partnerScore 45/100Research
Large earth models require multimodal AI trained on global satellite imagery; Google and Planet partnership suggests emerging dependency between AI and satellite data providers
Will Marshall· Planet Labs· Space· 2026-05-19· about Google (GOOGL)
“We did this first study on this. I had dug it up recently, just a historical record about eight years ago, looking at what it might mean to put data centers in space...with Google...LLMs now mean that you can chat with the data and get a semantic answer without any expertise whatsoever.”
Why it matters
AI leaders (Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Anthropic) are now dependent on satellite imagery providers for training large earth models. This creates strategic partnerships and potential competitive moats.
Investment implication
Planet Labs' partnership with Google and others suggests exclusive or preferred data licensing arrangements. Competitors lacking satellite data access (or forced to buy at premium pricing) face competitive disadvantage in physical AI models.