My space thesis has changed (just as the industry)
I took the hard decision to sell my beloved $RKLB and reallocate into $PL. Not because I think $RKLB isn’t executing or because I’ve lost confidence, it’s actually quite the opposite!! $RKLB remains one of the companies I’m most bullish on in the space industry and the CEO is the greatest of all time. It’s just no longer the best fit for my investment thesis as the industry evolves and my investing strategy being to allocate big where I have the most conviction, so having $RKLB at less than 10% of my portfolio did not make sense for my strategy. I do keep one symbolic $RKLB share in my RRSP bought at $3.72 because it’s where everything started when I started my investing journey 3 years ago. The focus for space companies now is tilted towards "space applications", like $RKLB acquiring $IRDM for $8 billion to get connectivity into their inventory, satellites monitoring agriculture, $PL providing real-time satellite imagery, etc. Among these applications, I see a lot of potential in the development of AI infrastructure in space over the next few years and I believe Planet Labs is positioned to benefit from this. My thesis is that $PL sits at the intersection of satellite infrastructure, Earth observation and AI for both on Earth and potentially in space. $PL isn’t an in-space data centre company today but it is already a pioneer! Planet is $GOOGL’s partner on Project Suncatcher, an initiative exploring the deployment of Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) in orbit to scale AI compute in space. The first two prototype satellites are expected to launch in early 2027, for an envisioned constellation of 81 satellites. Some benefits of data centres in orbit is that you have unlimited and free power and you do not need water to cool as heat gets radiated out of the satellite into space. It’s essentially a low-latency connectivity satellite like Starlink, but instead of beaming Internet it beams AI results back on Earth. Planet has also been a pioneer in Earth observation and is now rapidly adding AI into its satellite imagery platform. The company has partnered with Anthropic to incorporate Claude to help customers turn raw satellite imagery into actionable insights more efficiently. According to a Bloomberg report from last week, $PL is also in discussions to provide satellite-imaging services to help monitor data-centre construction as it expands beyond its defense/government market. In August, $PL renewed a contract with an undisclosed hyperscaler AI developer to monitor data-centre and semiconductor manufacturing construction globally. Its Pelican high-resolution imagery is being used to track construction milestones at these facilities. I like to see how $PL has been diversifying their revenue lately. I would not be surprised to see an acquisition very soon given they have now $860M in cash following their ATM offering. For FY2027, ending January 31, 2027, Planet expects revenue of $430–441M (+41% YoY) and adjusted EBITDA of $3–10M (-50% YoY) Have a great long weekend!!
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20 Comments
pantaleo ruocco@noxvale · 6h
Been looking at planet lab a lot recently, this is my buy signal then!!🤣👏🏻 The space man knows more than me for sure, thanks! 🙇🏻
Nicolle @moneymeetslegacy · 6h
Appreciate your analysis on PL. I know how much you liked RKLB! It’s important to keep reassessing your thesis and overall strategy.
Austin x money@austinxmoney · 12h
Love PL!!!
Mike L@noviceadvisor · 13h
You have a MySpace page ? 🤣
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