Manifest Space: Planet Labs CEO Will Marshall on using AI for national security around the globe and the promise of data centers in space 12/11/25

Closing Bell

CNBC

News, Business

4.8 • 118 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Morgan Brennan sits down with Will Marshall, Planet Labs CEO, on the latest episode of Manifest Space. They discuss how the company is using AI in its satellite imagery to help countries quickly identify the location of security and economic threats around the world. Plus, the natural advantages for data centers in space—and how Planet Labs how to capitalize on the opportunity.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Shares of Planet Labs soaring to new heights after smashing expectations for quarterly results.
0:07.5	The Earth Data Analytics Company, also in the news as its satellite image of the Venezuelan oil tanker seized by the U.S., circulates in the media.
0:14.8	In an interview just days before earnings, and this latest geopolitical event, I sat down with Will Marshall, the CEO and co-founder
0:22.3	of Planet Labs from the Reagan National Defense Forum. We discussed the power of AI coupled
0:27.5	with the power of Earth data and, as speculation swirls about SpaceX's valuation, and now
0:32.9	a possible IPO, the prospect of data centers in space. As launch costs come down, satellite costs come down, at some point it's obvious that the economics
0:44.3	make more sense to put compute in space.
0:47.3	And actually, you know, Google and others are running out of filing places that are suitable on the Earth,
0:53.3	that have the right
0:54.4	resources and space literally for them.
0:59.1	Space has a lot of space and you get eight times the power because your solar panels could
1:03.3	be in sun all the time and various other things.
1:06.3	You have free cooling to the background of space.
1:08.9	So there's some fundamental technical advantages.
1:11.9	It's just about the launch costs and the satellite cost.
1:14.9	Planet works with NVIDIA to use its chips for edge computing, and more recently announced
1:19.0	a project with Google to fly TPUs in space. On this episode, Planet's Will Marshall on AI
1:24.7	in space and how it will affect life on Earth. I'm Morgan Brennan and this is Manifest Space. Joining me now, Will Marshall, he's CEO and co-founder of Planet Labs here at the Reagan National Defense Forum. It's great to speak with you. Great to see you again. Yeah. So given where we are, let's start a little bit with where Planet Labs fits into this national security landscape.
1:44.7	Yeah, absolutely. So as you know, Planet is helping people make smarter decisions about
1:49.7	things all around the planet with 200 satellites, we image all the world. But the next question
1:54.9	is, how do you take that imagery and make it useful? How do you actually abstract out to the
2:00.4	answers that people need?
	...

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