extensive archive of satellite imagery, collected daily over eight years, is positioned as a critical resource for training AI systems to understand real-world changes. The company has also partnered with NVIDIA and recently released public images of military activity in Qatar. Marshall notes a shift in defense spending and urgency in both the U.S. and Europe, reflecting a broader trend toward enhanced security measures.

Planet Labs stock climbs on string of deal announcements

Shares of Planet Lab continuing their move higher this week, rising nearly 7%, adding to a 62% return so far this year, up 200% over the past 12 months. Now, the Earth Observation and Analytics Company has inked a flurry of deals recently, including with Germany, NATO, several within the U.S. Defense Department, and just this week we saw an extension of another deal. Now, CEO and co-founder Will Marshall says the changing geopolitical landscape, coupled with advancements in AI, are enabling countries to have a peripheral vision to, quote, understand threats in their neighborhood. We feel like at Planet we're in the center of it. Let me explain why. We have 3,000 images for every point on the Earth's landmass, a wicked data set to analyze change over time. What matters in these cases, like I just mentioned this Iran case, is not just what has changed, but what's normal. What's the normal number of vehicles at those facilities? And you can only know what's normal if you've got an archive. So AI is leveraging that deep archive. We're the only ones with that daily scan, and certainly the only ones that have been doing it also for the last eight years. So we have all these layers. That means that we have a wealth of data. In short, our data set is critical for training AI about the real world. So AI today is mainly about the text on the Internet. AI tomorrow will also be able to understand the real world. Now, Planet also has a partnership with NVIDIA. Satellite images have become powerful tools of information, though. Last week, for example, Planet released public images of the damage to the Al Udeid U.S. military base in Qatar that Iran targeted after those American strikes on its nuclear sites. You can see those right here, before and after. And Marshall telling me that the contracting environment is changing. And it's not just changing in the U.S., but in Europe as well, as spending on defense and space across the continent ratchets higher. He says countries are moving with, quote, a new clarity, speed, and urgency to enhance their security, that he's, quote, never seen anything like it in his life. So you can catch more of this interview and all of my Manifest Space interviews by scanning this QR code right here on your screen or downloading wherever you get your podcasts.

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