Google's Space Venture Sees $500 Billion Market Cap Vanish in a Day

Planet Labs PBC, an Earth-observation satellite company backed by Google, closed down 5.79% at $26.38 on the New York Stock Exchange on the 21st, driven by profit-taking. The decline shaved about $420 million off its market capitalization—roughly KRW 550 billion—bringing its total valuation to about $7.7 billion, or around KRW 10 trillion.

Over the past year, the stock has surged nearly 600%, briefly topping $30 after securing a series of large-scale deals, including a multi-year, nine-figure satellite and data contract with the Swedish military, and a $230 million (approximately KRW 300 billion) satellite services agreement with Japan’s JSAT. These wins have expanded its order backlog to roughly $730 million (about KRW 950 billion), prompting analysts at Wedbush and Craig-Hallum to raise their price targets to $28–30, underscoring the company’s growth prospects.

Planet Labs is a space-data company operating hundreds of small satellites that capture daily imagery of Earth and provide subscription-based observation data and analytics to clients in agriculture, climate, disaster response, and defense. Recently, its defense and intelligence contracts have surged, and signs of positive cash flow and adjusted EBITDA have emerged, leading to a strategic turnaround narrative focused on its satellite services model.