Shares of Planet Labs PBC (PL) were ticking higher in Wednesday's premarket session. The move follows a couple of significant announcements that have investors looking up—both at the stock chart and at the satellites.

On Monday, the company unveiled a collaboration with NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) that’s straight out of a tech investor’s dream. They’re working together to develop a GPU-native AI engine specifically for planetary intelligence. In plain English, they want to use NVIDIA’s powerful chips to make sense of satellite imagery much, much faster. This isn't just a minor upgrade; it’s about transforming a process that can take hours into one that takes seconds. That kind of speed could seriously change how Planet Labs operates and what it can offer its customers.

Processing Power Meets Planetary Scale

The partnership zeroes in on using NVIDIA’s latest Blackwell and IGX Thor platforms. The goal is to turn raw data from space into actionable insights almost instantly. They’re also planning to apply NVIDIA’s generative AI model, called CorrDiff, to sharpen the resolution of Planet’s own PlanetScope imagery. The endgame? Creating a dynamic, multi-dimensional "vector map" of Earth that allows for intelligent, near real-time searches for patterns and anything out of the ordinary.

Will Marshall, Co-founder and CEO of Planet, put it bluntly: "The traditional methods of batch processing on legacy CPUs can no longer scale with the speed of global change. By developing a GPU-native AI engine, we are unlocking the full potential of our petabyte-scale archive, delivering orders of magnitude speed improvements and physics-informed generative AI products that were previously impossible."

A Big Win on the Defense Front

But the NVIDIA news isn't the only thing putting wind in the company's sails. Earlier this month, Planet Labs disclosed it was selected as a prime contractor under the Missile Defense Agency's SHIELD IDIQ contract. For those not up on government acronyms, an IDIQ is an "Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity" contract, and this one has a staggering ceiling value of $151 billion.

As a SHIELD prime, Planet will provide its global monitoring and maritime awareness services, building on previous work with defense and intelligence agencies like the DIU, NGA, NRO, US Navy, and NATO. The company will deliver AI-powered detections, warnings, and analytics to support decision-makers who need answers fast.

Checking the Stock's Vital Signs

So, how is the stock looking with all this news? Let’s glance at the technicals. The shares are currently trading 10.4% above their 20-day simple moving average and a robust 41.8% above their 100-day average, showing some serious longer-term strength. Over the past 12 months, the stock is up an eye-popping 557.28% and is hanging out closer to its 52-week highs than its lows.

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) sits at 60.33, which is considered neutral territory—not overbought, not oversold. Meanwhile, the MACD indicator is at 0.5350, above its signal line of 0.5050, which typically suggests bullish momentum is in play. Put together, the signals are a bit mixed but lean positive. A key level to watch on the upside is resistance around $31.00.

The Earnings Countdown and What the Pros Think

Mark your calendars: Planet Labs is scheduled to report earnings on March 19, 2026. The consensus estimate is for a loss of 8 cents per share, which would be flat compared to the loss of 8 cents a year ago. Revenue, however, is expected to jump to $78.18 million from $61.55 million in the prior-year period.

Analysts, on the whole, are fans. The stock carries a consensus Buy rating with an average price target of $13.39. But that average is being pulled up by some recent, more aggressive moves:

• Citigroup: Maintained a Buy rating and raised its price target to $30.00 (Jan. 13).
• Wedbush: Maintained an Outperform rating and raised its target to $28.00 (Jan. 13).
• Morgan Stanley: Maintained an Equal-Weight rating but still raised its target to $26.00 (Jan. 14).

ETF Exposure: A Hidden Lever on the Stock

Here’s a quirk for traders to note: Planet Labs is a meaningful holding in a few exchange-traded funds. This means big money flowing into or out of these ETFs can force automatic buying or selling of PL shares. The main ones are:

• Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX): 5.82% weight
• First Trust STOXX European Select Dividend Index Fund (FDD): 4.29% weight
• Procure Space ETF (UFO): 5.66% weight

Put simply, the stock’s fate isn’t just tied to its own news; it’s also linked to the popularity of these thematic funds.

As of the premarket session Wednesday, Planet Labs shares were up 2.14% at $27.66, according to market data.