{"title":"Planet Labs vs Spire Global: Earth observation compared","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/compare/planet-labs-vs-spire-global","comparison":"Planet Labs ranks 17 on the Space 100 with a score of 82; Spire Global ranks 84 with 66. Planet Labs is ahead on production, commercials, progress, technology, positioning and firepower. Level on deployment and leverage. Planet Labs is based in San Francisco, United States, Spire Global in Vienna, United States. Planet Labs: Public, founded 2010. Planet Labs is named in 32 signals and Spire Global in 106.","companies":[{"name":"Planet Labs","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/planet-labs","city":"San Francisco","country":"United States","stage":"Public","founded":2010,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Planet Labs is a US Earth-observation operator (~200 satellites launched) whose Pelican (high-res) and Tanager (hyperspectral) constellations are ramping, with FY26 revenue of $307.7M (+26%), its first full year of adjusted-EBITDA profitability and free cash flow, and FY27 guidance raised to $425-441M. Its growth engine is defense and intelligence (up 50% YoY, including a nine-figure Swedish Armed Forces deal and NATO extensions) on a backlog up 79% to ~$900M, though declining commercial agriculture and ~41% APAC concentration are mix risks. It has Google and NVIDIA partnerships and claims 98% recurring ACV.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":17,"score":82,"tier":"member","scores":{"leverage":6,"position":8,"progress":10,"firepower":9,"commercial":8,"deployment":8,"production":8,"technology":8},"why":"Planet operates Earth-observation satellite constellations, including SkySat, Pelican and Flock imaging satellites, and sells the resulting imagery and data.","segment":"Earth observation","layer":"Satellites & spacecraft"},"signals_total":32,"facts_total":56},{"name":"Spire Global","url":"https://www.frontiertechintelligence.com/companies/spire-global","city":"Vienna","country":"United States","stage":null,"founded":null,"last_round":null,"positioning":"Spire Global is a US operator of a multi-payload nanosatellite constellation for RF sensing (weather, AIS, ADS-B) plus a space-services model building satellites for others, having reset its balance sheet by selling its maritime business to Kpler (~$241M, 2025) and now forecasting ~50% revenue growth in 2026. Its European pivot has a humanoid-list crossover: Schaeffler (which tops the Humanoids list) and Diehl are named partners in its German manufacturing expansion. Post-divestiture revenue is estimated at 10-100m.","assessed_in":{"domain":"Space","list":"Space 100","rank":84,"score":66,"tier":"member","scores":{"gate_ne":["firepower"],"leverage":6,"position":6,"progress":9,"firepower":6,"commercial":6,"deployment":8,"production":6,"technology":6},"why":"Spire sells satellite-driven weather intelligence through AI-WX, AI-S2S, APIs and Cirrus, serving energy, agriculture, logistics, insurance, finance and government customers.","segment":"Earth observation","layer":"Satellites & spacecraft"},"signals_total":106,"facts_total":114}],"note":"Assessment by Frontier Tech Intelligence; facts and signals carry their sources."}