MW Planet Labs' stock soars as the satellite company says AI will unlock more business

By William Gavin

The company, a Google partner, delivered record revenue for its latest fiscal year, reflecting growing demand for satellite imagery

Nvidia and Planet Labs will partner on ways to process satellite imagery more efficiently.

Planet Labs' stock is skyrocketing Thursday after the satellite-imaging company delivered a record annual performance and forecast even bigger numbers to come.

Shares were up more than 20% in Thursday's extended session, after surging 535% in the 12 months through Thursday's close.

The company said its revenue for the quarter that ended in January was a record $86.8 million, a 41% increase compared to a year earlier. That was also greater than the $78.2 million that analysts had expected, according to FactSet estimates. Full-year revenue grew 26% to $307.7 million, another record, Planet $(PL)$ said.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization was $15.5 million for Planet's fiscal year, marking the company's first profit since it went public in 2021. The company took a $10.6 million adjusted loss in the previous fiscal year.

Planet also said it ended the year with a $900 million backlog, a 79% jump relative to the prior fiscal year. The company disclosed in January that its deals supporting Sweden, Germany and Japan were collectively worth more than $500 million.

In the current quarter, which ends in April, Planet expects revenue of between $87 million and $91 million against an adjusted loss of between $3 million and $6 million. The company also forecast full-year revenue of $415 million to $440 million and adjusted profit of up to $10 million.

"With this excellent backlog as well as our healthy pipeline, we project strong growth for this year and beyond," Planet CEO Will Marshall said in a statement. He added that Planet expects artificial intelligence to be "transformative" this year and unlock "massive markets even faster."

Earlier this week, Planet said it would work with (NVDA) on ways to adopt graphic processing units for use in image processing. Planet plans to integrate its GPUs in its next-generation Pelican satellites and Owl constellation.

The Owl satellites will help customers with disaster-relief efforts, intelligence gathering and military response, according to Planet. It's said that the satellites are expected to deliver higher-resolution images analyzed by AI in less than an hour.

Alphabet's $(GOOGL)$ Google has also teamed up with Planet on Project Suncatcher, a plan to test the viability of using space-based data centers powered by the sun. They plan to send two prototypes to orbit by early next year.

Planet Labs was one of several space companies that went public in 2021 through a special-purpose acquisition company. At the time, it was valued at about $2.8 billion. It's now worth $8.4 billion.

However, growth technically comes at a cost.

The company said it record a full-year net loss of $246.9 million, up from $123.2 million in fiscal year 2025. The company attributed about $161.4 million of that to a "revaluation loss from the change in fair value warrant liabilities" after its stock became more valuable. Bar that revaluation, Planet's net loss would come out to just $85.5 million.

Read: Nebius's stock falls as investors get a wake-up call on the cost of competing in AI

-William Gavin

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March 19, 2026 18:01 ET (22:01 GMT)

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